Amy H. Sturgis's Blog, page 39

Halloween 2020, Day 22

If you’re looking for a contemporary vampire read, Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite is brand new, edited by

Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker with stories by an all-star lineup of authors including Samira Ahmed, Dhonielle Clayton, Zoraida Córdova, Natalie C. Parker, Tessa Gratton, Heidi Heilig, Julie Murphy, Mark Oshiro, Rebecca Roanhorse, Laura Ruby, Victoria “V. E.” Schwab, and Kayla Whaley.   

If you’d like to sample a taste from the collection, Tor.com has a spooky excerpt from Rebecca Roanhorse’s story “The Boys From Blood River” here.

Enjoy a couple of eerie snippets.

Now let’s go old school…

But first, on earth as vampire sent,
Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent:
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race;
There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loathe the banquet which perforce
Must feed thy livid living corse:
Thy victims ere they yet expire
Shall know the demon for their sire,
As cursing thee, thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem.

From “The Giaour” by Lord Byron (1813).

(Art is “Vampire” by akelataka.)

Halloween 2020, Day 21

(Photo by Elizabeth. See the original source here.) 

So often and so anxiously we have talked of this thing called death, that now that it is all over between us, I cannot understand why we found in it such a source of distress. It bewilders me. I am often bewildered here. Things and the fancies of things possess a relation which as yet is new and strange to me. Here is a mystery.

Now, in truth, it seems a simple matter for me to tell you how it has been with me since your lips last touched me, and your arms held me to the vanishing air.

Oh, drawn, pale lips! Nerveless, dropping arms! I told you I would come. Did ever promise fail I spoke to you? “Come and show me Death,” you said. I have come to show you Death.

- from “Since I Died” by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, originally in Scribner’s Monthly (February 1873), as published in Avenging Angels: Ghost Stories by Victorian Women Writers edited by Melissa Edmundson (2018)   

Halloween 2020, Day 20

It’s an old-fashioned puppet. The details are hard to make out in the dim light, but it looks like the puppet’s neck is broken. It’s a sad-looking thing, trapped there in its cage. Maybe I should let it out…

- from Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis (2020)  

This year I took part in the Ladies of Horror Fiction anniversary mini-readathon, and one of the titles I’m very glad I selected was

Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis (2020). This young-adult Gothic tale is a chilling and effective love letter to cult horror films and those who obsess over them, wrapped inside of a toxic family mystery, and topped with a clever framing narrative that pays off immensely in the end. Ellis allows her heroine self-discovery and hard-won empowerment and a realness I found to be very compelling.

I would’ve devoured this with relish as a teen; as an adult, I thoroughly enjoyed every single line. Highly recommended!

Here is the official description: “Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker–she thinks nothing can scare her. But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she’s quickly packed off to live with a grandmother she’s never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father’s most iconic horror movie was shot. The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map–and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away. And there’s someone–or something–stalking her every move. The more Lola discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. Because Lola’s got secrets of her own. And if she can’t find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her.”

Ellis definitely has a wonderful way with words. Here’s an example.

I watch the light creep over the tops of the trees and I rasp in painful, beautiful breaths, lying on grass and grit and a backbone made of stories. Stars fill the sky above me, echoes from some long-dead part of the universe, stories from long ago.

The stars watch as I get to my feet and walk into the trees. Perhaps they are all monsters’ eyes. Perhaps they are not there at all.

- from Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis (2020)  

Halloween 2020, Day 19

(Art is “Halloween 2019″ by jackthetab.)

Sadie Hartmann has a fantastic suggested Halloween reading list here at LitReactor: “Halloween 2020 Reading List.” 

Two other books to that deserve to be on any list include the new Weird anthologies from Handheld Press, British Weird: Selected Short Fiction, 1893-1937 edited by James Machin and Women’s Weird 2: More Strange Stories by Women, 1891-1937 edited by Melissa Edmundson. And guess what? Next week, you can take part in the book launch for these two volumes online for free!

