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Down a Dark Hall

by Lois Duncan (Goodreads Author)

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 2,578 ratings · 252 reviews

Why does the exclusive boarding school Blackwood have only four students?

Kit walks the dark halls and feels a penetrating chill. What terror waits around the next corner?

Paperback, 192 pages

Published September 1st 1990 by Laurel Leaf (first published September 1st 1974)

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Best Young Adult Fiction

420th out of 1,439 books — 3,849 voters

Top 100 Middle School Must-Reads

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Dec 29, 2011 Shirley Marr rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who likes stories where girls go mad

Recommended to Shirley by: Wendy Darling

Shelves: usa-ya

Before I begin: it's retro lulz time! A description of the leading male hottie, the music teacher who is "slim and fine-boned, with glossy black hair which framed a face so perfect in feature that it might have belonged to a television star" ...

"Jules Duret was waiting for her in the music room. He was wearing a pale blue shirt, open at the throat, and a pair of white flared pants"

Did anyone say Saturday Night Fever? You can tell this novel was written in the 70s can't you? I wonder if they will...more

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Wendy Darling Behold, the cinnamon bear(s)! They're just what they sound like--cinnamon-flavored gummi bears. A bit larger than usual, and softer than Haribos.

I get...more
Dec 30, 2011 11:42pm

Lisa Apparently, we had similar tastes in books even when we were teens. :)

I love the retro covers too. I first read all of her books at the library before...more
updated Dec 31, 2011 12:04am

Oct 05, 2009 Qt rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: halloween, horror-supernatural

3 or 4 stars....a very interesting concept, and hard to put down! I felt there were a few unanswered questions at the end, but mostly I found it intriguing.

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Jul 04, 2008 Ally rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own-it

I love this book, especially since it connects to music.

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Dec 30, 2012 Nenia Campbell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: evil-schools, ya-baby-ya, goth-goth-baby, x-1970s, the-butler-did-it, boo-a-ghost, are-you-afraid-of-the-dark-yet, reviewed, boarding-schools, pedobear-seal-of-approval

Remember when young-adult books used to come in bite-sized installments of 200-pages-or-less?

Me, too!

I'd pretty much given up on ever reading Down A Dark Hall because a lot of Duncan's older books are surprisingly hard to find--and my mean book-banning library doesn't carry them because of Reasons.

(One of the teachers kindofsortof admits to liking Kit.)

So you can imagine my surprise when I found this book in their non-profit bookstore, crammed between Goosebumps and Gossip Girl. My copy has that...more

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Jan 13, 2008 Kitty rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: For a GOOD LAUGH

This is one of the first full length novels I read. I remember it serving as one of the seminal moments in my literary formation. I remember it being suspenful and full of immagery.

This book was republished in 1990, but was originally published in the late 70's. I read it in 5th or 6th grade.

While studying children's literature as part of my Masters program, we had to choose a book that we had read in elementary school. The assignment instrcted us to look at our influential book with adult eyes...more

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Mar 23, 2012 Jia Hui rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: should-have-movie-adaptions, reviews

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like 1 like · see review

Aug 13, 2008 Aly rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 17, 2008 Debbie rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: teen horror fans

Shelves: horror, young-adult-lit, fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 20, 2012 Kara Jorges rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first time I read this book was about 25 years ago when I checked it out from my school library. Though I did not recall the title or the author, through the magic of a discussion board, I got the information very quickly from another helpful reader and was able to obtain my own copy. Obviously, if it stuck in my mind all this time, the book is a good read, and I’m happy to report I enjoyed it nearly as much the second time as I did all those years ago.

Kit Gordy’s father died several years b...more The first time I read this book was about 25 years ago when I checked it out from my school library. Though I did not recall the title or the author, through the magic of a discussion board, I got the information very quickly from another helpful reader and was able to obtain my own copy. Obviously, if it stuck in my mind all this time, the book is a good read, and I’m happy to report I enjoyed it nearly as much the second time as I did all those years ago.

Kit Gordy’s father died several years back, leaving her and her mother alone. Nobody truly believed Kit saw her father in her bedroom on the night he died since he was out of town at the time, but now the memory is clearer than ever in Kit’s mind. Her mother is about to remarry and take an extended European honeymoon, so Kit is enrolled in Blackwood Academy, an upscale rural school for girls.

