The bestselling author of the classic middle grade horror Small Spaces returns with a frightening new series opener tailor-made to keep you up at night…
Twelve-year-old Natasha Ross has suffered an unthinkable loss. Her best friend, Amelia, is suddenly gone. Nat misses Amelia so much, she sometimes wishes her ghost would visit, but she never does.
To help Nat heal, her parents move her from the city, where terrible things happen to girls like Amelia, to Mortimer Falls, Vermont, dubbed the safest place in America.
But on her very first day of school, Nat discovers that while the town may be safe, the school is definitely not. Model student, Carter Jump tries to warn Nat: Never walk alone. He comes when you’re alone. Avoid reflections or you’ll find his face there, too—mouth hanging open, but no sound coming out.
Nat thinks Carter is playing an elaborate prank on the new girl until she sees the wavering reflection in the trophy case and when she ventures to the bathroom alone, she finds him there, too—the Otherside Boy. Facing a wall, his hands behind his back, fingers curled, blue skin and black nails—his wrists tied together with rope.
Nat doesn’t believe in ghosts. If ghosts were real, surely Amelia would have come to her. No, this is a boy who needs help.
“Can I help you? Do you need anything?” she asks.
Ever so slowly, he turns towards the mirror…until she can see his face. His mouth is a yawning black pit. Only this time, he was making a word, and it was a word Nat knew.
Run.
And she does. But Nat soon discovers there’s something much more frightening lurking in the school: The Fear Collector. And it’s already too late to escape slipping into his realm.
With a master hand, horror virtuoso Katherine Arden will once again have you looking over your shoulder and sleeping with the lights on in this hair-raising tale.
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