Parallel stories set in different times, one told in prose and one in pictures, converge as Ella unravels the mystery of the girl next door.

1982: Mary is a lonely orphan at the Thornhill Institute For Children at the very moment that it’s shutting its doors. When her few friends are all adopted or re-homed and she’s left to face a volatile bully alone, her revenge will have a lasting effect on the bully, on Mary, and on Thornhill itself.

2016: Ella has just moved to a new town where she knows no one. From her room on the top floor of her new home, she has a perfect view of the dilapidated, abandoned Thornhill Institute across the way, where she glimpses a girl in the window. Determined to befriend the girl, Ella resolves to unravel Thornhill’s shadowy past.

ISBN: 9781626726543

Out August 2017

MY THOUGHTS:

I love writing supernatural/paranormal thrillers, so when I saw this book, I knew I needed to request it for review purposes. In exchange, I agreed to provide my honest review.

The artwork in this graphic novel is amazing and creepy.  It adds an edge of unease that you want to see in books like these.  I loved the storyline too.  A bully of the extreme measure torturing the girl from the past, a burned out building, a silhouette in the window of the building that shouldn’t be there, a lonely girl with nothing to do but get in to trouble… perfect set-up for a scary story.  The entire format of this book is excellent and is aimed at middle-grade ages which is perfect considering the bullying problems seen all around today.

There are consequences to every action, and this book shows the darkest.  The story comes from the diary pages of the girl bullied in the past.  They are heart-wrenching and sad.  It’s twisty and dark and creepy and chilling… and could actually be based on real events.  Of course, it’s fiction…

 

…or, is it?

I gave this book: