The Dead House - Hardcover

Kurtagich, Dawn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316298689 ISBN 13: 9780316298681

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2015

Synopsis

Welcome to the Dead House.
 

Three students: dead.

 

Carly Johnson: vanished without a trace.

 

Two decades have passed since an inferno swept through Elmbridge High, claiming the lives of three teenagers and causing one student, Carly Johnson, to disappear. The main suspect: Kaitlyn, "the girl of nowhere."

 

Kaitlyn's diary, discovered in the ruins of Elmbridge High, reveals the thoughts of a disturbed mind. Its charred pages tell a sinister version of events that took place that tragic night, and the girl of nowhere is caught in the center of it all. But many claim Kaitlyn doesn't exist, and in a way, she doesn't - because she is the alter ego of Carly Johnson.

 

Carly gets the day. Kaitlyn has the night. It's during the night that a mystery surrounding the Dead House unravels and a dark, twisted magic ruins the lives of each student that dares touch it.

 

Debut author Dawn Kurtagich masterfully weaves together a thrilling and terrifying story using psychiatric reports, witness testimonials, video footage, and the discovered diary – and as the mystery grows, the horrifying truth about what happened that night unfolds.

About this title

About the Author

Dawn Kurtagich is a young writer of psychologically sinister fiction, and she has a dark and twisted imagination! She lives in Wales, an ancient and mountainous country within the UK (go to England's Midlands and turn left towards the sea). However, she grew up all over the world, predominantly in Africa. She writes and blogs for YA Scream Queens and is a member of the YA League. She is the author of The Dead House and its companion novella, The Dead House: The Naida Tapes.

Reviews

Gr 8 Up—This creepy boarding school novel meshes real world issues with a paranormal mystery in a fun but scary debut. Carly Johnson might have dissociative identity disorder, where the trauma of her parents' fatal car accident resulted in the creation of a nocturnal alter personality named Kaitlyn. Or there might be something supernatural at work, since Kaitlyn claims she and Carly have shared the same body and life since birth and may have been responsible for their parents' deaths. A stint in a mental institution doesn't help, and soon Kaitlyn realizes that the Carly personality seems to have disappeared. Told as an official report investigating the mystery of a fatal fire, this novel includes diary entries, notes, interviews, and transcripts from a video camera. One friend uses a fictional kind of Scottish witchcraft to unravel the mystery of the girls' identity, there's a complicated romance, and the diary itself, named Dee, becomes a menacing, ghostly apparition. Is this a creative exploration of mental illness, or a straightforward horror story? The multiple unanswered questions feel intriguing rather than frustrating. Fans of horror novels will appreciate the creepy photographs scattered throughout, and the multiple perspectives are smoothly integrated. VERDICT A worthy addition to high school horror collections.—Kyle Lukoff, Corlears School, New York City

Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316298689
• ISBN 13: 9780316298681
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432