Weird book launch: Tuesday, 27th October 2020

At 19.30 UK time / 13.30 EST on Tuesday, 27th October, Handheld Press be hosting a Zoom book launch for our two new Weird anthologies, British Weird, edited by James Machin, and Women’s Weird  2, edited by Melissa Edmundson. Kate Macdonald of Handheld Press will be moderating. To sign up to attend this online book launch, go here for details!

(Photo by Yours Truly.)

There was never more curiosity than there is today about ‘the uncanny’ or ‘strange things’ – ‘things’ that even in our fathers’ day it was improper to believe in at all….

Even now old forumlae haunt and stir.

LOVE: I have fallen upon the breast of Despoina, Queen of the Underworld. 

DEATH: You shall find on the left of the House of Hades a well-spring. Beside it is a white cypress. Say: ‘I am the child of earth and the starry heavens. But my race is of the stars.’

Formulae that are very old. The time may be coming when, their ritual origins traced, their risings and settings chased through our subconscious, we shall know what powers we have evoked exterior to us….

If we do not find out, we had better look out for ourselves. We have been careless lately what spiritual company we have kept; in our choices of ghostly guests.

- from “‘Ghosties and Ghoulies’: Uses of the Supernatural in English Fiction” by Mary Butts (1913) in British Weird: Selected Short Fiction, 1893-1937, edited by James Machin

Halloween 2020, Day 18

(Art is “Zbrush Doodle: Day 1750 - Festive Pumpkin” by UnexpectedToy.)

For today, here is the atmospheric opening of the short story “Haunted!” by Jack Edwards, originally published in The Weekly Tale Teller #83 (December 3, 1910), as found in Glimpses of the Unknown: Lost Ghost Stories edited by Mike Ashley (2018):  

When Roydon came down the stairs he saw it waiting for him, and as usual it vanished as he approached. He went into his bedroom, which, with the rest of the rooms of the flat, was on the floor below the studio. The chintz-covered chair complained in all its wicker frame at the heavy descent of his body. A large blue-bottle from the lime-trees below the half-opened window buzzed in the silk of the casement blinds, and the hot sunlight lay in bars on the floor. The roar of the motor traffic on the north side of the square, modulated by the distance, bore with it the faint jangle of a piano organ like a treble melody half drowned by a tuneless base, but he did not hear the noise of the street any more than he noted the golden noon or the buzzing of the fly or the creaking protest of the chair.  

His hands were limp, and his legs stuck out stiffly before him. His chin was sunk on his breast, and his eyes goggled beneath his frowning brows. It was the face of a man who had begun to be afraid.

He sat thus, looking neither to the past not to the future, but permitting only the horror of the present to absorb him.

To-day it had seemed more tangible. He had faintly discerned a face; the blurred outline of a form; a suggestion of limbs.

Halloween 2020, Day 17

If you’re looking for a truly beautiful and meaningful work to read this October, then try this first novel from one of my favorite authors, Lipan Apache wordsmith Darcie Little Badger. This is not a work about Halloween, but with magic and monsters, murder and ghosts, it’s perfect for the season. 

In fact, it’s perfect, full stop.

By page four, Elatsoe had me: “She could handle mundane dangers, like violent men with guns or knives, but every tunnel, bridge, and abandoned building in the city was allegedly home to monsters. She’d heard whispers about clans of teenage-bodied vampires, carnivorous mothmen, immortal serial killers, devil cults, cannibal families, and slenderpeople.” What genius is this? And don’t get me started on the scarecrows with real human eyes. Or Kirby the ghost dog, the best boy ever. Or the locals who stare at strangers. Or Teddy Roosevelt.

Here is the official description of Elatsoe: “Imagine an America very similar to our own. It’s got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day. Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.” 

I can’t recommend this young-adult novel highly enough (for YA and adult readers alike). I laughed and I cried; I also punched the air in triumph three separate times. I want to foist this book on everyone I know. 

Here is a taste:

Sometimes, the world was too mysterious for her liking; Ellie intended to change that someday. In the kitchen, her father nursed a mug of coffee.

“You’re awake before noon?” he asked. “Did summer end while I was sleeping?” He smiled with his mouth, but his brown eyes seemed sad.

“Feels like it,” Ellie said. “Where’s Mom?” 

“She took a dawn flight to McAllen.”

