The Ghost in the H.A.T.B.O.X.

Hatter Madigan has been living at the Millinery Academy since his parents died, but he's finally old enough to be a cadet himself.  After years of sneaking around in hidden corridors, he's hoping he will be a Spade, the spies of the kingdom, and finally get out of his older brother's shadow.

Things seem to be going well at first when Hatter, because of his parents' former positions, is welcomed into a group of the social elite.  When he ends up in permanent detention for something that wasn't even his fault, he begins to question his new friends.  In detention, he spends more time with the social outcasts of the Academy and discovers he actually likes them better.

But the ghostly image of a boy covered in tattoos keeps haunting him, and he isn't sure if the boy is real or if he's going crazy.

When the new class of cadets begins acting strangely robot, Hatter and his friends begin to investigate.  What does the ghost boy have to do with all of this, and how can a group of outcasts save the Kingdom of Hearts?

Frank Beddor's new prequel to his Looking Glass Wars series ends with a bang, but it takes a lot of slogging to get there.  I really struggled to get through this one.  Fans of The Looking Glass Wars and Alice in Wonderland will likely enjoy this, but it read a bit like a slower paced Harry Potter where Harry chose Malfoy instead of Hermione and Ron.