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The Grey Sisters
by Jo TreggiariTwo years after a deadly plane crash, best friends D and Spider head into the mountains to face their grief. A gripping psychological thriller for fans of The Cheerleaders and Sadie.D and Spider have always been close friends, and they are further united in their shared heartbreak: they both lost siblings in a horrific plane crash two years earlier. A chance sighting of a beloved cuddly toy in a photograph of the only survivor spurs D to finally seek closure. She and Spider and their friend, Min, set off on a road trip to the mountainside site of that terrible crash.Ariel has lived on the mountain all her life. She and her extended family are looked down upon by neighboring townsfolk and she has learned to live by her wits, trusting few people outside of her isolated, survivalist community. A terrifying attack sends her down the mountain for help; on her way, she comes upon the three girls -- a chance encounter that will have far-reaching consequences for them all.
Gothic Hauntology: Everyday Hauntings and Epistemological Desire (Palgrave Gothic)
by Joakim WrethedThis book provides a theoretically informed account of Gothic Hauntology. It is distinctive foremost in two ways. It shows hauntology at work in modern as well as older gothic narratives and it has a unique focus on everyday gothic as well as everyday hauntology. The chapters perform a historical circle going from Munro to Poe and then back again, offering novel readings of works by well-known authors that are contextualized under the umbrella of the theme. Anchored in a well-known topic and genre, but with a specific phenomenological framework, this book will be of interest to both students and more advanced scholars.
A Ghostly Gallery
by Joan AikenThe stories in A Ghostly Gallery were written over a period of sixty years, the whole length of Joan Aiken's writing career; some appeared in her very first collections of what her father Conrad Aiken called "Twentieth century Fairy stories for the young of all ages." Stories include A Roomful of Leaves, where a boy escapes an unbearable family and disappears into the Elizabethan past, and the luminously uplifting Watkyn Comma about a ghost mouse who rescues a lonely heroine. These stories often inspired by dreams and myths are written to comfort and console. Some appeared in anthologies, such as a Pan Ghost Book, or in her own collections for younger readers, which came out in England and America. As she moved away from overtly scary stories towards the end of her life, these are her gentler tales of mystery and imagination. Two of the stories have not previously appeared in an Aiken collection.Dancing in the Air, and Lungewater
Fantastic Fables
by Joan AikenThis final collection of Joan Aiken's stories, taken from nearly sixty years of her writing career, is rooted in the classic fables and fairy tales familiar to us all, but which she has brought up to date by adding her own voice, and a touch of that mysterious added ingredient that makes you return to them again and again, at any age. They range from fantastic fairy tales to science fiction, from a future where the sun no longer shines thanks to human folly, to one where all the best words are kept locked away in a forbidden forest . . . they take us to lands that could be from our own past, where we can call upon magical friends like the mysterious Miss Samphire, or long lost magic spells to save a castle from Viking attack. These are absolutely timeless tales, for as she said:'They come from nowhere, and they are aimed at nobody's ear; or rather they are aimed at the ear of anybody who happens to pass by just at that moment'
Night Fall
by Joan AikenWhen Meg Frazer's actress mother is killed in a Hollywood accident, nineteen-year-old Meg finds it hard to adapt to life in Britain with her cold, distant father . . . and at night she is haunted by a strange dream of a face which she is sure has something to do with her past.Meg follows a clue from the past to a remote Cornish Village. There she becomes involved in a nightmare web of terror and suspense . . . She meets a young man called Toby, who is different from her staid fiancé, but is he wrapped up in the secrets is unravelling?