“Is that because…” Ellie trailed off. Every word about the tragedy felt like a psychic paper cut, and too many stings would make her cry. There was nothing shameful about tears, but Ellie hated the way her face ached when she wept. The pain felt like a head cold. “When did it happen?”

“Last night,” her father said. “Around two-thirty. He peacefully walked to the underworld. No struggle, no pain.”

“No pain? You can’t know that, Dad.” Although Ellie spoke softly, he heard her. Must have. He no longer pretended to smile.

“Lenore needs help with Baby Gregory. That’s why your mother left suddenly.” He put his coffee on the counter and hugged Ellie. His wool vest tickled her chin. Ellie’s father had to wear blue scrubs and a physician’s lab coat at work, but during off-days, he broke out the cable-knit sweaters, tweed pants, and scratchy wool vests. “She has other duties. Your aunt and uncle are crushed with grief. They can’t handle the burial preparations alone.”

Oddly, thinking about Trevor’s widow, infant son, and parents helped Ellie push through. She had a job to do: protect them from Abe Allerton. “Are the police investigating the crash?” she asked.

“I believe so.”

“Let me make it easier. Abe Allerton killed him. Abe Allerton from a town called Willowbee.”

Her father stepped back, perturbed. “Why do you believe that?”

“Cuz spoke to me in a dream. Told me who killed him. Same way that drowned boy told Six-Great-Grandmother about the river monster.”

“I see.” Judging by his furrowed brow, that was an exaggeration, at best. “Wait. What river monster are you referring to? Didn’t she fight a few?”

“The one with a human face and poison scales. That’s not important. Dad, I think Cuz reached out to me in between phases, after his last exhale but before his spirit went Below.”

“It’s possible. You and Six-Great are so much alike.”

“You think so?” she asked.

“Sure. I never met the woman, obviously, but you’re both remarkable ghost trainers. Intelligent and brave, too.”

Ellie smiled faintly. “Thanks,” she said, taking a glass from the cupboard and pouring herself some orange juice. She had no appetite for solid breakfast. “You know what this all means, though, right? Abe Allerton from Willowbee is a murderer, and he cannot hurt anybody else.”

- from Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger (2020) 

You can read a longer excerpt from Elatsoe here and access a Q&A with Darcie Little Badger and see related videos here. You can also find links to some of Darcie Little Badger’s spooky online short stories on her website here.

The book is gorgeously illustrated by artist Rovina Cai. 

Halloween 2020, Day 16It’s film time! Every year about this time I think about good Halloween films...

Halloween 2020, Day 16

It’s film time! Every year about this time I think about good Halloween films (not necessarily horror movies, and definitely not lame slasher pictures, but suspenseful, atmospheric films that put a chill up the spine) that are “off the beaten path” – that is, films that are independent, foreign, direct to DVD or VOD, or somehow under promoted, and thus might easily slip under the proverbial radar. Not the classics. Not the usual suspects.

I’ve already made a separate post in the past with recommendations of Anton Yelchin’s Halloween-friendly films, so I won’t repeat those here.

Now I have a few new recommendations to add to my list, based on this past year’s viewing. (We accessed nearly all of these via Netflix or Amazon streaming.) Here they are in reverse chronological order:

Here are my 2020 recommendations:

