Saturday, March 19, 2011

THE RAISING by Laura Kasischke

Winner Announced!
OK, I have to admit, you guys had some scary stuff you shared with me! And some freaky weird stuff happen to you too! Thanks for telling me those stories, and sorry if it brought up some memories you might not have wanted to remember. Anyway, good old Random.org chose one of you and it happened to be one that did really kinda freak me out. It is...
Buttah!
Check out her story in the comments -- definitely a paranormal one!
Thanks to you all, and there are still more books coming, along with some two-fors and a three-some heading your way!



The Book: The Raising

Author: Laura Kasischke

Winner Will Be Announced Above

Today’s book is not like any that I’ve featured here yet. The Raising, by Laura Kasischke, which is brand new this month (and unfortunately, this means I haven’t had a chance to read it yet!), will have you on the edge of your seat. Noted as “part Stephen King, Part Donna Tartt, and wholly unforgettable” it is a gripping psychological thriller.

Review From Booklist:

Set in and around the campus of a fictional midwestern university, Kasischke’s eighth novel centers on a tragic car accident that has taken the life of beautiful, straight-A student Nicole. A year later, her sorority sisters are still up in arms and lay the blame for Nicole’s death on her boyfriend, Craig, who, they claim, is an irresponsible rich kid. But Craig’s roommate, Philip, who grew up with Nicole, has begun to think that she is not really dead and approaches his sociology professor, who is teaching a class on death, for help. Meanwhile, a witness to the accident has given up trying to straighten out the many erroneous newspaper accounts stating that Nicole was found covered in blood, for the girl she saw was not bleeding and not dead. Kasischke excels at depicting the psychology of the young and the traumatized even as she delivers a scathing indictment of the siege mentality of college administrators. In this literary page-turner, reminiscent of Donna Tartt’s Secret History (1992), the talented author inlays her academic novel with a touch of the supernatural and a deep sense of foreboding.

From everything I’ve read online this book is a crazy thriller and I’m almost scared to start reading it. But I’m dying to because it sounds so mysterious, and I want to know what really happens to Nicole. Is she alive? Is she dead? Does she just not want to go to Chemistry class? Was she being hazed so badly at her sorority, this was the only way she could think to get out of it alive … hahah, am I hilarious or what? If you want to find out, leave a comment here. Tell me something scary that happened to YOU in college or high school!

*****
Please leave a comment, and all those who do will qualify to win The Raising! I’ll draw the winner in a couple of days and I will post the winner’s name at the TOP of this post, in the highlighted area.


Come back and read about each book every day in March. Choose the books you'd like to win. Enter for any or ALL the books. Each entry will count as an entry toward the grand prize of winning ALL 31+ books at the end of the month. You can win the book of the day and still qualify to win ALL the books at the end of the month!


PLEASE be specific with your name in the comment section, and IF YOUR NAME is listed as the winner, you must email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com in order to claim your prize. Email me with your full name and address so I can have your book(s) sent to you.


Thanks, and GOOD LUCK! And come back tomorrow to see what book I’ll be giving away then too!


It’s MaNiC MoMMy’s March Madness Book-A-Day Giveaway! Read ALL the Rules and Details Here!


Sorry, only U.S. and Canadian residents only!

122 comments:

Amy R. said...

I will HAVE to buy this book if I do not win it. I love me a good mystery!

I still cannot explain what happened to me, but it still spooked me. Here goes:

About 5 years ago I was in Chicago (Barrington Hills, to be exact) visiting my then-boyfriend's parents. I'm sure you are aware of the legendary mobsters that used to rule Chicago (Baby Face Nelson was shot and killed on the street his parents live on.) I didn't think too much about all the weird stories he told me about his old house, until one night when I decided to take a shower. My ex and his brother were in their basement playing video games. His parents were on the top floor going to bed. I went up to the main floor of the house where my guest room was (with attached bathroom). I began undressing (cue teen-slasher theme music!) and turned the shower on. Then I heard my bedroom door creek open. Curious, I said through the bathroom, "Anyone there?" No reply. I stuck my head out and saw that my bedroom door was still shut. Now spooked, I turned the shower off and pulled my clothes back on. I thought maybe my bf was pulling a prank, so I checked the closet and even under the bed! I opened the bedroom door and peered out into the hallways. No one was on this floor at all. However, the 3 dogs (that were confined to the living room behind a baby gate) were going CRAZY! They kept staring at my general direction and were wildly barking. You know how dogs have that 6th sense? Yeah. I freaked out and ran down to the basement where I told the boys what happened. The little brother's response? "Oh, yeah, our house is haunted." LIKE IT WAS NO BIG DEAL.
I snuck into my bf's bedroom the remainder of my stay. And come early morning when I'd have to reappear in my own bedroom, I slept with the lights on!

Karen said...

Well, it certainly sounds interesting! I don't have anything really scary that happened to me then...but the Madonna-ish bob that I had then is really scary when I look back on it. ktmixon315

Melissa Braun said...

I *heart* Donna Tartt so I am dying to read this - love intelligent thrillers!!

The scariest thing that happened to me was when I got locked in the science wing of my catholic high school at night. I was there for play practice and had to run to my locker. When the lights went out and the lock clicked shut, everything looked and sounded so different from the daytime. The statues of the saints were particularly ominous. Poor St. Joseph has had a bad rep with me ever since....

IandSsmom said...

This books sounds great! I'm lame (or it has been too many years!) I can't think of anything scary that happened in high school or (what little) college I had! I mean some guy came in a stabbed a kid in the bathroom but that didn't happen to me and far as I know I wasn't near it!! Now when me and a friend visited this guy at college once I dropped my car keys down a manhole and we had no way to get them out and they were are ride home and a blizzard was coming- That was a little scary!!!

Anonymous said...

