Carville Academy of Arts – historic convent turned elite liberal arts college, and scene of four unfortunate deaths at the school’s North Tower. The school was forced to close, but ten years later is now reopening. Lottie Fitzwilliam is a new freshman attending on a field hockey scholarship. Friendly, athletic, and cheerfully outgoing, she also harbors a secret – one of the dead girls was from her hometown, and she is focused on solving the mystery of the deaths. Alice Wolfe, her new roomate, is a beautiful, standoffish goth girl. She too harbors a secret – she is constantly angry at the world, and has a hard time not succumbing to her pervasive violent thoughts. Once school begins, terrifying, strange occurrences start to plague the girls, who initially suffer in silence. However, after a rocky start to their relationship, they finally admit to each other the terror they’ve been experiencing when the incidents start to escalate. Lottie and Alice eventually set aside their differences and work together, along with their new friend Hafsah, to solve the mysteries of Carville Academy. Demonic possession, evil professors, soul splitting rituals and the tortured ghost of a long dead nun contribute to the horror as new deaths start to plague the school. The two enemies turned friends turned lovers soon find out that what or who is causing these deaths is much more complicated than they could have imagined.

What is interesting about this book is that while on the surface it’s a fun horror story written along the lines of the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, along the way it turns into a social commentary on women and anger, and the patriarchal vision of how women should act and what their place in society should be. 

Recommended for grades 7 and up.

Lee Remick, York Middle School, York