Return to Harken House
by Joan AikenIn the late 1930's as the threat of war is building in Germany, twelve year old Julia arrives to spend the summer with her famous playwright father, only to find herself alone with Trudl, her Austrian stepmother. With Trudl preoccupied by the plight of her fellow countrymen in Europe, Julia retreats into the scary Gothic novels left behind by her older siblings, and becomes haunted by dreams of Joshua Harken, the notorious alchemist who built the 17th century house, and then disappeared, accused of murder. Even after she joins forces with local boy Tim Bellyap to investigate the stories of Joshua's ghost, she is afraid to tell anybody about the terrifying voices coming unbidden from somewhere inside her chest... In a compelling exploration of loneliness and adolescent insecurities, peopled by ghosts from the old house, this is the powerful story of Julia's awakening from her nightmare world.Also published as Voices, and set in Joan Aiken's own supposedly haunted childhood home, Jeake's House in Rye, Sussex, this Y.A. ghost story draws on some of her own childhood memories to create an unusual thriller. "When reduced to its essence, Julia's story may not be so very different from that of Aiken's Wolves Chronicles heroine Dido Twite: each girl must cope with a distant, unreliable father and learn to survive in a world peopled with self-absorbed adults. It is the exploration of these issues, even more than the fine storytelling, which makes this novel so compelling" Publisher's Weekly"Joan Aiken is the godsend to children who are at the age when they read as if there were no tomorrow" Washington Post"An entertaining read, for readers who like to read suspenseful ghost stories with a hint of real menace. The ghostly elements of this story are nicely mirrored by the historical menace of the times, as Julia ruminates on the dangers of Hitler, whom she sees as a sort of spider, spreading his web out over Europe" Goodreads reviewer
Siren Stories
by Joan AikenThese stories which have never been brought together before are taken from Joan Aiken's earliest writing years in the 1950s and 1960s when she was working for the English short story magazine, Argosy where they were first published. They demonstrate her wide ranging stylistic ability, with subjects as diverse as a rented apartment that comes with a resident swan, a man who buys a girl in a crystal ball, an invisible man-eating tiger, or a psychiatric patient who can always, sometimes unfortunately, conjure up a 93 London bus. All these ideas seem to pour out of an endless imagination, making bold use of eccentric and unexpected settings and characters, and at the same time demonstrating an evident delight in parodying a variety of literary styles from gothic to comedy, fantasy to folk tales selected from her incredible reading background. But Joan Aiken always repudiated the suggestion that she was "a born storyteller" she would always argue furiously that it was a craft, like oil painting or cabinet making that she had learned, practiced and developed over the years. She described this period of her life as a single-minded engagement with the writer's craft; and her grasp of the short story form as the foundation of her literary career. What is far from apparent from these wildly inventive and freewheeling tales, is that this was in fact a bitterly difficult period of Joan Aiken's life, when not long after the end of the Second World War she was left widowed and homeless with two young children. Having made the brave decision to try and support herself and her family by writing, she applied for a job on this popular short story magazine. In many ways, as she often said subsequently, this period spent working at Argosy could not have been bettered, both as a wonderful distraction and consolation during a bad time, and as an unbeatable apprenticeship in the craft of writing.
The Cockatrice Boys
by Joan Aiken"What does a cockatrice enjoy most for dinner? Anyone it can find." So the alarmed inhabitants of England discover when a plague of monsters--known as cockatrices--invade their country and begin gobbling them up. They must be stopped! A plucky band of survivors dubbed the Cockatrice Corps--including youngsters Dakin and Sauna--decide to fight back. But how? A rollicking adventure filled with breathtaking twists and turns, The Cockatrice Boys is Joan Aiken at her comic best.But there is also a powerful message in her only full length Sci- Fi (or even Cli-Fi!) YA novel as Joan Aiken imagines the result of human folly, in an earlier version of global warming, with the hole created in the ozone layer becoming a channel for evil to arrive on earth as an invasion of monstrous creatures. Joan Aiken believed in the power of the imagination, and using stories to prepare us for our future. In The Cockatrice Boys she wrote:"People need stories...to remind them that reality is not only what we can see or smell or touch. Reality is in as many layers as the globe we live on itself, going inwards to a central core of red-hot mystery, and outwards to unguessable space. People's minds need detaching, every now and then, from the plain necessities of daily life. People need to be reminded of these other dimensions above us and below us. Stories do that." "Besides being a daringly original, funny, scary, and morally instructive book, it also contains one of the strongest statements of the purpose of fantasy stories and fairy tales . . . This book was excellent, I highly recommend it . . . buy it now!" Mugglenet.com"Readers will be reminded of Alice in Wonderland . . . and the movie trilogy Star Wars" School Library Journal"This one is a real page-turner - as usual for Aiken - and sometimes really quite sinister, with a lot of gallows humour. It's suitable for all adults and most children... just as creepy as anything by M.R. James" Amazon Reviewer"Like all Aiken's best work, there is a deeply scary, nightmare thread running through this book, which makes it thrilling and involving for older readers and adults ...but the monsters are especially entertaining - drawn from Lewis Carroll, ancient mythology, and even Monty Python, they are scary and funny at the same time. A brilliant book" Amazon Reviewer
The Fortune Hunters
by Joan AikenAn inheritance comes with its own sinister dangers...'Joan Aiken's triumph with this genre is that she does it so much better than others' New York Times Book ReviewAnnette, an increasingly amnesiac magazine editor who has inherited an unexpected fortune, leaves London for a new life in a cottage in the country, but falls prey to a series of strange characters who threaten to deprive her of not just her money, but her sanity too. There's a world-famous artist with a dark secret; a New Zealander on an archaeological dig; and a strange neighbour wheeling an invalid 'child' on a lonely road...Set in the picturesque Sussex town where the author was born and spent her early years in a haunted house, this gothic thriller builds to a terrifying climax as the heroine pits her wits against the sinister forces that surround her.
