Slate is a cliffhanger—a person who tracks down specific books on the skyscraper-like shelves deep within the Library of Doom. Slate boasts he can find any book, even the one no Librarian has been able to locate: THE SCRAWLER. To prove his worth, Slate braves the forbidden Black Shelves, a maze so dark and cold that all sound is sucked from the air—and no words can be spoken. But before Slate can locate the long-lost book, he finds more than he bargained for . . .