Help for the Haunted: A Novel Audiobook

Quotes

• “I was completely consumed by Help for the Haunted; I read it in one sitting. I just can’t decide what I loved the most: its perfectly pitched teenage narrator; the ghost story that kept me riveted; the thriller that made me say, ‘Oh, just one more chapter.’”

  — Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

• “A quickly paced and boldly rendered ghost story, Searles’ dark novel about a young girl haunted by the murder of her parents had me up reading all night. And checking the doors. I found it impossible to put down.” 

  — Sara Gruen, New York Times bestselling author

• “Wonderful.…A coming of age tale that is poignant and touching…and will scare the living hell out of you. I loved every page of this novel: I loved the sisters and the story and the page-turning mystery. I just may never go downstairs into my basement again.” 

  — Chris Bohjalian, New York Times bestselling author

• “The chills deliver, but the depth of the story is what really sets this book apart.”

  — Amazon.com, editorial review

• “Disturbingly engrossing.”

  — People

• “A masterful genre mash-up that’s part paranormal thriller, part coming-of-age story, part crime fiction, Searles’ eerie novel about a young girl uncovering the mystery of her parents’ murders builds to a stunning and poignant conclusion.”

  — Entertainment Weekly

• “The family demons are more troubling than the supernatural ones in John Searles’ new novel...Sylvie’s flashbacks and exploration of her mom and dad’s relationship will haunt readers’ hearts after they turn the final page.”

  — USA Today

• “[Searles] has crafted a strange, spooky world that is absolutely believable. Sweet, precocious, desperate Sylvie is a memorable young striver in the tradition of Scout Finch, and Help for the Haunted is an exceptional piece of storytelling.”

  — Washington Post

• “A poignant story of a family, of parents navigating an odd and dangerous career, of daughters shaken by doubt and loss and grief—and the gulf that widens between them all...A compelling mystery.”

  — Miami Herald

• “The perfect Halloween read for those with a taste for haunted basements, creepy always-smiling dolls, and weirdly dysfunctional families...Searles brings the torture of adolescence, the scourge of notoriety, and the pain of being young and different vividly to the page.”

  — Boston Globe

• “Full of terror, totally compelling, believable, and ghostly chilling...The horror that stocks this page-turner is so adroitly grounded in things ordinary and real that the reader almost suspends disbelief and comes to think that maybe there are malevolent spirits out there.”

  — NPR

• “John Searles wrapped a ghost story inside a mystery, and the result is a worthy thriller...Help for the Haunted’s alternating chapters are cleverly split in time to reveal what came before and after a deadly tragedy at the heart of this captivating story.”

  — Minneapolis Star Tribune

• “Involves both classic horror elements (a malevolent rag doll, a stolen diary, a hatchet, a scary basement) and contemporary ones (a prescription for Vicodin). Searles controls the plot with a sure hand and wraps up the situation on Butter Lane in a satisfying and believable way.”

  — New York Newsday

• “[Help for the Haunted] is no simple ghost story...As the story zips back and forth through time, it’s rarely clear what’s real and what’s not, though one thing is for sure: the ‘literal’ bedevilment the Masons cast from other houses is nothing compared to what’s in their own.”

  — Chicago Magazine

• “Searles expertly manages his cleverly conceived plotline as he alternately withholds and doles out key information in tantalizing fashion. Amid the fascinating cast of characters, including her ne’er-do-well uncle, a kindhearted school counselor, and the specter of her supportive mother, is the unforgettable Sylvie. Somewhat geeky and blind to her own family’s dynamics, Sylvie manages to figure out the hows and whys behind the catastrophic event that changed her life forever. Superlative storytelling.”

  — Booklist (starred review)