I was in a head on collision the day after my high school graduation. The person the hit the vehicle I was riding in was someone I knew. I smashed into the windshield ending up with a major cut on my forehead and my radius and ulna broken. The driver of the truck I was in had a seriously broken jaw. While waiting for the EMTs, I heard people talking that the other driver was dead and they were saying his name. It was horrible.

Carla said...

This book sounds wickedly delightful. Love a good thriller when it's happening to someone other than me.
It was the 70's and the only way home for the weekend from UW-O was hitchhiking. I thumbed a ride with a nice looking guy and ended up on a dead end road where he proceeded to tell me "I know you want this."
With much pleading and promises to call him I was released.
The end of my hitchhiking career AND his phone never rang!

Jessica said...

Hmm nothing scary happened to my in college. At least not that I can think of. I'm still in college right now. I guess the only thing I can really think is one night I thought someone was following me home on campus. Thank God no one was. At least if they were they didn't get into my house.
Thanks!
-Jessica

Beverly Victoria said...

In high school, a group of friends and I would go driving around the area. There was a wooded spot, down in a valley, that was secluded and tales of "melonheads" creeping up on kids who were parking there abounded. Not that we believed the tales, they were mostly used to scare the younger kids, but we were driving there and recounting the stories. The weather wasn't the best, and the road coming out of the valley had gotten a little icy. My girlfriend's car was this little AMC Gremlin that didn't have much power, let alone traction. We got stuck in the valley, in the pitch dark, after having been telling the stories about the "melonheads". Then the car died and she couldn't get it started right away. So, needless to say, we were all a bit frantic. Yes, she got the car restarted, and we were able to find the "back way" out, which is even creepier than going up the icy road, but we got out, and had a nice laugh about it.

Not too scary now, but at the time, it wasn't a lot of fun.

That said, I love these types of books and would really enjoy getting the bejezus scared out of me again!

Meg said...

One night in college I was leaving the mall late in the evening and in the reflection of the doors in front of me two suspicious looking HS boys closing in behind me from both sides. Fortunately, my paranoid bf had given me a barely-legal pocket knife for my birthday, which I casually took out of my purse, flicked open & closed for all to see, and then put in my pocket. Like magic, those boys? Suddenly decided they weren't done shopping.

Lilianarenee said...

In High School I was part of our dance company. We had a lot of night shows that ended super later. It was our first night of holiday show and I had to run and grab something from a different classroom. Little did I know that classrooms teacher was obsessed with chuckie and had plenty of dolls in the room. But they also had a large one about two and a half feet high behind their desk. When I walked behind it caught me so off guard I screamed and ran out without whatever I went in there for.

jdstec said...

sounds like a real page turner. When I was in the 10th grade, a friend and I went to a fraternity (local college campus) haunted house on halloween. I'm not sure why, because I hate to be "shock" scared (things jumping out at you) and it was one after another! I have never visited a "haunted house" since.
jdstec

Lesley Davis, Esq said...

The only really scary thing that happened to me was the dumb ass that I dated in college. Thankfully I wised up & ditched him! Sounds like a great book!

jpetroroy said...

Hm....nothing hugely scary. I do remember a burglar crime wave in my neighborhood that terrified me, though

DaphneSFL said...

2 days before my graduation from college, I had just pulled into our garage at the end of our very long driveway, and was getting my cap and gown out of the back of my car. As I was standing up I saw a man standing in the garage with a knife. I couldn't move, I couldn't scream, I was frozen. He told me to give him my purse, watch, and earrings, and I did. I kept telling him not to hurt me, and my dog was in the house going nuts because he could see what was going on outside. Then the guy paused and looked at me, and I was terrified that he was going to do something...else. I told him that my parents were going to be home in the next 5 minutes (lie) and that if he didn't want to go to jail he needed to leave. He took off and I called the cops.

Totally off topic, but, Barrington Hills isn't Chicago, not even close. Chicago is Chicago, not the surrounding burbs. That's a pet peeve of mine, and I know it's petty, but it is :)

Anonymous said...

Some guys that I thought were my friends ended up wrestling me to the ground, tied up my arms and legs. They placed me on the elevator, pressed all the buttons and left me there. The next person that came on the elevator helped me get untied. I left the dorm for the evening and went for a long walk. My "friends" didn't understand why I was mad at them when I got back. "They were just having a little fun".

Anyways, thanks for the great book giveaways!

-Donna W.

Nanette said...

This book sounds really interesting! I don't usually read "thrillers" but now is a good time to start! As far as anything "scary" happening to me...I can't say I have a story for ya. Although, when I was in highschool the "Green River Killer" was in full swing. They hadn't even come close to catching him. I drove by the Green River almost daily and even an area where I remember them finding a body or two. It was REALLY scary knowing he was in our area and I never went anywhere alone. It was always in the back of our minds (and on the news.) I'm so glad they finally caught that creep! Anywho...have a great weekend, Manic!! :)

Ally said...

In college I lived alone and had terrible neighbors. They used to ask me for money all the time and as I kept saying no they kept getting worse. They started by breaking into my car, and then slashing all my tires. The last straw was when they set my building on fire. I was terrified they were going to really hurt me so I move out.
Ally N

janabailey said...

I don't have anything super scary. One time in college I had a friend from high school coming to visit me. She was in a bad car accident and I couldn't get in touch with her for a few hours. She was fine and my boyfriend went to go get her and bring her to my sorority house. So for a few hours I was scared and worried.

Jana B

Carie Casey said...

I've pretty much blocked out all of those years. So no scary stories. This book sounds so good. I'm gonna have to check it out. I have such a long reading list thanks to your blog. I appreciate it since I'm always looking for new books to read.

Clynnc

Logan Collins said...

I love psychological thrillers!
VERY EXCITING
I worked for the football team in college and we had practice in the spring at 5 am. I had gone out the night before with some of my girlfriends and decided it was stupid to go to sleep for an hour before practice so I stayed up all night. After practice I was driving home for Spring Break and fell asleep. I hit an 18 wheeler going 75 miles an hour down the highway. IT was terrifying. I should have died but did not have a scratch. The car was totaled but nothing happened to me. I am so thankful! The police officer said, "If God's not going to punish you then I won't either." :)

Melissa said...

For the life of me I can't really think of anything scary that happened to me in high school or college. The closet thing that comes to mind is my tire blew out when I was on the freeway. No cars were around me and I was able to make it to the shoulder without hitting any other cars. Melissa Rem

Melissa said...

For the life of me I can't really think of anything scary that happened to me in high school or college. The closet thing that comes to mind is my tire blew out when I was on the freeway. No cars were around me and I was able to make it to the shoulder without hitting any other cars. Melissa Rem

Amy R. said...

@DaphneSFL - As a fellow suburb-gal, I know Barrington Hills isn't Chicago, however I was worried some people wouldn't know where that was, so I said Chicago so they can imagine the general location (plus it was a useful supporting detail in my story since I had to mention the old mobster stories). I've been to that city many times and am quite aware how long it takes to get to the city from all the surrounding burbs. ;)

BrendaBMarion said...

This book sounds great--I loved the Secret History! Have you read Her Fearful Symmetry? Also a good modern day ghost story. Ok, here's my scary story from college...my boyfriend and I went camping for the first time...since he lived in a fraternity and I in a sorority, we had no real options of spending the night together (what college kid has money for a hotel??) so we decided to go camping, which was actually really fun and a beautiful setting way out in the middle of nowhere. So when, late at night, we heard noises, we started to panic--was it a bear? a crazed woodsman-y killer who preyed on college co-eds?? We could tell that it was several people, they were rummaging through our cooler, whooping and hollaring, we thought for sure they were high and meant to do us bodily harm. Long story short, it was some of my boyfriend's fraternity brothers who knew we were camping and were just punk'ing him since they were the ones who suggested the camping locale in the first place. Worst first time ever, let me tell you.

Tanya Quilts in CO said...

I went on a date to see Silence of the Lambs which was followed by a dark walk back to my dorm...Talk about scared and freaked out!

EBrowning said...

The only scary think I can think of (other than my 90's hair and wardrobe choices!) is that there was a body found in the park across from my high school. I didn't see it but it had everyone freaked out for a while.

Casey said...

sounds like an exciting read... scary thing for me... curled bangs! ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

Dani In Chicago said...

This sounds like a great book!

dani patarazzi

Sherry Bercu said...

I went to University of Portland in Oregon in 1989, the same year Westley Allen Dodd-the serial killer(the one who molested & killed children) was in Vancouver, WA--( this is right next to Portland). It happened that my boyfriend and his friend were in the park playing basketball when they decided to take a trail from the park to the corner store. On this trail they saw to kids playing. These 2 children happened to be found murdered in this location not to long after my boyfriend and friend had gone by them. Next day there were composite sketches in the Oregonian paper that looked identical to my boyfriend and his friend, the the cops pulled them both from work for questioning. Did I mentioned I was living with my boyfriend. I was so scared that I was living with a serial killer I could not sleep, I could not leave in fear of being killed-I had no idea what to do. Ended up they were not the killers -but later when they finally got caught Westley Allen Dodd--in his confession he said that 2 older boys/men had interrupted his plan and that is why he had to kill them there. These 2 boys/men were my boyfriend and friend and so they had to have walked right by the murder who was hiding in the woods. This story gives me chills because you just never now who is hiding waiting to strike and you never know who you can really trust. Still freaks me out to this day.

Ready To Be A Momma said...

love mysteries, hoping I can win this one!
qweska8402

Krystal said...

My husband and I got married in college, and bought our house a month later. 3 months after we moved in someone had broken into our house and taken everything! We lost all of our dating and honeymoon pictures. It took me a long tim to feel comfortable at home and to be able to sleep at night.
kndyer

Denise said...

In college, heading back to Boston from upstate New York after Christmas break, the roads were a little icy and I lost control of my car on the highway, swerved a few times, slammed into the guardrail and ended up back in the middle of the highway. I was uninjured, and by some miracle didn't hit anyone else or cause any accidents behind me. But it was still scary as hell, and after I had moved my car over to the shoulder, it went up in flames and the fire department had to come out.

Tracy Lynn said...

a piece of a motorhome flew off and almost crashed into the car i was in. that was scary. AND i was in a sorority. which was also scary.

Jules said...

This looks great-my kind of book!

Lindsay Elizabeth said...

High school is always scary, but try sitting on red jell-o during lunch because your friends are jerks!! 20 years later I'm still not over it!

Lisa justus said...

I love psychological thrillers!!!
I used to live in the mountains of Virginia. When hurricanes hit the Carolinas or coast of Virginia we sometimes got heavy rain and high winds, but once in college a hurricane blew all the way inland hitting even the mountains with hurricane force winds, spawning tornados etc. I rode a bus to campus everyday rather than drive 2 hours a day. I couldn't afford my own apartment. The weather got worse as we got closer to campus. The bus was getting blown all over the road. A car swerved in front of us and the bus driver lost control. I was the most scared I have ever been thinking we were going to crash. The bus driver got the bus back under control and we made it to campus just in time to find out classes were canceled. We waited out the storm,and then headed home through all the storm damage and wrecks.

Ronit said...

The book sounds excellent. I can't think of any spooky/scary stories. I must have blocked them all!! Ronit W

Juliet Farmer said...

i love thriller/mysteries!
as for something scary that happened to me in college, a friend of mine was date raped.

Jenn3128 said...