So her mother and new husband can catch their ship, Kit is left at Blackwood a day early. She should be thrilled at the school’s picturesque setting, but instead, Kit is unnerved by a pervasive sense of evil. Her first night there, she is bothered by the fact that the hallway to the dorm rooms is stygian dark, and then she is plagued by disturbing dreams about being smothered by her bed’s ornate canopy. She hopes her unsettled feelings will change once the school is full of chattering students, but then is surprised to learn that only four students have been accepted to attend the term. She befriends another girl there and has some good times, but no matter how pleasant her days, at night the old mansion’s shadows darken, and the hallway to the student rooms is dreadfully dark.

Before long, the students at Blackwood start showing amazing talents in math and the arts, and Kit also notices that they all seem to be getting thinner. She often awakens with sore arms and fingers as if she had been playing hours of piano. Her letters to her mother don’t ever seem to arrive, either. Other strange incidents among the students continue to occur and escalate, but Madame Duret, the headmistress, explains them all away, until one night Kit comes upon evidence that nothing at Blackwood is at it seems. Kit and the other girls are in terrible danger and there seems to be no way out.

One of the most important elements to the plot of this book is isolation, which is less and less a part of the modern world. The way it is done in this story is a bit dated, but since it could still work in a modern setting with a tweak or two, it remains believable. The story itself is chilling, with the sinister elements slowly building until its explosive climax. The ending could have benefitted from a little more fleshing out, but again, I believe that is a mark of the time period in which it was written. Books these days tend to drag endings out sometimes past the point where they should.

I enjoyed this book enough as a teenager to seek it out all these years later, and enjoyed it again as an adult. I highly recommend it.
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Jul 26, 2012 Jeanbooknerd rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviews

The highly suspenseful Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan tells a creepy story about a fourteen year-old girl named Kathryn “Kit” Gordy who is sent to a boarding school. Once she checks into Blackwood, an exclusive all girls school, she discovers the school is peculiar as she’s one of the only four students enlisted. Kit immediately sense evil lurking around the corner and the four students begin having unusual dreams. Soon after bodies are possessed and the book that starts out less-than-creepy, f...more

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Apr 08, 2011 Kelly Hager rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kit is attending boarding school while her mom and stepfather are on their honeymoon. From the beginning, she's against the idea, but once she sees the school it's even worse. She has a sense of wrongness almost immediately, and the longer she stays, the worse it gets.

And it's even weirder because there are exactly four students in the school (and that's counting Kit). Soon, they're all doing things they weren't able to do before. Lynda is painting these amazing landscapes and Sandy is writing p...more

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Sep 05, 2010 Yasmin rated it 5 of 5 stars

My review on this book is that its basically about four girls who got My review on this book is that its basically about four girls who got accepted to a private girls high school. Once they got in they discovered that its no an ordinary school. Everything in it is beautiful and everything is really old. They soon realizes that they have all gotten special talents every time they wake up in the morning. It was soon discovered that they were being hunted and taught by famous artists,poets, and mu...more

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Oct 04, 2009 Jennie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Kit Gordy was sent to Blackwood School for girls, while her mother and step father vacationed in parts of Europe. Kit got chills just from looking at Blackwood, but thought it was no big deal. Kit eventually met her new teachers, and new friends. Later in the story Kit started waking up with her fingers aching, and felt like she didn’t get any sleep. Kit’s new friends and her found out they weren’t really at Blackwood to learn, but were being held at their own will, and used for an experiment c...more

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Jan 05, 2012 Nora rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kit goes to a new school named Blackwood. Blackwood is a school for girls where you live too. There are only four students and three teachers.

Kit finds the place scary and evil. She has weird dreams and has seen weird things at night and finds out that the other girls have weird dreams too and seen weird things.

Lynda, one of the girls, starts drawing really good drawings and paintings even though she can't draw and starts to become insane so she is locked in her room. Soon Sandy, another girl a...more Kit goes to a new school named Blackwood. Blackwood is a school for girls where you live too. There are only four students and three teachers.

Kit finds the place scary and evil. She has weird dreams and has seen weird things at night and finds out that the other girls have weird dreams too and seen weird things.

