The Evil Within »

Nancy Holder is the author of The New York Times bestselling Wicked series as well as Pretty Little Devils. She is a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in horror writing. She lives in San Diego, California.

In this sequel to New York Times bestselling author Nancy Holder's Possessions, Lindsay finds out that she, too, is possessed, and must return to creepy Marlwood Academy in order to rid herself of the spirit. Lindsay's afraid of what the spirit is telling her to do--kill Mandy! But the secrets of Marlwood go much deeper than Lindsay thought. Sometimes the girls who seem like enemies are actually on your side. And the voices you trust the most--the voices that come from within--are the ones that want you dead.

VOYA

Lindsay is forced to fight for her sanity when she has to return to the exclusive but sinister Marlwood Academy and all her former enemies in this haunting sequel novel of possession. She's already suffered the loss of her mother, as well as all the family finances due to her prolonged illness, watched another student, Kiyoko, die, and lived through her own nervous breakdown. Now she must pull herself together to fend off the spirit of Celia, another long-dead student. Marlwood initially had been a reform school so intent upon turning out "gentle women" that the director often had a doctor perform experimental lobotomies to make the girls more pliable. A deadly fire nearly a decade before left many troubled, often evil, spirits. In addition, her status as a scholarship student often makes Lindsay a target for the other wealthy and frequently spoiled students. Mandy, possessed by Belle, is both her tormentor and a longtime girlfriend of Troy, who has recently been hitting on Lindsay. This eerie, chilling tale is unusually well-written and hits its mark. The characters are alternately sympathetic and scary, and the two sets of love triangles between Troy, Mandy, and Lindsay, as well as the ghostly David, Belle, and Celia, deepen the depth and layers of this tale. The topic is timely and popular; teens will line up for it as a pleasure read. Reviewer: Ava Ehde