My parents divorced while I was in high school and I ended up living with my dad. Who turned totally looney after my mom left.
My girlfriends would come over after school and he would preach to us that he was now a prophet and got to decide which of us got to go to heaven and which to hell.
It made high school miserable, my friends stopped coming around and I was trapped in a house with a crazy man. He and I don't have any contact anymore.

Carly said...

My high school and college years were pretty boring. The scariest thing that happened to me was when my best friend ran away during my senior year. She disappeared and everyone was searching for her. She did end up contacting me but remained a runaway until she was 18. Scary for me and her family.

Carly Haynes

Anonymous said...

A little boring as far as scare factor...but when you are 18 it feels scary. I owned an old beetle and was gonna drive home for a weekend. Went to check my oil, cause I was an obedient child still, only to find someone had broken into my engine and stolen my alternator. Police came, lifted fingerprints and had to tow it away to be fixed. Daddy came and saved me. Boring I know, but I was afraid in daylight!

Sasse1Susan

LBDJ said...

Nothing too scary to recount from HS or College. But I am a college administrator and would love to read about the "seige mentality" of myself and my coworkers! :)

equinn726 said...

This book sounds like a page turner!
Scary thing that happened to me in college: I am a VERY sound sleeper. I sleep through storms, racket, television, you name it. When I was in college, I lived with 2 other girls in a house right next to a bar. My roommates were going out and I needed to work early the next morning so I stayed in. Our house was old and in addition to the locks on the front door, each of our bedrooms came equipped with a deadbolt when we rented the house we thought that was funny. For whatever reason, that night I chose to lock the deadbolt to my room (thank goodness!). When I woke up to go to work the next morning, I found my house TRASHED. Furniture turned over, food and crap everywhere. Toothpaste all over the bathroom, goldfish crackers in our fish tank. I didn't hear a thing.

After the bar that night, one of my roommates went to her boyfriend's house and the other decided to invite a coupe of guys she met that night back to the house. Apparently she passed out and the guys took it upon themselves to 'redecorate' our house. While we don't think my roommate was assaulted, it was still the scariest thing that has ever happened and I'm extremely grateful I decided to lock my door that night.

Bridget said...

There was a creepy guy in one of my classes, always wanted to sit by me, brush against me, follow me. Sounds pretty mild next to some of the other comments!
Iambtinrb

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking this will be awesome scary to read!

Let's see...

Back in jr high, I didn't live far enough to ride the bus, but it was a long walk home where I had to walk on the service road for a major street in out town. Well everyone else I knew around me was bused, so I had to walk alone. One day after school a guy pulled up along side of me in an old gray rusted car. He popped his headout (he was a beginning to bald redhead with a big birthmark on his head) and asked if I wanted a ride home. I declined and kept walking...he kept up along side of me. Came up again and was all like, "come on" kept following me. I was never so afraid of anything in my life. He wouldn't leave me alone! I was only 13/14 years old. I ended up cutting through the grass and made a run across the main road (hwy) to the opposite side of traffic and ran the rest of the way home!

My mom called the cops.

Laura Kay
anovelreview

Amanda Leigh said...

This book sounds intriguing. I hope I win it!

Nothing really scary happened to me in high school or college. Except that when I was in college I tried to get my hair cut like Reese Witherspoon's in Sweet Home Alabama and I ended up with Carol Brady's haircut instead. YIKES!

- Amanda Leigh

kristinrose said...

Both of my scary times involve blizzards...1) on a ski trip on a bus from minnesota to montana in high school. There was a blizzard going on as we were winding up a mountain on an icy narrow road with no guardrails & they played a movie about a group of skiers getting lost in the mountains & having to resort to canibalism. OR 2) being in an airplane my 1st time when i was 19 & finally taking off after 2 delays due to blizzards. It was too windy & snowy to land in chicago so the plane circled over lake michigan for an hour. Everytime i looked out the window i saw us plumeting into the frozen water.

Colleen Turner said...

I haven't had anything too scary happen, but when I was in early high school...and stupid....I let a lady into my house to use the bathroom supposedly and she was in there a long time. When my mom and dad came home they were talking about a woman they saw walking down the street that had been a patient at the psych hospital my dad worked at. It was the same woman I let in the house! I wanted to slap myself when I realize something very bad might have happened!

Anonymous said...

Freshman year of undergrad, friends and I explored Bryce, a condemned, abandoned mental hospital in tuscaloosa, AL, at midnight after viewing several horror films in a row. we sneaked in and found many creepy, evil-looking things, but the scariest of all was that we heard LAUGHTER and what sounded like rocks being thrown in the halls above us.
--Gen K.

Kirsten said...

What isn't scary about high school? Wearing 3 PAIRS of socks on top of each other OVER your jeans? Scary Shit.
Kirsten R.

Tiffany Drew said...

I have the book on my I-NEED-THIS-BOOK-NOW list!

The scariest thing that happened to me was when I was driving home around midnight one night from work on the highway and my headlights turned off. Then all the interior lights turned off, and the radio. Then just as I made it to an exit ramp my car died and I slowly slid down the ramp and the car wouldn't go back on. I had to get it towed. It was scary!

Melissa said...

That sounds interesting. Scariest thing that happened in high school is riding with some friends and a passenger in another car pretended to point a gun at us. Surprisingly, I don't live in the ghetto...just suburbia so it was quite the shock!

Kristi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kristi said...

've been dying to read this but haven't had the money.

The scariest thing? I had a psycho boyfriend and someone told him I had cheated on him (I hadn't) and he kicked in my apartment door with a loaded shotgun. My friend had warned me that he was on his way and I ran out my back door just as he was kicking in the front.

After he couldn't find me he did the same thing to my friends house and he held a knife to her neck because he thought she knew where I was.

The police found shotgun shells all over the floor in my house. They couldn't find him for a week and I was too afraid to go home. He went to jail and I still have the occasional nightmare even though it was back in 1995.

Kristi Marie W.

Nearl said...

