It Will Just Be Us

A terrifying new gothic horror novel about two sisters and a haunted house that never sleeps, perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

They say there's a door in Wakefield that never opens...

Sam Wakefield's ancestral home, a decaying mansion built on the edge of a swamp, isn't a place for children. Its labyrinthine halls, built by her mad ancestors, are filled with echoes of the past: ghosts and memories knotted together as one. In the presence of phantoms, it's all Sam can do to disentangle past from present in her daily life.

But when her pregnant sister Elizabeth moves in after a fight with her husband, something in the house shifts. Already navigating her tumultuous relationship with Elizabeth, Sam is even more unsettled by the appearance of a new ghost: a faceless boy who commits disturbing acts--threatening animals, terrorizing other children, and following Sam into the depths of the house wielding a knife. When it becomes clear the boy is connected to a locked, forgotten room, one which is never entered, Sam realizes this ghost is not like the others. This boy brings doom...

As Elizabeth's due date approaches, Sam must unravel the mysteries of Wakefield before her sister brings new life into a house marked by death. But as the faceless boy grows stronger, Sam will learn that some doors should stay closed--and some secrets are safer locked away forever.

Author: Jo Kaplan
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Published: 09/08/2020
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781643854496


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/29/2020

About the Author
Jo Kaplan writes and teaches in the Los Angeles area with much encouragement from her husband and two cats. Her fiction (as Joanna Parypinski) has appeared in Black Static, Nightmare Magazine, Haunted Nights edited by Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton, New Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark edited by Jonathan Maberry, Vastarien, the Nightscript series, and publishers such as Independent Legions. She teaches English and creative writing at Glendale Community College, where she also plays cello in the GCC orchestra.