Lynda, one of the girls, starts drawing really good drawings and paintings even though she can't draw and starts to become insane so she is locked in her room. Soon Sandy, another girl and Kit's friend, starts writing really good poems. Ruth, a really smart girl, starts writing very complicated math problems. Kit starts playing very good music on the piano. The girls always do these things at night.

One night Kit wakes up when a man leads her to the piano and she has to play the piano for people. The music teacher records her music. Kit demands to talk to all girls and teachers at Blackwood and finds out that talented spirits are controlling them and making them do things for an experiment. The four girls are special because they can be controlled.

Ruth likes being part of the experiment and knowing so hard math. But Kit and Sandy don't like being controlled. They can't go away or contact anyone outside of Blackwood.

When a woman that cooked and cleaned Blackwood before getting fired came back to Blackwood to get her money Kit secretly gave a letter to her with her friends phone number on it.

One day there is a big storm. The lights go off and Kit says she will tell the woman that runs Blackwood to go to Sandy, who couldn't stop laughing. Instead Kit tries to call her friend. The music teacher finds her and she persuades him to let her look in the files to find out what happened to other girls like her. The files say horrible things and the music teacher promises to get the girls away from Blackwood.

A fire starts and everyone runs out. Kit realizes that Lynda is still inside and goes back in. She tells Lynda to jump out the window. With the help of her dad, who is a spirit she gets out again and runs to her friend and friend's family who had been called by the woman Kit gave her letter to.

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Oct 28, 2011 Josh rated it 5 of 5 stars

Dear Miss Kalwanaski,
This week I'm writing about the chilling characteristics in "Down A Dark Hall", written by Lois Duncan. I'm writing about this book again because I've not had enough time to start another one. Last week I told you what I enjoyed about the book. This week I will be telling you why I enjoy these chilling characteristics.

I enjoy these chilling characteristics for multiple reasons. I find chilling characteristics to be the heart and soul of a book. Chilling parts of a book is...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Sarah Whisted rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own

This book is one of the very few books I remember reading as a kid for fun (I didn't read that much back then) and I remember it scaring the crap out of me. To the point that I found myself listening to Yanni's "One Man's Dream" on repeat just to be able to finish it.

I was excited about re-reading it to see if I reacted the same way as an adult now that I am an avid reader and I can happily report that it still had that perfect eerie feel. I wouldn't say it scared me because I'm older now and ha...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Kendra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: school-read

I have loved Lois Duncan's teen novels ever since I first read them as a beginning teacher in the early 90s. I love how she creates a feeling of suspense and terror with references to the paranormal. For some reason, I never read Down a Dark Hall, so when I saw this edition where the author has updated the story to give it modern references, I thought I'd give it a try.

The story starts with Kit being driven by her mom and new stepdad to Blackwood Hall, the boarding school she will soon be attend...more I have loved Lois Duncan's teen novels ever since I first read them as a beginning teacher in the early 90s. I love how she creates a feeling of suspense and terror with references to the paranormal. For some reason, I never read Down a Dark Hall, so when I saw this edition where the author has updated the story to give it modern references, I thought I'd give it a try.

The story starts with Kit being driven by her mom and new stepdad to Blackwood Hall, the boarding school she will soon be attending. She's not at all excited about being left at the new school while her mom goes off to Europe on an extended honeymoon with her new husband. When they arrive at Blackwood Hall, the description of the school is straight out of a gothic novel. Creepy with a capital C. The reader feels Kit's foreboding when exploring the house and the hallway to her new room. You just get a sense that something is off. All the clues are there -- how there are only four students at the school, how no one from the closest village wants to work there, how strange it is that there are locks only on the outside of the girls' bedrooms. This is one sinister place.

Kit and the other three girls each have some weird experiences in the house and are seemingly more and more isolated from the rest of the world. Lynda suddenly exhibits a talent for drawing and painting, even when she couldn't do anything artistic before. Sandy feels as though some presence is in her room at night. Kit is haunted by a melody in her dreams, but has no idea where it comes from. It seems that of the four girls only Kit and Sandy really question the oddness of it all and want to know more. Is the house haunted by ghosts? What's the real reason each of these girls were accepted to Blackwood Hall.

