Tunnel of Bones

Tunnel of Bones (2019) is the second book in Victoria Schwab’s Cassidy Blake series, a trilogy of paranormal fantasy novels marketed to middle grade readers. The series begins with City of Ghosts (2018) and culminates with Bridge of Souls (2022). Cassidy, the 12-year-old protagonist, can enter the realm of ghosts since she almost drowned one year ago. Jacob, the ghost who saved her life, is now her best friend. Together, they travel to the world’s most haunted cities with Cassidy’s parents, who are paranormal investigators filming a reality TV show. After visiting Edinburgh, Scotland, in the first book and finding a mentor in Lara Chowdhury, a girl who shares her paranormal ability, Cassidy has found her purpose—helping restless spirits move on. Tunnel of Bones takes her to Paris, France, and the nightmarish tunnels of the Catacombs, where she and Jacob face a poltergeist bent on mayhem. Schwab, who also publishes under the name V. E. Schwab, is a New York Times best-selling author who has written over 20 novels for adults and children, including Vicious (2013), A Darker Shade of Magic (2015), The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020), and Gallant (2023). Tunnel of Bones explores themes of Fulfilling One’s True Purpose While Navigating Difficult Choices, Overcoming Fear and Embodying Bravery to Address Challenges, and History’s Enduring Presence in Places and People.

This guide refers to the e-book edition published in 2019 by Scholastic Press.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death and child death.

Plot Summary

Cassidy Blake is accompanying her parents, paranormal investigators known as “The Inspecters,” as they film a reality TV series in the world’s most haunted cities. Cassidy’s parents don’t know that she can enter the realm of ghosts, called the Veil, or that her best friend, Jacob, is a ghost. They arrive in Paris, where they plan to visit several sites plagued by ghost sightings and paranormal activity. Mr. and Mrs. Blake have asked Cassidy to take photos that they can use for the show with her beloved antique camera. After a walk through the Tuileries on their first evening in Paris, Cassidy and Jacob enter the Veil and confront a violent ghost from 1871 while flames destroy the palace. Jacob protects Cassidy from the attack long enough for her to reap the ghost—severing its attachment to earth so that it moves on—with her mirror pendant and an incantation.

The next day, a local tour guide named Pauline takes the Blake family to the Paris Catacombs, an underground ossuary that contains the bones of over six million bodies. The pull of the Veil is so powerful there that it pulls Cassidy in against her will. She glimpses a moving shadow and a red glow before she and Jacob exit the Veil. After they leave the Catacombs, seemingly random accidents begin happening that put Cassidy in danger, like a huge awning falling and breaking the water pitcher right in front of her. The trouble follows her to the hotel, where her cat mysteriously gets out and chandeliers and dishes appear to move on their own.

Cassidy relays the strange events to Lara, her friend and mentor from Scotland, who helps her identify the mischief maker as a poltergeist. Poltergeists are dangerous; they feed on chaos and aren’t bound to the Veil. Cassidy knows that she needs to find this one and send it on before it can do too much damage. She has a bad dream that night about Jacob creating a destructive storm of paranormal energy, leaving her jumpy the next morning. They visit an enormous cemetery called Père Lachaise, where Cassidy and Jacob enter the Veil and find their poltergeist, a boy who appears to be about seven years old. Cassidy uses her mirror on him, but it doesn’t work, and he pushes her off the roof of a crypt. Fortunately, she isn’t badly injured.

Later that day, Lara helps Cassidy figure out why the poltergeist didn’t react to the mirror. Poltergeists, they learn, don’t remember who they are or how they died, so they don’t recognize themselves in mirrors. This means that Cassidy will have to find those answers and help the poltergeist remember. The next stop is the Paris Opera House, where a falling set piece nearly crushes Cassidy’s parents. A backup set of ropes catches it just in time. Wanting to avoid further risk to her parents, Cassidy splits up from them. She and Jacob search for the poltergeist in the Veil but can’t find him. Outside the Veil, a giant mirror falls off a truck bed and nearly smashes into Cassidy, but Jacob pushes her out of its path. They enter the Veil again, and this time, they’re successful. They follow the poltergeist and learn that he must have died in the Catacombs.

With this information and her father’s research notes, Cassidy puts the pieces together. The poltergeist is Thomas Alain Laurent, who got lost and died in the Catacombs in 1912. Car alarms start going off outside the hotel in the middle of the night. Through her camera lens, Cassidy sees Thomas on the street for a moment, and then he’s gone. 

The next day, Cassidy arranges to visit the descendants of Thomas’s brother, Richard: Sylvaine Laurent and her daughter, Adele. Sylvaine refuses to talk about what happened to Thomas and sends Cassidy away, but Adele follows Cassidy and gives her old family photographs of Thomas and Richard. She joins Cassidy and her parents as they visit Notre Dame Cathedral, where Cassidy and Jacob enter the Veil and reap a ghost who’s trying to push them off the ledge of a tower.

The Blakes are scheduled to leave Paris the next day, giving Cassidy almost no time to finish her mission. Luckily, Adele knows more about how Thomas died than she first led on. She reveals that Thomas, Richard, and two friends snuck into the Catacombs at night to play hide-and-seek. When Thomas hid in an alcove, an old section of a wall toppled and trapped him. Richard looked all night but couldn’t find him. He died before a search party found his body. Knowing this, Cassidy decides that the Catacombs are the best place to remind Thomas of the truth. The only option she can think of for getting back in is to destroy her parents’ film from the Catacombs—for which she blames the cat—so that they’ll have to postpone their departure and return to the Catacombs to refilm.

Back in the tunnels, Cassidy finds that Thomas won’t look at the photographs she’s trying to show him. Instead, he lashes out, trying to attack her and inciting other spirits to do the same, but she devises a way to get through to him. She steals a hat and coat from another ghost because they resemble what Richard wore in the old photos. Jacob dons them and pretends to be Richard. When Thomas thinks he’s seeing his brother, he finally looks at the pictures and registers the images of himself when he was alive. Recognition leads to him beginning to remember everything; however, Cassidy accidentally makes a loud noise, snapping Thomas out of his memories. Jacob has the idea to say “C’est finit,” the last words Richard called out when he was searching for Thomas. After Thomas repeats these words, his red glow finally goes out. Cassidy can then use her mirror and incantation to send him on.

Before leaving Paris the next day, the Blakes visit the Louvre. There, Jacob tells Cassidy the story of his death when he was 12. He was trying to retrieve his brother’s favorite toy from the river bottom when a rock hit his head, and he drowned. Cassidy promises that she’ll never let him forget who he is or how he died so that he won’t ever become like Thomas. On the way to the airport, Cassidy sees an ominous figure in the crowd at the train station. Its face appears to be a skull mask, with only shadows behind it. Cassidy faints, and when she regains consciousness, the figure is gone. Despite the frightening occurrence, Cassidy feels a rush of excitement as they leave Paris. She wonders what adventures will come next.