A review by thisgrrlreads
The House in Poplar Wood by K.E. Ormsbee

4.0

Lee and Felix are brothers that live in the same house with a weird agreement--one lives with their mother on one side, the other lives with their father on the other side. Their parents can never see each other, and each cannot see the parent they do not live with. This complex arrangement is fueled by the fact that each parent is the apprentice to a Shade--mom is apprenticed to Memory, dad is apprenticed to Death. They weren't supposed to fall in love but they did, and this is the result. Lee and Felix have always hated this agreement, and the idea that they each will be asked to be the next apprentice. But Lee gets to go to town, because Memory is easier to work with than Death. Felix is trapped at the house 364 days out of the year. So of course, on Halloween he goes out and things start to happen. The story follows Lee, Felix and Gretchen in chapters that don't evenly alternate. Gretchen is the mayor's daughter--he has other powers and she has other ideas. Everything that happens in this book is borne of the frustrations of middle school-aged kids. It's interesting to see how that works, and what they find.