by Peter Straub
First published 2007
Willy Patrick has built a career writing award-winning young adult fiction, but after a terrible accident, she questions whether her life is real. One day she finds herself pulled into a warehouse parking lot. She knows her daughter Holly is trapped inside the building. She feels compelled to rescue her. The problem is Holly died years ago. Meanwhile, author Timothy Underhill struggles with his new manuscript about a troubled woman when his dead sister April appears to him. Strange emails arrive from childhood friends who have been dead for decades. They want to tell him something urgent. When Willy and Timothy meet, they discover disturbing connections between Willy's loss and the characters in Timothy's book. The parallels suggest supernatural forces are manipulating their lives. They must work together to face the evil that surrounds them both.
Genres: mystery, fantasy, horror, supernatural, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Warehouse
352 pages · Paperback · Ballantine Books
Content warnings: death, mental-illness