By John Boyne (2013)
This House Is Haunted is a striking homage to the classic
nineteenth-century ghost story. Set in Norfolk, England 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.
From the moment Eliza rises the following morning, her every step seems dogged by a malign presence that lives within Gaudlin’s walls. Eliza realizes that if she and the children are to survive its violent attentions, she must first uncover the hall’s long-buried secrets and confront the demons of its past. (Publisher)
