Dark Waters

Description

Filled with chills, New York Times bestselling author Katherine Arden’s latest installment in the creep-tastic Small Spaces Quartet is sure to haunt. Now in paperback.

Until next time. That was the chilling promise the smiling man made to Ollie, Coco, and Brian after they last outsmarted him. And as the trio knows, the smiling man always keeps his promises. So when the lights flicker and a knock sounds at the door, there can only be one explanation: he’s back and a frightening new game is afoot.

But before the three friends can unravel the smiling man’s latest nightmarish scheme, they set sail on Lake Champlain, where it’s said Vermont’s very own Loch Ness monster lives. Brian is thrilled. He hasn’t sailed since visiting family in Jamaica, and even the looming threat of the smiling man can’t put a damper on what is guaranteed to finally be a day of fun—even if it is awkward being stuck on a boat with his former best friend, Phil, and his new best friends, Coco and Ollie. But when this crew find themselves shipwrecked on a deserted island and hunted by a monster on both land and sea, fun becomes the last thing on their minds. The smiling man has at long last set the stage for a perilous rematch. But this time, Brian is ready to play.Praise for Dark Waters:
An Amazon Best Book – August 2021

“Arden skillfully blends a creature feature with a survival tale, taking the series into new territory without deviating from its successful formula. The deliberate pacing maintains a palpable sense of dread, equally anxiety-inducing and terrifying. . . Another deliciously hair-raising entry in a series that continues to make a huge splash.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Describing the creepy setting where all the action takes place with cinematic detail, Arden piles on the terror, weaving in Lake Champlain history and pirate lore.” —Buffalo News

“The ending definitely ramped up the stakes once more and I’m now anxiously awaiting the conclusion to this dark, creepy middle-grade series. If you haven’t picked up this series yet, now is the perfect time to do so, if only to suffer with us all through the wait for the final book.” —The Nerd Daily

“Genuinely spooky . . . Arden’s expert pacing and vivid descriptions ratchet up the tension deliciously, build eerie atmosphere, and make for some truly scary moments . . . [and] a tense cliff-hanger, which will leave readers on the hook for the next installment.” —Booklist

“Those who are attracted to mystery, adventure, and spooky stories will be drawn to this sequel like a moth to a flame.” —School Library Journal

“In this hair-raising novel . . . middle-grade readers, ages 8-12, and their adult reading companions, will be thrilled, and frightened, by this latest adventure. . . This is a very fun, and eerie, read-aloud.” —Addison County Independent

Praise for Dead Voices:

★ “Arden handily transforms the haunted house story into something much richer, scarier, and more sinister. . . Middle-graders who thrill to spooks and scares will find plenty (maybe even more than they bargained for!) here.” —Booklist, starred review

★ “Arden’s high scare factor, richly drawn mountain setting, relevant themes of loss and belonging, and vividly eerie descriptions evoke the very best of horror for this age set.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★ “In this spooky sequel to Small Spaces, Arden excels at creating an atmosphere of claustrophobic tension with memorably menacing details. Readers will again be invested in the ghoulish surprises in store for the resourceful, likably flawed protagonists.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Praise for Small Spaces:
★ ★ ★ Three Starred Reviews
22 State Awards
A Kirkus Best Book of 2018 – Middle-Grade
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2018 – Middle-Grade
A Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best Books of 2018
An Amazon Best Book – October 2018
A CCBC Choices List Pick – 2019
An ALA Notable Children’s Book – 2019

★ “Atmospheric horror at its best. Chillingly tender.”—Kirkus, starred review 

★ “With a tantalizing pace and palpable suspense, all nicely grounded in realistic emotions, this well-wrought spine-tingler is destined to be a hit (just makes sure the lights stay on).”—Booklist, starred review

★ “Riveting…The story moves at a good pace with just enough clues to keep the reader intrigued and guessing.”—School Library Connection, starred review

“Is it a mystery? A fairy tale? A horror thriller? As the suspense gripped me, I just wanted to know one thing—WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Terrifying and fun.”—R. L. Stine, author of the Goosebumps and Fear Street seriesKatherine Arden is the New York Times bestselling author of the Winternight trilogy and the Small Spaces quartet. In addition to writing novels, she enjoys aimless travel, growing vegetables, and running wild through the woods with her dog. She lives in Vermont.