This is a quick read. The reader is quickly immersed into the sinister events at the school and Kit's quest to uncover all the secrets. Ms. Duncan does a nice job of building suspense without making it overdramatic. I really didn't get some of the secondary characters (like Ruth or Jules) -- they seemed a bit too one dimensional. I'm sure it would have helped to see just a bit more into their thoughts. Some things at the end of the book seemed incomplete, as I have way too many questions. I realize some things should be left to the reader's imagination, but I'm a bit confused about exactly how things worked. (I know that's a bit fuzzy, but without giving away spoilers, that's the best I can do.) Even with my questions, this is a terrific horror story to give you some spine-tingling chills. B rating.(less)

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Feb 24, 2010 Alice rated it 5 of 5 stars

kit gordy got accepted into blackwood a school for young kids. the school building is a creepy old house and when kit once gets there, she gets the chills. she feels something evil here but cannot explain it. her parents leave for europe on their honeymoon once she gets settled in. strange things start happening at the school and she wants to escape. the "principal" tries her best to stop them but fails.

i think that kit's a brave girl. if i was her than i would have done the same thing except at...more

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Apr 30, 2012 April Kane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult-books

I had heard recently that Lois Duncan’s Down a Dark Hall has been optioned by Stephenie Meyer to be made in a film and this made me curious to pick it up. I’m not sure how I missed it in the 80s but I did somehow. Down a Dark Hall (like a lot of Lois Duncan books) is a creepy story focusing on young (fourteen) Kit Gordy, who is starting a new boarding school, Blackwood School for Girls. Right from the get-go Kit finds her new school disturbing but she decides to stay there so her freshly remarri...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Jonathan Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: advisory-2011-2012

I thought that this was a great book to read with a lot of suspense and action. This book is mainly about a private school that has many secrets. Furthermore the school is extremely mysterious because there are only four students in it. The main character Cat begins to have suspicions as to what is happening in the school when her classmates start acting weird. She discovers the headmasters plan and you'll have to read the book to find out the rest of the story. This really is a great book and c...more

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May 08, 2012 Gary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is my first time reading a Lois Duncan book. Apparently she wrote the well-known "I Know What You Did Last Summer". I enjoy chilling reads a lot, so that's the main reason I picked up this book.

The Story:

Kit Gordy is heading to Blackwood Hall for boarding school. But there's just something about the school that seems so haunting. When Kit finds out later that there are only 4 students enrolled in Blackwood, she feels that something is very wrong.

As Kit, Sandy, Ruth and Lynda begin their les...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Jonathan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: advisory

I thought that this was a great book to read with all the suspense and action. This book is mainly about a private school that is extremely mysterious because there are only four students in it. The main character Cat starts being suspicious as to what is happening in the school because he friends start to act weird. She discovers the headmasters plan and you'll have to read the book to find out what she does. This really is a great book and can also be confusing so you might have to read it a f...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Nicole Palumbo Davies rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

This book was creepy, so creepy that I had to put the book down when I was in my dark house alone. Down a Dark Hall is about Kit, a 14-year-old girl starting out at an exclusive boarding school called Blackwood School for Girls. The school is so exclusive that there are only 4 students. Kit senses immediately that there is something wrong with the school, but it takes her and her schoolmates time to figure out what that bizarre something is.
This book was first published in 1974, but it is not as...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Mrs.Davies rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-2013-school-year

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May 02, 2011 Melanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: paranormal, read-in-2011, sbc, ya

I read this book in several hours as part of a book club challenge - reread a favorite book from your childhood.

I enjoyed it as much as I did as when I was younger. It seemed like there was something missing though--perhaps my imagination was more engaged when I read this in middle school. The charm is still there, however, and the plot is really intriguing--unlike anything I've read before.