Got to read this book! Not my normal read but sounds interesting. Honestly nothing to scary happen to me directly in college. However I lived on the 12th floor of the dorms, which was also the highest floor and there were a few girls that jumped out the windows around finals week. I didn't know any of them personally but it was scary to think that college and the pressures of it had that affect on girls I saw everyday.

Bee said...

Once, in my freshman year, I was walking down the main street of my campus late at night, and a guy started following me. I was all by myself, so I called my friends at the apartment I'd just left, but no one had a car there, and I couldn't walk back to them without 1)walking directly toward the guy and then 2)walking down a sparsely populated street. So I just had to keep walking until someone with a car came home and could pick me up. Terrifying.

-Bee H.

Angie M Parks said...

When I was in college, I dated this guy that was crazy! Needless to say things between us got out of hand and it ended with me locked in the girls bathroom and calling my dad to come to the school to help me out. My dad was pissed and called the cops.

Becki*** said...

Maybe I am still lucky!

Christine in NJ said...

OHHHHH! I have not read a scary book SINCE college! Sounds fantastic... but I'm not sure I could handle it! HaHa...

So scary in college... Hurricane Gloria! We taped up all our windows and then everyone had to sleep on the floor in the hallways AWAY from the windows. Started as a FUN party night - yet we all ended up terrified!... I left the next morning with my car packed with friends and headed to the safty of Mom & Dads!

Thanks MaNiC!
Christine

Terri said...

I can't think of anything scary from high school or college...maybe that's why I like to read so much. Got to get my excited somewhere.

Terri M. in Phoenix

Books & Reviews said...

I would LOVE to get my book loving hands on this book!

I really don't have anything scary but --- when my grandmother passed away, I was kneeling at her coffin and a woman dressed in all black, kneeled down next to me. She placed her hand on my back and told me, that my grandmother was happy and in peace. When, I went to sit back down with my mom, I asked her who that lady was, since I didn't recognize her. My mom told me no one had gone up to me adn she had been looking at me the entire time.

buttah said...

During college, my husband and I rented a small house that his parents bought and renovated. My husband was working nights at the time, so I would stay up, usually studying, and wait for him to get home most of the time, which was usually around midnight or later. Story had it that the elderly woman that owned the home passed away in it, and her children let the house sit for about 5 years and it was in disrepair when his parents bought it. I have had several experiences in the past with paranormal activity, ghosts if you will, and am a firm believer! Well, on several occasions I had heard mumbling coming from our bedroom while I was sitting in the living room. I would also hear footsteps in the hall way (there were hardwood floors) or someone bumping into the walls while walking down the hall. Our dog would go bananas and would stare in that direction and just low growl. Of course this would get my heart pounding! So I mentioned the activity to my husband who of course was not a believer of ghosts and would say that I was full of shit! Needless to say this went on for a few years, and progressively got worse. Our dog had gotten to the point where he would come running out of our bedroom as if something was trying to get him and he would turn around and bark like crazy in the direction of our room. He was even literally chewing a hole in the front door (wooden) while we would go to work or class. He was being terrorized while we were gone. So one day while my husband was home, the doorbell rang. Open the door, no one was there. Ok...a little strange, but he blows it off. It happened several days in a row. Then the ultimate happened, we had just gone to bed one night, and we heard a noise in the living room like paper being crumbled in someone's hands. He sat up and asked if I heard it too...duh! He went to investigate and couldn't figure out what the noise was. The next day I was in the living room and was cleaning off the desk where our computer was, and grabbed an old pharmacy bag that a friend had written me a note on and I crumbled it up to throw away. Husband came flying into the living room and said "that's it! That's noise we heard last night!" So I did it again and sure enough! By then, husband was freaked out and called his mom and told her what had been going on. Come to find out, his Aunt did "excercisms" and she came to investigate the house. She said there was definitely a spirit in the house but didn't feel that it was malicious. She blessed the house and several crucifixes that we put over the doorways. All activity stopped from that day forward! Needless to say, husband is a firm believer now, and doesn't think my previous ghost encounters are bullshit! 100 percent honest to God truth!

Michelle Mierczewski said...

No scary story for me, my life is simple and boring, hence why I love a good read.

karenk said...

thanks for the chance to read this fabulous novel....can't think of any thing 'scary' to write about

karenk
kmkuka at yahoo dot com

Hawkzter said...

I had seen this book in the list before the contest started and I will have to read this one regardless of whether I win it here or not.

A scary thing that happened to me in school was having an unidentified man follow our school bus around from stop to stop while in elementary school. Law enforcement was contact and luckily nothing happened to any of the children. Still scary to think of someone to be so brave to do such a thing.

Anonymous said...

My only scary story was driving home from NIU in Dec and my car braeking down in the middle of nowhere (just before Rte 47) I didn't have a cell phone and was so scared that someone would kill me I laid down flat so that they thought the car was abandoned. THank goodness the police came before I froze to death.
I love a good mystery. Patti COle

Chelsea Hoffman said...

sounds like an interesting story. i think i'd like to read it.

Chelsea Hoffman said...

Crap! and the most scary thing to happen to me... I am horrified of the dark, and one time at work, (i worked in a restaurant) my coworkers locked me in the freezer and turned off the lights. I cried and left when I got out. Scariest thing ever.

Alli said...