The Fortune Hunters (Murder Room #638)
by Joan AikenAn inheritance comes with its own sinister dangers...'Joan Aiken's triumph with this genre is that she does it so much better than others' New York Times Book ReviewAnnette, an increasingly amnesiac magazine editor who has inherited an unexpected fortune, leaves London for a new life in a cottage in the country, but falls prey to a series of strange characters who threaten to deprive her of not just her money, but her sanity too. There's a world-famous artist with a dark secret; a New Zealander on an archaeological dig; and a strange neighbour wheeling an invalid 'child' on a lonely road...Set in the picturesque Sussex town where the author was born and spent her early years in a haunted house, this gothic thriller builds to a terrifying climax as the heroine pits her wits against the sinister forces that surround her.
The Green Flash and Other Tales of Horror, Suspense, and Fantasy
by Joan AikenThis collection of short stories includes some of Aiken's best spooky gothic tales and fantasy stories. Suitable for young adult readers as well as adult readers.
The Haunting of Lamb House
by Joan AikenThis is the story of three people who live in Lamb House, in London, and their encounter with the supernatural that abides there.
The Haunting of Lamb House
by Joan Aiken"LAMB HOUSE is in Rye, an ancient town of East Sussex, England. It is very much a real place, even a famous one, yet The Haunting of Lamb House is as elusive to review as it must have been to write. It is safe to say that no one but Joan Aiken could have written it, not only because she was born in Rye and has the town in her bones as it were, but also because she has the power -- shown in her other books -- of evoking strange, often eerie events of the past and making other times, places and people vividly alive. This book goes further: She has taken the real history of Lamb House and interwoven happenings that are purely imaginary, working so skillfully that even those who have lived there can hardly tell which is which!"So wrote novelist Rumer Godden, who also lived in Lamb House. She went on:"For those who do not sense such things, The Haunting of Lamb House is a most skillful and intriguing interweaving of fact and fiction; to those who do, it is a memorable evocation. In either case it is a little masterpiece."Lamb House in Joan Aiken's birth town of Rye in Sussex is said to be haunted. This is her story of what might have happened to cause the haunting: using the imagined diary of an earlier Mayor of Rye, Toby Lamb, whose father built the handsome Georgian house, and later episodes that might have occurred during the occupancy of two of its famous literary tenants - Henry James and E.F. Benson.Joan Aiken was born in another haunted house owned by her father Conrad Aiken: Jeake's House, just around the corner in Mermaid Street, Rye, which she also wrote about in Return to Harken House."Joan Aiken has written a clever book, kindling a whole world of feeling out of small macabre details, presenting to the senses a series of apprehensions of reality which seem to touch a completeness beyond themselves. An impressive achievement; I shivered as I admired" Robert Nye, The Guardian"Joan Aiken's artful web of truth and fancy is divided into three histories of haunting - the first employs Aiken's considerable skill in a vivid evocative rendering of the old town of Rye when the house was built...followed by the twenty years of Henry James' residence. The end is worth waiting for...where E.F.Benson encounters hideous apparitions and even an exorcism in the last enthralling twenty pages" Miranda Seymour, T.L.S."Aiken has conjured up a deliciously scary ghost story...her mastery of style serves her well in the creation of three separate voices. Those familiar with Henry James's writing especially The Turn of The Screwwill derive special enjoyment from this novel, but there are shivers enough for any reader willing to acknowledge the possibility of ghosts and the reality of evil" U.S. Library Journal"In three interlocking ghost stories this veteran British novelist places a fictional haunting within the history of a real house, and displays a masterly way with several contrasting narrative styles, sympathetically evoking some ghostly presences...the wayward spirit of the house and the growing number of literary presences which gradually take possession" Publisher's Weekly
The Scream
by Joan AikenWhen Davey and his family moved to the city from the island of Muckle Burra off the coast of Scotland, they left his grandmother behind. But now his parents are dead-after a car accident that left Davey confined to a wheelchair-and Gran has moved in to take care of him and his sister, Lu-Lyn. But Lu-Lyn believes that both she and Gran are "Ridders" who have strange, dark powers and must return to the island... or has a dangerous force already followed them here?Davey must embark on a terrifying journey that will reveal the true secret of his grandmother's rare gift-and the limitless power of his own potential.Joan Aiken mixes myth and magic in this mysterious short novel inspired by the Munch painting, The Scream."An eerie story from this bestselling children's author: 'Superbly chilling...this is one of her best" Independent on Sunday "A tense, exciting and disturbing new story from Joan Aiken, whose magical, fantastic and supernatural books for children are among the