This book was written in 1974. Evidently Lois Duncan has gone through her publications and 'modernized' th...more

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Feb 03, 2010 Haiweifrost rated it 4 of 5 stars

My review on this book is that its basicly about four girls who got accepted to a private girls high school. Once they got in they descoverd that its no an ordinary school. Everything in it is beautiful and everything is really old. They soon realizes that they have all gotten special talents everytime they wake up in the morning. It was soon discovered that they were being hunted and taught by famous artists,poets and musicians.But one of the girls seems to become ill and crazy. Now the girls...more

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Mar 26, 2011 Robyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, actually-scary, old-faves, page-turner

This was one of my most beloved childhood horror stories, it's really and truly frightening. I loved all of the characters, and found them all to be really believable. The most chilling part is the philosophical debate that this novel raises, which requires a lot more thought than a lot of trashy pulp horror directed at young readers. You find yourself inevitably asking many questions about the situation that the characters are in, and how you would react, and whether your reaction is what's bes...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Hina rated it 4 of 5 stars

In Blackwood boarding school for girls, the mansion is gloomy, very old, and filled with dark halls. This is an elite school, but the things about it make it even more creepier. This school only has four students and two teachers. These students are Kit, Sandy, Ruth, and Lynda. Madame Duret chooses these girls especially for their great talent and abilities. But soon, Madame Duret's plans start going terribly wrong. They all became scared and impulsively took actions. When they're room caught fi...more

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Feb 25, 2010 Margaret rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-and-ya-fiction, gothic, thrillers, authors-cd

This has always been my favorite Duncan, and the only one I've reread several times since I was a teenager. When Kit Gordy enters a private school, she's shocked to discover that there are only three other students, and she's disturbed by the school itself, whose atmosphere she immediately feels is evil. Eventually, Kit makes a chilling discovery about why she and the other three girls were the only ones selected; I don't want to reveal this, as it would be a massive spoiler, but this aspect of...more

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May 27, 2009 Jose rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 4th-quarter

This story was written by a very well known author, lois Duncan. The story is mysterious and suspenceful from the first chapter. Kit Gordy goes to a nnew school. The school brochure say "small classes" but Kit never expected for there to be only 3 other girls in the school.
thing get even more wierd when Sandy, kit's closest friend in the school starts having wierd dreams of a woman staring at her. Soon all the girls mysteriously get talents. Lynda starts painting. Sandy writes poetry, and Kit p...more

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About Lois Duncan

Lois Duncan (born Lois Duncan Steinmetz, April 28, 1934) is an American writer and novelist, known primarily for her books for children and young adults, in particular (and some times controversially considering her young readership) crime thrillers. Duncan's parents were the noted magazine photographers Lois Steinmetz and Joseph Janney Steinmetz. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but gr...more Lois Duncan (born Lois Duncan Steinmetz, April 28, 1934) is an American writer and novelist, known primarily for her books for children and young adults, in particular (and some times controversially considering her young readership) crime thrillers. Duncan's parents were the noted magazine photographers Lois Steinmetz and Joseph Janney Steinmetz. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Sarasota, Florida. Duncan started writing and submitting manuscripts to magazines at the age of ten, and when she was thirteen succeeded in selling her first story.

Duncan attended Duke University from 1952 to 1953 but dropped out, married, and started a family. During this time, she continued to write and publish magazine articles; over the course of her career, she has published more than 300 articles, in magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, McCall's, Good Housekeeping, and Reader's Digest. After her first marriage, which produced three children, ended in divorce, Duncan moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to teach journalism at the University of New Mexico, where she also earned a BA in English in 1977. In 1965 she married Don Arquette, and had two more children with him.

Duncan is best known for her novels of suspense for teenagers. Some of her works have been adapted for the screen, the most famous example being the 1997 film I Know What You Did Last Summer, adapted from her novel of the same title. Other made-for-TV movies include Stranger with My Face, Killing Mr. Griffin, Don't Look Behind You, Summer of Fear and Gallows Hill.

In 1989 the youngest of Duncan's children, Kaitlyn Arquette, was murdered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, under suspicious circumstances. Who Killed My Daughter? relates the facts and conjecture about the still unsolved case. Duncan is now completing work on the sequel to that book, The Tally Keeper, which picks up Kait's story where the first book leaves off. It's under option as the pilot for a TV series.

The 1971 children's book Hotel for Dogs was released as a theatrical movie in 2009, starring Emma Roberts. That book has now been republished by Scholastic along with two sequels, News for Dogs (2009) and Movie for Dogs (2010).

Follow Lois on Twitter: http://twitter.com/duncanauthor
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