While in high school...I was studying or reading in my room late one night, and my bedroom happened to be the only room in the house whose window faced front (ground floor-ranch style house). My parents were in bed sleeping already. I suddenly heard a noise outside my window...oh, did I mention we lived out in the country where there is never ANYONE? But nope - I definitely heard footsteps in the rocks outside my bedroom window. Then, I heard a voice saying, "Alli...Alli!" Needless to say, I was freaked out!! (I did not have any nighttime suitors that would sneak around my house, after midnight on a weeknight especially!) I ran into my parents' room and roused my dad out of bed. He grabbed his gun (we lived in Wyoming, ok?!) and headed towards the front door, still only in his underwear (funny, in the midst of all the spookiness!) He opened the front door, and there was...my younger brother!! He had gone out to get something from his truck, and had found himself locked out when he tried to come back inside! Oh, yes, my parents had changed the locks that day and my brother had either not received his new key, or forgot it inside! He was trying to get me to let him back in without waking my parents!! Once my heart slowed back down it really was a humorous story.
Anyway - this one does NOT sound so humorous...but does sound GREAT! Cannot wait to read it!!
Alli M. Jones

Mom'sLove said...

I love trillers! I was living at CSUN, Northridge during the earthquake in Jan 1994. Scary enough.
Aaammmaaannndddaaa

Erin Goff said...

I really can't remember any good scary stories from high school or college... maybe I've blocked them out :) This sounds like a great book though!

CariLynn said...

The scariest thing that's happened to me took place a handful of summers ago when I worked as a camp counselor. I put my fingers into the hole of a roll of toilet paper to get it down from the window sill...and touched something crunchy. The next thing I knew there was a spider running up my bare arm. CariLynn

LindsayK918 said...

After a year and a half of doing our best to ignore the sketchy house and neighbors next to my college house (filled with 8 naive, young girls) the cops finally came and hauled them all away- it was a meth house!!

Hope C said...

Something scary in high school...one hot summer night some of our guy friends snuck in one of the open windows and threw water on us girls sleeping, none of us could figure out why we kept waking up wet .... Twilight Zoneish until we figured out!

Corey~living and loving said...

hmmmmm.....my memory is horrible. I just remember hating to be alone at night when I was that age. I would sometimes have to go turn the water off in the garden late at night...and hated the tall corn....in the dark. eeekkk.....

Margie said...

I can't remember anything that was really scarey at that time. But to me it was always scary when I thought I was not prepared for a test. I know this doesn't seem scary to anyone else, but it's the best I can do!!

Sarah S. said...

The scariest thing about my college was the fact that if you turned left rather than right out of the gate you entered the most run down area of the city imaginable. Nothing actually scary happened to me unless you want to count the time the girls and I headed to the local planned parenthood on what must have been free pregnancy test day...dude we just wanted free condoms...

Sarah S.
sslinsky@hvc.rr.com

Dolly said...

The scariest thing that happened to me in high school was when I wrecked my first car (slid on ice & ran into a guard rail). I couldn't move my legs for about 10 minutes, and I thought I was paralyzed.

Wendi fr Louisiana said...

In college, I was (past tense, yes) a hot number and dated quite a bit. One young man got serious about our relationship pretty fast and when he proposed I laughed. He was embarrassed and proceeded to trash the hall of my dorm and carved the name of my new boyfriend on my room door. Well, my turnaround rate was quick! Needless to say he was kicked out of school but continued to stalk me for a while. That was frightening but I guess he got bored and eventually quit! Ah, the good old days (being skinny)...........

Wendi fr Louisiana

TinaPow said...

In high school while out TPing houses with the girls from my softball team one summer, we ended up scared out of our minds. On our way to one house on a warm summer night with the top down on the jeep, we slowed down turning down a road and head a LOUD scream from behind the car. When we turned to see what it was some guy dressed in a wolf costume jumped out of the bushes and started chasing our car. To make matters worse when we headed home for the night, pulling into the drive way we saw what our hysterical minds thought was a dead body in the driveway, we all ran screaming straight into the house....it turned out to me a neighbor passed out drunk in the drive way. Needless to say, we did not attemp any more TPing events that summer!

BRN2SHOP9 said...

In high school i tripped over a back pack strap and tried to maintain my blance, but couldnt and i went down on both knees in front of the entire class of 30 and the teacher i hated.

Nicole Marie said...

I was an RA in college... so scary things happened pretty much every time I was on duty. The scariest one, though, was when a high school recruit was staying in our building. My co-worker and I ended up finding her passed out on the bathroom floor. We couldn't wake her up and had to end up calling the police and our campus security. She still wasn't awake by the time the ambulance took her away. Because of anonymity I sill don't know what happened to her to this day.

NicoleMG from CT

Kimmi said...

I had a perm that left me looking like Peter Frampton. And if that's not scary, I don't know what is.

Katrina Swiney said...

The first memory that comes to mind is when I was working as a hostess at a bar/restaurant when I was 19. One weekend in the spring, there was a large party celebrating a 40th birthday party. Being a bar, there were quite a few people who were drinking. I was being constantly hit on and grabbed by a man at least twice my age who was asking me things like how old I was and my phone number, etc. I was trying to jovially play it off, but he kept coming up to me until the point where I reached a level of extreme discomfort. I told my boss (the owner) and he actually had the bouncer forcibly remove this guy. The guy stumbled back in an hour later, slurring, yelling and all that. When I finished my shift that night, I had to be walked to my car for my "safety". It seriously creeped me out.

CAnative said...

I remember waking up in the middle of the night with the blinds of my bedroom moving and banging around. I thought someone was breaking in but it ended up being an earthquake!

Nicole

AisforRandom said...

neato

Meredith said...

The scariest thing I remember is coming home from school alone and a neighbor was in the house. He had broken in but took off like a shot when I turned up. Every time I saw him after that I was scared.
~MommyMer

Susan @ The Book Bag said...

ooooo - I am so excited to read this book! I absolutely LOVE Kasischke's book The Life Before Her Eyes - one of the few books that I have read over and over again. And the movie is awesome too!!

When I was in younger, a bunch of us were at a sleepover and we were watching The Birds by Hitchcock. A few of the girls slipped outside and at just the right moment, they started pounding on the windows. Wow! We all jumped and screamed and I ended up in someone's lap. It scared the s*** out of all of us! And then we laughed our heads off!