best ever written" World of Books"A prolific and much-beloved children's author, Joan Aiken is perhaps best known for her classic "Gothic" adventures, chief among them The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Midnight is a Place. The Scream, which features Edvard Munch's famous painting of the same name, was written later in the author's career, and makes for an agreeable "shivery" read" LibraryThing"Joan Aiken, one of the most brilliant children's writers of her generation, delivers a dark and potent reading experience in this short, disturbing story. After their parents' fatal accident, David and his sister live with their grandmother, a fearsome woman who possesses the power of the Evil Eye. Gran's mysterious links to the old legends and magic of a remote Scottish island seem destined to lead to another tragedy" Amazon Review"Joan Aiken is just ridiculously talented in terms of the scope of her writing and this is truly demonstrated by her ability to create a chilling and compelling narrative in such a short book" Goodreads Review
The Shoemaker's Boy (Gripping Tales #4)
by Joan AikenAs Jem, the Shoemaker's boy, works at night in his father's shop he has three strange visitors asking for some silver keys. Jem must keep the silver keys safe, but how...?
The Silence of Herondale: A missing child, a deserted house, and the secrets that connect them
by Joan AikenA child in danger, an isolated house - and a killer on the loose...'Joan Aiken's triumph with this genre is that she does it so much better than others' New York Times Book ReviewSnow-covered fields and moors stretch away on all sides of Herondale House. Despite rumours of an escaped killer on the run, Deborah Lindsay knows that she must control her terror - she has a young charge, 13-year-old prodigy Carreen, to care for.But the isolated Yorkshire farmhouse already holds the terrible secret of one death - and an increasing number of sinister 'accidents' lead Deborah to wonder how long it would be before evil strikes again ...'A splendidly romantic first thriller' Times Literary Supplement
The Silence of Herondale: A missing child, a deserted house, and the secrets that connect them (Murder Room #730)
by Joan AikenA child in danger, an isolated house - and a killer on the loose...'Joan Aiken's triumph with this genre is that she does it so much better than others' New York Times Book ReviewSnow-covered fields and moors stretch away on all sides of Herondale House. Despite rumours of an escaped killer on the run, Deborah Lindsay knows that she must control her terror - she has a young charge, 13-year-old prodigy Carreen, to care for.But the isolated Yorkshire farmhouse already holds the terrible secret of one death - and an increasing number of sinister 'accidents' lead Deborah to wonder how long it would be before evil strikes again ...'A splendidly romantic first thriller' Times Literary Supplement
The Stolen Lake (The Wolves Chronicles #4)
by Joan AikenIn this fantasy adventure, a young girl visits a land where birds carry off men, fish eat human flesh, and she must rescue a pilfered lake. Readers who have followed Dido Twite&’s escapades in Black Hearts in Battersea and Nightbirds on Nantucket will welcome her return in her wildest escapade yet. Now back in print, The Cuckoo Tree and The Stolen Lake continue the Wolves Chronicles, the exhilarating and imaginative series that stemmed from Joan Aiken&’s classic The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. A dazzling piece of dramatic, snowballing adventure, The Stolen Lake is full of fantastical details: revolving palaces, witches who are also court dressmakers, an apocalyptic volcanic eruption, and an infernal country with a noticeable lack of female children. On her way back to London aboard the British man-of-war Thrush, twelve-year-old Dido Twite finds herself and the crew summoned to the aid of the tyrannical queen of New Cumbria. A neighboring king has stolen the queen&’s lake and is holding it for ransom, and it&’s up to Dido and the crew to face fire, flood, execution, and wild beasts to get the lake back—or else.Perfect for fans of Lemony Snicket and Roald Dahl &“Aiken lures us into historical fantasy . . . our interest never slows.&” —School Library Journal &“The adventure Miss Aiken has dished up . . . in The Stolen Lake is zanier and more devilishly fiendish than ever.&” —New York Times
Weather Witches and Wise Women
by Joan AikenIn this new collection taken from her very first short stories, written while she and her young family were living in a bus, shortly after the end of the second world war, up until her most recent, Joan Aiken draws on the characters of women from folk and fairy tales who may have had to keep their own light under a bushel, but who use their understanding of the ways of the world, and often their sense of humour to help not just themselves, but others who are lonely and unhappy. Often delightfully tongue in cheek, Joan Aiken presents stories of shop girls who can sell you a pinch of weather, or lonely spinster piano teachers who can confront the devil and his pop group in a dark alley. Old ladies, browbeaten wives, silent mothers, unhappy daughters - all are given a chance to speak their thoughts, and even practise a little magic in Joan Aiken's modern folk tales, particularly in her last collection, called Mooncake. Stories from her whole writing career are included in this collection.
