Rapacia: The Second Circle of Heck

Book excerpt: In his second novel in the popular series Heck, Dale E. Basye takes Milton and Marlo Fauster on a journey that is as full of clever, dark humor and laugh-out-loud silliness as the first. Welcome to Rapacia, where the greedy kids go. When her brother, Milton, escapes the otherworldly reform school Heck in a soul balloon made of old clothes, Marlo is the only Fauster child left to take the blame. Bea "Elsa" Bubb, the Principal of Darkness, sends her straight to Rapacia, the circle of Heck where greedy kids are tormented by glimpses of a just-out-of-reach, glittering shoppers' paradise called Mallvana. Marlo soon falls under the sway of Rapacia's vice principal, a grinning metal rabbit known as the Grabbit that seems to have plans of its own. Marlo is torn between wanting to find a way out and wanting to do . . . whatever the Grabbit asks her to do. Meanwhile, back on the Surface, Milton has his own problems. He is determined to get in touch with Marlo and help her find a way out of Heck. But it's hard to concentrate when his body and soul don't seem to hold together the way they used to. Will Milton ever reach Marlo? And if he does, will they both end up as pawns in the Grabbit's mysterious game?