You Should Have Left (2020): This is a very effective troubled-family-on-vacation film, packed with layered characterization and psychological unease. The incredible chemistry between Kevin Bacon and Avery Essex makes a genuinely moving father-daughter relationship the heart of this film. It really works.  American Hangman (2019): This is a powerful thriller with a lot of meaning. Even though Donald Sutherland’s genius is undisputed, it’s still stunning to watch him here. I’ll use the official description so I don’t give more away than I should: “Two men are chained up in a basement. The captor has cameras aimed at them and is streaming it on the internet – turning it into a ‘trial’ on the held, retired judge’s last court case. The viewers become the jurors.” The Color Out of Space (2019): This is an adaptation of one of my very favorite Lovecraft works, so I was braced for disappointment. Instead, this turned out to be one of our favorite films of the year. Sensitive, poignant, and genuinely scary, this film genuinely delivers on every level, including the pathos inherent to the story. I’m agnostic about Nic Cage – he doesn’t make or break a film for me – but his performance really worked here, as did that of the ever-capable Joely Richardson. It was delightful to see Q'orianka Kilcher and Tommy Chong in solid supporting roles, as well. Watch this one!    Doctor Sleep (2019): This is an adaptation of Stephen King’s sequel to The Shining. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s interesting and visually stunning and packed with able actors. (Five words: Zahn McClarnon as Crow Daddy. I can’t stress this enough.) I’m sure many would find this crazy, but if given the choice right now, I would rather watch Doctor Sleep again than watch The Shining again. So there.  In the Tall Grass (2019): Is this the best Stephen King (more accurately, Stephen King and Joe Hill) adaptation ever? No. Did I enjoy every minute spent lost in the grass maze with over-the-top Patrick Wilson? Yes. Yes I did. Your mileage may vary based on your level of Patrick Wilson appreciation. Mine is high.    Midsommar (2019): Yes, I know this isn’t an “under the radar” film, but we really loved it, so I wanted to take this opportunity to say so.  Ready or Not (2019): Dark comedies are often hit or miss for me, but this newlywed-hunted-by-her-evil-in-laws-in-Satanic-ritual romp is a definite hit, both clever and funny.Vivarium (2019): This science-fiction mind-game of a horror film messed me up and continues to haunt me, and I mean that in the best possible way. I knew nothing about it going into the film, and I think that was for the best. Highly recommended. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2019): This is a very well crafted adaptation of a novel by Shirley Jackson that I love. I was prepared to be critical, but the film thoroughly won me over with brilliant visuals and performances – Taissa Farmiga and Alexandra Daddario are phenomenal – and a screenplay that emphasizes how relevant this story remains. Read the book first, but then treat yourself to this movie.    Delirium (2018): This isn’t a great film, but it keeps the twists and turns coming, and it uses the unreliability of the protagonist’s hallucination-laden point of view to good effect. You really need to suspend your disbelief to swallow the “young man released from twenty years in a mental asylum into house arrest at his dead father’s mansion” premise, but once you’re there, the oppressive isolation and sense of unreality are worth your time.   The Wind: Demon of the Prairies (2018): This slow-burn Western plays on the horror and desperation of solitude – especially for settler women – on the frontier. Women’s points of view are highlighted here in a refreshing and chillingly effective way.Lost Child (a.k.a. Tatterdemalion) (2018): We were really enchanted and moved by this work of “hillbilly Gothic” or Ozark folk horror. When a combat veteran returns home with the scars of war on her psyche, she encounters a boy in the woods. Is he a lost child in need of her help, or is he the tatterdemalion of local lore, a demon who wants to feed on her very life? This is a quiet, haunting, compelling story of pain, superstition, and the people who fall through the cracks.  Voice from the Stone (2017): This is a classic old-school Gothic film of the “new governess for troubled child after mother’s death” mold, and it delivers all of the lush atmosphere, claustrophobia, and passion needed. This is a beautifully disturbing movie. Kudos to Emilia Clarke for her compelling performance.  Bone Tomahawk (2015): Why on Earth did I wait so long to watch this Western horror film? More Patrick Wilson, more Zahn McClarnon, both tremendous pluses. Outstanding Kurt Russell content. Genuinely scary and less gratuitously gory than I’d feared.  Lake Mungo (2008): I’m so glad Mike Davis of The Lovecraft eZine recommended this film, which is a “mockumentary” about a family trying to come to turns with the drowning death of the daughter/sister. Are we witnessing how grief yields false hope and makes us vulnerable to charlatans, or is something supernatural taking place? This is a subtle work of slowly-mounting terror. Really delicious. Mike now tells me that if I loved this film, I need to read Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay, so I’m going to do that too!   

Click below for my recommendations from previous years. 

Read more …

Halloween 2020, Day 16

It’s film time! Every year about this time I think about good Halloween films (not necessarily horror movies, and definitely not lame slasher pictures, but suspenseful, atmospheric films that put a chill up the spine) that are “off the beaten path” – that is, films that are independent, foreign, direct to DVD or VOD, or somehow under promoted, and thus might easily slip under the proverbial radar. Not the classics. Not the usual suspects.