Life As Carola
by Joan GrantHISTORICAL NOVEL? OR ONE OF THE MOST ASTOUNDING AUTOBIOGRAPHIES EVER WRITTEN?The memories of a wanderer in the stormy and licentious era of Renaissance Italy...Carola, the illegitimate child of an Italian nobleman, spent her childhood in a castle near Perugia until the day Fortune cast her into the hostile outer-world of 16th-century Italy. As a member of a group of strolling players, Carola was to gather both harsh experience and gentle wisdom from the strong man Bernard, from the harlot Lucia, from the hunchback-jester Petruchio, and from Sofia, who would be burned as a witch. Finally, when she finds her long-sought peace in love, the freedom she has won carries her triumphantly beyond the barrier of death and from her Life As Carola."Here is an unusual book that shines with fire...that is packed with incident, that is vivid, dramatic and skillfully put together--and yet one that this reviewer finds harder to value correctly than any that has ever fallen into his hands."--New York Times"During the last twenty years, seven books of mine have been published as historical novels which to me are biographies of previous lives I have known."--Joan Grant, from her autobiography Far Memory
Picnic at Hanging Rock: A Novel (Australian Children's Classics)
by Joan LindsayThe classic novel about the disappearance of three boarding school girls that inspired the acclaimed film It was a cloudless summer day in the year 1900. Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of the secluded volcanic outcropping. Farther, higher, until at last they disappeared. They never returned. . . . Mysterious and subtly erotic, Picnic at Hanging Rock inspired the iconic 1975 film of the same name by Peter Weir. A beguiling landmark of Australian literature, it stands with Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, and Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides as a masterpiece of haunting intrigue.
Tout ce que l’on ne voit pas
by Joan Llensa“Tout ce que l’on ne voit pas” est un recueil d’histoires effrayantes qui nous emmènent aux limites de notre réalité. Jorge Magano Certains disent que la vraie terreur naît de ce que nous avons en nous. Et s’il est vrai que la société a évolué à pas de géants, ce n’est pas le cas de nos plus grandes craintes. Ouvrir la porte à “Tout ce que l’on ne voit pas” signifie pénétrer dans un monde dangereux et obscur qui nous terrorise. 23 récits courts qui, dans des contextes différents, attiseront vos peurs. Un voyage dans une ambiance tendue qui vous amènera à remettre en question la réalité telle que vous la connaissez. Voisins, immortalité, vengeance, réincarnation, enlèvement, mauvais traitements… Des thèmes qui se mêlent au surnaturel, au mysticisme et à l’imagination, et qui vous feront douter de ce que vous considérez comme acquis jour après jour. Joan Llensa ne veut pas faire peur. Ce jeune auteur veut montrer ce qui se cache sous nos yeux, surprendre le lecteur et traverser avec lui la mince frontière qui sépare la lumière de l’obscurité, la réalité du mystère. Dans chaque histoire, vous découvrirez un monde que vous ne pensiez pas si proche et que vous n’oublierez plus, même une fois le livre fermé. Auras-tu le courage de traverser? Au top des livres les plus vendus en Espagne, Italie et au Mexique depuis sa publication.
Backstage with a Ghost
by Joan Lowery NixonBrian and Sean investigate a series of suspicious accidents at a theater waiting to be torn down.
Check In to Danger
by Joan Lowery NixonWhile staying at a resort hotel, Brian and Sean investigate the ongoing theft of expensive cuts of meat from the hotel's kitchen.
Ghost Town: Seven Ghostly Stories
by Joan Lowery NixonStagecoach robberies. Shoot-outs. Striking it rich. Throughout the Wild West small towns were formed, thriving with men and women from the East and gold from the mines. Notorious outlaws, desperadoes, and gunslingers rustled up trouble in town after town. When the gold disappeared, the outlaws, as well as the local folks, abandoned their towns. Or did they? There are still sounds, not just the paint peeling from the deserted storefronts, or the tumbleweeds whispering as they somersault down the empty streets. There are voices, whispering stories--are they real or imagined? Stories like the one about the Lost Mine in Maiden, Texas, or the Bad Man from Bodie, California, who's still searching for his lost finger...