Saturday, February 9, 2019

Steven Stack tells YA Ghost stories


The Bottom of the Lake
Steven Stack

YA
Ghost stories

Orange Hat Publishing
October, 2018

Paperback $15.00
Ebook $7.99

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About the Book
Four girls. Four stories. And an ending none of them saw coming.
When Vanessa, Lindsey, and Claire sneak away from Camp Kimi for a night of junk food and ghost stories, they meet Dani, a strange and distant girl none of them have seen before. As each tells her own scary tale, they reveal personal truths they could never share directly. But the newcomer has a story of her own, and before they know it, the three friends find themselves an unwitting part of it-and there might be no escape.

My review
Playwright Steven Stack turns a popular script into a novel, and does a nice job.
One neglected girl takes the lead in this summer of supernatural fun. Three friends who meet each summer at a camp pride themselves at being the risk-takers, but never quite going far enough to get kicked out. When Vanessa’s nanny tells her about a strange event years earlier at a nearby camp, a hushed-up drowning and missing body, Vanessa convinces her friends to take this opportunity to raise their story-telling clique to epic new heights. And that is the only the first thing that happens when they meet an odd young woman alone in the dark woods. Each of the four girls has a life-changing, thought-provoking story to share. Their friendship is obvious and their closeness slightly disturbing.

Told in a style that walks the line between headhopping and omniscient voice, it’s hard to translate the story from the stage play any other way. It’s not completely distracting, though I had to backtrack some to figure out whose head I was in. Recommended for those who enjoy creepy contemporary alone-in-the-woods scary stories.

About the Author
Steven Stack has been writing for young audiences for over a decade. During that time, 30 of his plays and scenes have been published, racking up over 300 performances in 44 states and eight countries. He also has decades of experience working with students ages 7-18 – in public schools, in a studio environment, and in immersive theatre summer camps.

When he’s not writing, Steven enjoys watching Supernatural, Phineas and Ferb, and Boy Meets World – sometimes with one or both of his daughters. They live in the troll capital of the world: Mount Horeb, Wisconsin.

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