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Cover of This House Is Haunted

This House Is Haunted

by John Boyne

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A Dickensian ghost story from the bestselling author of The Heart’s Invisible Furies and A Ladder to the Sky “A wonderfully creepy novel…magnificently eerie.” —The Observer This House Is Haunted is a striking homage to the classic nineteenth-century ghost story. Set in Norfolk in 1867, Eliza Caine responds to an ad for a governess position at Gaudlin Hall. When she arrives at the hall, shaken by an unsettling disturbance that occurred during her travels, she is greeted by the two children now in her care, Isabella and Eustace. There is no adult present to represent her mysterious employer, and the children offer no explanation. Later that night in her room, another terrifying experience further reinforces the sense that something is very wrong.…

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"This House Is Haunted draws on some of the great ghost-loving writers of the past, Charles Dickens and Henry James foremost among them. It’s 1867, perfect timing for a Gothic creepfest. A bereaved governess minds two “intelligent” children at Gaudlin Hall in Norfolk, England. Frights close in as no-nonsense protagonist Eliza Caine discovers the string of horrific deaths that have befallen the great house. She suffers “accidents” — attacked by a savage dog, pushed from a window, painfully scalded. “I find human nature to be a very disturbing thing,” she opines. Boyle’s smart dialogue and scene-setting give the book cinematic appeal."
NPR Books We Love — 2013 · apps.npr.org