She Haunts Me Still
De Elizabeth
Dutton Publishing
Mallory Webb, nineteen, native Rhode Islander, theater major, is cursed. Her mother’s horrible death and the ghost of a woman long dead haunted Mallory’s life for years. Her best friend and her aunt helped Mallory get through the trauma. Now she has the chance to pursue her love for theater at her mother’s alma mater, the prestigious Shore Liberal Arts College. The theater program is hard and unforgiving. Nothing is guaranteed, even for a talented legacy student. Cast as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Mallory finds love and support from the play’s director, the charismatic Ezra Pierce. Yet Ezra harbors ugly family secrets, and Mallory’s understudy Saskia Garin seems shockingly familiar, yet reluctant to get anywhere near her.
The ghostly woman’s reappearance is a warning to Mallory that her past will not stay buried. Hidden documents show her family is somehow tied up in the college’s grisly history as a tuberculosis sanatorium and an ancient evil lurking behind the New England “Vampire Panic” of the 1890s. Ezra knows more than he’s able or willing to tell, but Mallory overcomes Saskia’s skittishness and they grow increasingly close. As the visions grow more and more disturbing, Mallory jeopardizes her friendships and her college career. It’s not long before she realizes that unless she solves the unsolvable mystery about her mother’s death, her family, and its curse she will lose her life—and evil will triumph.
She Haunts Me Still is a dark, atmospheric story of love, loss and redemption in the finest Gothic tradition. Mallory’s a sympathetic character the reader will cheer on as she struggles with her sexual identity and the forces pitted against her.