Thanks for your giveaways!
Suzebomb

Movie Passenger said...

Really, really want to read this one. Read In A Perfect World not long ago and it was very good.

Scariest thing: while I was renting a room in an elderly lady's house while in college, I kept hearing strange noises in the kitchen next to my room late at night. I finally worked up the courage to investigate and a massive RAT brushed against my foot before disappearing into the pantry. The rat was eventually trapped, but I still moved out.

Siobhan F. said...

I'll keep it short (but not so sweet). A friend in college liked me more than I him, and started stalking me. I didn't even want to go to class in the middle of the day. Luckily I worked w/ campus police, so he eventually stopped.

Michelle said...

Umm something scary... in college I was making out with a guy sometime late at night on the grassy part of campus by our beach and a cop turned his lights on us before we skeedaddled FAST to avoid further problems....

BuffyDee IN HAWAII said...

Still checking in and commenting while on vacation in HAWAII!!! Love the books!

Homestead Jen said...

Well, this was more scary for the people with me than for me. I was waiting to be picked up from a high school football game (I was in the band), and my step-dad was really late. When he finally showed up, I crossed a drive to get to the car and another car sped out of nowhere right past me. I guess it looked like it was going to hit me. All I remember was being really, really peeved, and punching his trunk as he sped away.

My friends thought I was toast. It sounds so boring when I write it, but my friends would not stop mentioning it. Like I said, scary for them.

Unknown said...

Boring... but freaky... my wallet was stolen during Christmas season at the mall while I was working. Someone got into our back room. I spent HOURS canceling everying and found my checkbook and a few other items in the trash...

Kristin j said...

I was in college living in my sorority house where I slept in an open air dorm with about 20 other girls. One night while lying in bed I kept seeing strange shadows in the corner of the room. I got it in my head that the shadows were from bats. I was terrified to fall asleep and too scared to get out of bed to check it out so I just laid there with the covers over my head all night. It turns out it was nothing but my imagination freaked me out one night!

kathygold9778 said...

Hmmm...I can't remember anything scary from HS or college but one night after my husband and I moved into our first house (first time either of us wasn't living with our parents) we decided we were going to watch The Blair Witch Project during which a pipe exploded in one of the walls of our house....we completely lost it! LOL!

kathygold9778

LynnBelo said...

This looks SO good!

The scariest thing that happened to me in college was that I had a stalker the first sememester Freshman year.

Anonymous said...

This book sounds so good. I hate scary movies but love a good thriller book! I cant really say anything too scary happened to me in high school or college, like the characters in the book I grew up and went to college in the midwest. The difference being, nothing exciting ever happened!
Angelini197

DaphneSFL said...

@Amy R: I totally know what you mean. I know it's petty, but, it's just one of those quirks that make me special. Or nuts. I always meet people and they ask where you're from (Chicago) and they say they are and I say "oh really, where?" and I get "Bannockburn" or "Lake Villa." I don't even know where those places are, lol!

BethC said...

When I was in HS a group of friends and I were walking to a friends house. We were walking through this park/wildlife area by the river, after dark. We were stopped by some cops asking us a bunch of questions. They then offered to give us a ride to our friends house in the police cruiser. But, we didn't know why all of this was happening. We later found out that a classmate of ours had been found murdered and her body had been found under a bridge by the river. It was by far one of the scariest thing to happen to me in HS and actually one of the scariest in life!

MaggieDu said...

Whew! Thought I missed it being gone all weekend.

In high school, the night before my family moved from Delaware to Texas, my sisters and our best friend piled into our car. We were driving the backroads, reminising about the crazy things we had done over the years. As we were driving around we started laughing about all the crazy legends from the area, including one about the "Devil's Tree". So we went on a hunt to find this tree.

Legend has it that back in the colonial days, a woman delivered a stillborn baby here and that as soon as the baby was born, it was taken by the roots of tree, never to be seen again. This apparently is also where unwed mothers buried their babies. Supposedly you can hear the babies crying as you go by the tree.

Well we drove by the tree, completely creeped out, windows down and very very slowly. Nothing of course happened, but we were still creeped out. About 30 minutes later, on another road, a black cat crossed the road, which we all screamed about then laughed for our silliness, but the scariest part was when we turned down a foggy road and nearly hit a pedestrian in a floppy brown hat and dressed like a vagabond from the earlier part of the century. Suffice to say after that we went back to our house, totally creeped out.

Jeffie Laura said...

I'm definitely adding this to my wishlist, if I don't win it.

I can't think of anything super scary.

Deb said...

This isn't really scary-scary, but more scary-cool. I lost my class ring when I was a sr in HS and I was so bummed, plus the fact that I didn't want to tell my mom and dad ("that thing was not cheap, you know! Money doesn't grow on trees!...") About six months later, I was moving bags of clothing around down in our basement and one bag seemed really heavy to me, it wouldn't budge so I gave it a kick. It was not a Hefty garbage bag apparently, and I kicked a hole in it. Out of the hole came my class ring! yay me! Who knows who would have found it if I had not kicked that hole in the bag, prob someone at Goodwill or Salvation Army!

Debbie said...

I saw a man fall off a roof. I was completely paralized with fear. He was taken to the hospital and it turns out he passed out from the height. I hope he does his work on the ground now.
Debydew110

Rachael said...

OMG sounds scary! I was in a town square in Israel once and the next day the exact town square had a suicide bombing. Pretty scary in retrospect...

Tyra said...

I know it's lame, but nothing scary has ever happened to me. Boo!

your invisible pixie said...

I went to see the Exorcism of Emily Rose with my roommate freshman year of college, and there's a scene in the movie where the alarm goes off at 2am. The night I went to see the movie, MY alarm went off at 2am, which terrified me. It was probably my roommate playing a trick on me, but she swears she didn't. So...that was scary.

Holly W said...

