Wither

"The woods watched. The trees held their breath, as if afraid to startle away the timid visitor to this secret place. But Abby felt no impulse to flee this quiet place. Just the opposite, in fact. She'd found a new secret place of her own." With the horrors hidden in Abby's secret place, Wither offers a promising debut horror novel from screenwriter J.G. Passarella.

Wendy Ward, student at Windale, Massachusett's Danfield College, is smitten with all things New Age and magical. When not at home (her dad is the president of the college, so it is a nice home) she whiles away her days in the Crystal Path, a shop full of tarot decks, books on witchcraft, and assorted herbs. Her life seems typical for an offbeat, careworn coed. But as readers learn from the other two primary characters of the novel, something evil is awakening in Windale. First, 8-year-old Abby MacNeil has some terrifyingly vivid dreams that lead her to discover the gravestones of legendary 17th-century witches. Then, Professor Karen Glazer, an unwed expectant mother, begins to see visions of goblins attacking her unborn child. As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear that Wendy's apparently harmless rituals have tapped into--and unleashed--the aged forces of evil that had been buried in colonial America. --Patrick O'Kelley