I’ve already made a separate post in the past with recommendations of Anton Yelchin’s Halloween-friendly films, so I won’t repeat those here.

Now I have a few new recommendations to add to my list, based on this past year’s viewing. (We accessed nearly all of these via Netflix or Amazon streaming.) Here they are in reverse chronological order:

Here are my 2019 recommendations:

You Should Have Left (2020): This is a very effective troubled-family-on-vacation film, packed with layered characterization and psychological unease. The incredible chemistry between Kevin Bacon and Avery Essex makes a genuinely moving father-daughter relationship the heart of this film. It really works. 
American Hangman (2019): This is a powerful thriller with a lot of meaning. Even though Donald Sutherland’s genius is undisputed, it’s still stunning to watch him here. I’ll use the official description so I don’t give more away than I should: “Two men are chained up in a basement. The captor has cameras aimed at them and is streaming it on the internet – turning it into a ‘trial’ on the held, retired judge’s last court case. The viewers become the jurors.”

The Color Out of Space (2019): This is an adaptation of one of my very favorite Lovecraft works, so I was braced for disappointment. Instead, this turned out to be one of our favorite films of the year. Sensitive, poignant, and genuinely scary, this film genuinely delivers on every level, including the pathos inherent to the story. I’m agnostic about Nic Cage – he doesn’t make or break a film for me – but his performance really worked here, as did that of the ever-capable Joely Richardson. It was delightful to see Q'orianka Kilcher and Tommy Chong in solid supporting roles, as well. Watch this one!    Doctor Sleep (2019): This is an adaptation of Stephen King’s sequel to The Shining. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s interesting and visually stunning and packed with able actors. (Five words: Zahn McClarnon as Crow Daddy. I can’t stress this enough.) I’m sure many would find this crazy, but if given the choice right now, I would rather watch Doctor Sleep again than watch The Shining again. So there.  In the Tall Grass (2019): Is this the best Stephen King (more accurately, Stephen King and Joe Hill) adaptation ever? No. Did I enjoy every minute spent lost in the grass maze with over-the-top Patrick Wilson? Yes. Yes I did. Your mileage may vary based on your level of Patrick Wilson appreciation. Mine is high.    Midsommar (2019): Yes, I know this isn’t an “under the radar” film, but we really loved it, so I wanted to take this opportunity to say so.  Ready or Not (2019): Dark comedies are often hit or miss for me, but this newlywed-hunted-by-her-evil-in-laws-in-Satanic-ritual romp is a definite hit, both clever and funny.Vivarium (2019): This science-fiction mind-game of a horror film messed me up and continues to haunt me, and I mean that in the best possible way. I knew nothing about it going into the film, and I think that was for the best. Highly recommended.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2019): This is a very well crafted adaptation of a novel by Shirley Jackson that I love. I was prepared to be critical, but the film thoroughly won me over with brilliant visuals and performances – Taissa Farmiga and Alexandra Daddario are phenomenal – and a screenplay that emphasizes how relevant this story remains. Read the book first, but then treat yourself to this movie.    Delirium (2018): This isn’t a great film, but it keeps the twists and turns coming, and it uses the unreliability of the protagonist’s hallucination-laden point of view to good effect. You really need to suspend your disbelief to swallow the “young man released from twenty years in a mental asylum into house arrest at his dead father’s mansion” premise, but once you’re there, the oppressive isolation and sense of unreality are worth your time.   The Wind: Demon of the Prairies (2018): This slow-burn Western plays on the horror and desperation of solitude – especially for settler women – on the frontier. Women’s points of view are highlighted here in a refreshing and chillingly effective way.
Lost Child (a.k.a. Tatterdemalion) (2018): We were really enchanted and moved by this work of “hillbilly Gothic” or Ozark folk horror. When a combat veteran returns home with the scars of war on her psyche, she encounters a boy in the woods. Is he a lost child in need of her help, or is he the tatterdemalion of local lore, a demon who wants to feed on her very life? This is a quiet, haunting, compelling story of pain, superstition, and the people who fall through the cracks. 
Voice from the Stone (2017): This is a classic old-school Gothic film of the “new governess for troubled child after mother’s death” mold, and it delivers all of the lush atmosphere, claustrophobia, and passion needed. This is a beautifully disturbing movie. Kudos to Emilia Clarke for her compelling performance.  Bone Tomahawk (2015): Why on Earth did I wait so long to watch this Western horror film? More Patrick Wilson, more Zahn McClarnon, both tremendous pluses. Outstanding Kurt Russell content. Genuinely scary and less gratuitously gory than I’d feared.  Lake Mungo (2008): I’m so glad Mike Davis of The Lovecraft eZine recommended this film, which is a “mockumentary” about a family trying to come to turns with the drowning death of the daughter/sister. Are we witnessing how grief yields false hope and makes us vulnerable to charlatans, or is something supernatural taking place? This is a subtle work of slowly-mounting terror. Really delicious. Mike now tells me that if I loved this film, I need to read Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay, so I’m going to do that too!   

