Danger for Boys: The Dark Pond by Joseph Bruchac

Joseph Bruchac, whose notable historical novel Code Talker: A Novel about the Navaho Marines of World War II was reviewed here on July 17, turns back to native American mythology to weave a captivating modern horror story in The Dark Pond.

Armin Katchatorian is a loner at his private high school secluded in the woods of upstate New York, a Shawnee-Armenian-American who is conflicted by his parents' absorption in their careers and his differences with the students around him. Armie finds comfort and acceptance in nature, calling wild birds at will and roaming the nearby forests and fields at every opportunity, but when he hikes deep into the hills, he stumbles upon a strangely disturbing pond, a dark pool into which animal tracks lead but do not return.

Amie's mind turns to the lake monster tales his mom told him as a little child, and he is mysteriously drawn back to this pond again and again. Camping overnight on a cliff above the pond, he distinctly hears something or someone kill a deer resting nearby and with first light sees where the deer has been dragged through the snow and into the pond. Armie feels the enigmatic pull of the deadly pond even while he works at school, but the irrationality of the whole thing makes it impossible to talk about with his teachers or the other students.

When he confides the story to Mitch, an Indian graduate student in zoology employed as a groundskeeper at his school, Armie's fears are finally validated. Mitch, too, has felt the hypnotic force which draws victims toward the pool and warns Armie to stay away. Still Armie cannot resist the haunting call which draws him to the dark pond.

When spring break takes the other students away, Armie decides to return to probe the mysterious attraction, but when he approaches the pond, he finds Mitch already under attack by a carnivorous creature straight from his mother's mythic tale. In a creepy and thrilling conclusion, Armie and Mitch must fight to the death with the deadly sinuous thing in the dark pond.

From bits and pieces of Native American folklore, Bruchac has once again crafted a creepy cliffhanger with a believable modern character, a real killer-diller of a short horror tale that will keep readers on edge to the end.