It Will Just Be Us

Sam Wakefield, the narrator of this rich, dense supernatural thriller from the pseudonymous Kaplan (Dark Carnival writing as Joanna Parypinski), has returned to Wakefield Manor, the decaying family mansion on the edge of Virginia’s Great Dismal Swamp, after suffering a traumatic assault. Unfortunately for her, the house is filled with “the agonies of ghostly lives playing out on a dusty stage, the callous whispers of betrayal and the succor of revenge; creatures ineffable and unfamiliar... having come from either the distant past or the impenetrable future.” After Elizabeth, Sam’s heavily pregnant sister, comes to the manor following a fight with her husband, Sam begins having visions of a faceless boy who tortures small animals. Is he a manifestation of what her unborn nephew will become? Can she alter his destiny? Then the faceless boy leads her to a locked room that’s never entered. This well-crafted story unfolds smoothly, then bends back on itself as it creates disturbing distortions of reality. Horror fiction fans will also want to check this one out. Agent: Jill Marr Sandra Dijkstra Agency. (Aug.)