I had my first apt with a friend at 18. We lived on the ground floor of an apartment building. There were a series of break ins and sexual assaults in our neighborhood. Because we were at ground level, we had to keep our windows closed and locked at all times, even though it was a humid Wisconsin summer. Neither of us could be home alone that summer so we always had friends stay over or had to go home to our parents. The scariest night, three of us had to sleep in the same bed as we all swore we could hear someone trying to open the windows!

Sadie said...

Ug...this one is tough for me to write. In college my apartment was broken into 3 times, by the guy that came to install my cabel. Go ahead and laugh...he still calls my cell phone to this day (I've got it blocked, but I can see it on my cell bill). He broke in 3 times, never stole anything, just let my little kitty out once. CREAPY! Needless to say, I quickly moved out after confessing that I'd hidden the first to incidents from my parents. They would have made me move back home IMMEDIATELY!

It was really scary...and I've been crazy about locking doors and leaving lights on ever since!

Anonymous said...

I cannot think of a scary thing that happened in either HS or college. the worst was probably the guy that I was convinced was the "one" (drummer, long hair, parents totally hated him). Oh thank goodness I wised up after 2 1/2 years. LeslieGC

Shanderella82 said...

Nothing scary quite like this happened to me in high school or college but I survived many near collisions with bicyclists on my college campus!

Emma S. said...

I didn't really have anything scary to me happen...ever. But if I had to choose, I'd guess it would be going on adventures to haunted houses in high school with my friends. I don't believe in paranormal activity, but I some places were very creepy.

Erica said...

When I was in college I'd try get home for the ocassional weekend by taking the bus. I was standing there one evening waiting when a guy came up and hit me across the face then ran off. Scary . . you bet!

Sounds like an awesome book.

girllovestoread said...

Ha I apparently lead a dull life in comparison to some of the commenters here...nothing scray happened to me I'm glad to say...clearly I need to live vircariously through this book!

jne said...

The scariest thing that ever happened to me was probably the summer after my freshman year of college. I was home for the summer, staying in my old bedroom. I was awakened one night by knocking on my bedroom window. At first I thought it was a dream, but after I woke up enough to understand what was going on I heard it again, so I was SURE someone was actually knocking on the window. However, I am a complete weenie when it comes to things that go bump in the night, so I just laid in bed for a few minutes letting my heart rate go back down...when I finally got up the nerve to get up and take a look there was no one/nothing there. I'm FAIRLY certain it was a boy from high school that I'd had to cut out of my life due to some crazy stalker-ish behavior...but I'll never know for sure.

Unknown said...

Scariest thing to ever happen to me was a June bug. LOL One of my friends caught it in my house & instead of throwing it outside, threw it at me. :( It landed on my sock & I immediately ran outside jumping up & down while pushing on my sock to get it off. When I assumed it had to be gone now I went inside & then my dad points out that it's just on my sock still. I re-freaked out & made someone take it off my foot. I'm a chicken!! LOL

Jessica Prince said...

It wasn't really that scary of a story but me and my friends were hoping it would be. We drove out to an abandoned hospital one night that was supposedly haunted. It took us an hour to get up the nerve to go inside and when we finally did our fears quickly faded when we discovered disgarded soda cans, chip bags, and cigarettes. I was really disappointed that it wasn't haunted and was just a hangout for other kids.

Brenda L B said...

Sorry to say I can't think of a scary story. I do remember watching scary movies as a kid and sleeping completely covered in my blankets with the hopes that the murderers knife would not permeate the covers. LOL!! Brenda L B

RedDragon said...

On the way to school one day (high school) my brother and I got in a car accident. The drunk driver had jumped across a median on a six lane road and was heading the wrong way in my lane. Luckily I was able to get out of the way (we both swerved at ther same time) so the only damage was to the vehicle we were in. The SCARIER thing is that when I got to school later that morning, my best friend told me she had dreamed that I got in a car accident. Hey! Pick up the phone and call next time you have a dream like that ok?? LisaP

~Enamored Soul~ said...

When I was in high school, we had a "haunted house" close by, where the brutal murder of a family had taken place in the 80's, and was called "the Cooper house", after the name of the murderer. It was the place a lot of teenagers liked to take a trip to, at night, in the dark - since you couldn't visit it openly, it was considered trespassing. I was never interested in going there, but one day a bunch of us were staying over late for Drama practice, and afterward every one decided it would be like a dare to go. I was indifferent, but went along. When we went up Old English Road, I suddenly felt extremely uneasy - when we got there, it was just like any other house, really, except it exuded the aura of being incredibly mysterious. We rounded out towards the part of the house where the murders took place, and peered in through the glass, and that's when I saw the shadow of a man, a clean outline of a man in the room's doorway (leading to the hall). It scared me SO much, I passed out. When I came to, my friends were all like, "What happened?", I tried to explain it, and they looked everywhere (peering in through every window, possible) but could find no one inside. To this day, I do not know if it was an actual shadow, or just a figment of my imagination - but I now stay away from Old English Road!!!

By the way, this book sounds like an amazing mystery, and since "adult fiction" and "mystery/thrillers" are my two favorite genres, this is definitely going in my TBR list! :D

~Hira~ (Enamored Soul)

Kristi said...

My first semester of college I overslept for my biology final (started at 8, woke up at 8:!%) I arrived too late and the prof said she'd have to get approval from the dept head for me to take it another day. I ended up getting to take it a few days later but trust me when I say, those couple of days waiting to hear were TERRIFYING!

Kristi Hooke

Stephanie said...

THANK YOU ALL FOR COMMENTING! NO COMMENTS AFTER THIS COMMENT WILL QUALIFY FOR THIS BOOK! THANK YOU! CHECK OUT THE NEXT BOOKS OFFERED FOR THE BOOK-A-DAY GIVEAWAY! THANKS, MANIC MOMMY