Click below for my recommendations from previous years. 

Read more …

Halloween 2020, Day 15

(Artwork is “Coven” by 

Sadist-Ka.)

“Why do people go to these places, these places that are not for them?

“It must be that they believe in their night vision.  They believe themselves able to draw images up out of the dark.

“But black wells only yield black water.” 

― Helen Oyeyemi, White is for Witching (2009)

“These last months, I have learned that the acknowledged history that belongs to the daylight, that is not the only history. Turn over the stone and you will find another history, wriggling to escape.”

 ― Beth Underdown, The Witchfinder’s Sister (2017)

Relevant to both titles above, here is a reading recommendation list from Sublime Horror that’s perfect for the season: “Witches in fiction, a reading list chosen by Professor Marion Gibson.”

This is another seasonal reading list from Margaret Kingsbury at BuzzFeed News: “13 Witchy Books That Will Keep You Spellbound.”

Last, Erika W. Smith offers these suggestions for Cosmopolitan: “24 Witch Books That Belong on Your Bookshelf.”

And here’s one more quote for your day:

“And therein lies the most alarming aspect of the Salem witch crisis—if Salem is not aberrant then it cannot be comfortably consigned to the past. Within this slippery historical continuum of behavior, precedent, practice, and response, witchcraft in North American religious and intellectual life becomes less safe to think about. This lack of safety, this persistent reminder of the inhumanity that a small community and its learned and trusted government can show its own members, lingers among us, a threat of what wen could at any time still become.” 

 ― Katherine Howe, The Penguin Book of Witches (2014)  

Halloween 2020, Day 14

For today I have some great lists of Halloween-appropriate reading for younger readers as well as scary-story lovers of all ages.

First, from Angie Manfredi: “Shivers & Shudders: Scary Middle Grade Books.”

Second, from the Spooky KidLit site (“Celebrating the kids’ books that go bump in the night.”), two lists: “Celebrating Black Authors, Part 1″ and “Celebrating Black Authors, Part 2.”

One of the stellar books recommended in two of the lists above is The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown (2019), and here’s a haunting little taste:

Iris’s nightmares terrified her. 

Especially the ones when she couldn’t tell if she was
dreaming or not. When she was barely awake but not quite
asleep, frozen to her bed. Unable to move as monsters
crept from the shadows in her room, walking toward her
until she squeezed her eyes shut and hastily thought of a
prayer. 

“When that happens, the witch is riding your back,”
Daniel’s grandmother Suga would say every time she
recounted a dream. “To stop them, you have to put a
broom under your bed, so she’ll ride that instead and let
you go.”

Every one else wrote it off as another one of Suga’s old
superstitions, but Iris so wished her parents would let her
keep a broom under her bed, at least for one night. 

Instead, she just slept with a night-light, even though she felt too
old for that.
Her nightmares were what made her afraid of the
dark—well, not exactly afraid. She just didn’t like how
unsure the dark was….   

You can read a longer excerpt from The Forgotten Girl here. 

And here’s some great news! The Forgotten Girl is one of four books being adapted for television: “Scholastic Entertainment to Develop ‘JumpScare’ Kids Animated Horror Series With ‘Ben 10’ Team.”