The lights flickered.

Brian’s head jerked up from the book. Ollie and Coco looked around too, warily. The lights flickered again.

“Must be the storm—­” Coco began.

And then the lights went out.

Right at that same moment, someone knocked—­boom, boom, boom—­on the door.

The three of them froze. They knew better than to scream. They stared at the door. The only light came from the fire. It threw their shadows big and strange on the walls.

Boom. This time the knock shot them to their feet and close together. Coco tripped over her pile of books; Ollie caught her, and they stood in the middle of the room, hands gripping tight.

“I didn’t see anyone outside!” Brian breathed. “I didn’t see a car . . .”

“There wasn’t a car,” whispered Ollie. “We’d have seen the lights.”

“Maybe it drove up with the lights off?” whispered Coco.

Ollie glanced down at her wrist. She was wearing a watch. But it wasn’t an ordinary watch. It had belonged to her mother, who was dead. Its screen was cracked; it didn’t tell time. But sometimes it gave Ollie advice.

Like now.

It was glowing faintly blue, and a single word jumped on the screen in faint, flickering letters.

Hush, it said.

All three of them went still. Brian felt sweat start on his forehead. His heart was thumping away, like a pheasant in spring. Why were heartbeats so loud? He tried not to breathe. He could feel the girls’ hands sweating in his. Run away? Stay still?

Hush.

The knocking had stopped. Now he heard the soft sound of footsteps. Circling the house. Going toward the big front window. Scratch. Scritch. Someone was scraping at the pane of glass. Brian’s heartbeat seemed to rattle his rib cage. None of them moved.

The footsteps went back toward the door. Now they saw the door handle quiver. Very slowly, the handle turned downward. Down and down it went. Brian couldn’t see the dead bolt in the dimness. He’d locked it, hadn’t he? Hadn’t he?

He could hear Coco breathing quick and shallow beside him.

The door handle was down at its very lowest point.

“Run,” whispered Ollie, her hand clutching his.

But before any of them could move, a brilliant light cut through the curtains, like a car—­a car coming across the parking lot. The handle stopped moving. They all stood, holding their breath.

The lights flickered. Came back on.

The door was still shut. There was no one there but them.

“I locked the door,” Brian whispered. “I did. I swear.”

“I believe you,” said Ollie. She glanced down at her watch again. Brian looked over her shoulder. So did Coco. The watch was blank now. Just an old digital wristwatch, too big for Ollie’s wrist, with a spiderwebbing crack on the screen. They were all trembling.

The headlights in the parking lot cut out. Next moment, Brian heard his parents’ voices, arguing cheerfully, as his mom and dad got out of the car. He breathed again. They might have imagined the whole thing.

But he was pretty sure they hadn’t.

“What was that?” whispered Coco.

“I—­don’t know,” said Ollie.

“Saved by your parents, Brian,” said Coco. “I guess that is your parents?”

“Yes,” said Brian. They were still clutching hands.

“You don’t think anything’s still out there?” said Ollie. “Anything dangerous?”

“The lights came back on,” Brian pointed out shakily.

Neither girl replied. He heard his mother’s footsteps on the front walk. Heard them pause on the front porch. Then she came clattering in, pausing at the threshold to say something, laughing, to Brian’s dad. Just like normal.

Brian’s mom seemed surprised to see them all standing in the middle of the great room. “You look like baby raccoons on walkabout,” she said, smiling. “I guess you got hungry?”

Brian licked his lips and found his voice. “Yeah, Mom,” he said. “Super hungry.”

Brian’s mom had light brown skin and her eyes were just like Brian’s. Like a pond in summer, Brian’s dad would say. When the light shines through.

When the inn was in season, they ate whatever the restaurant was serving. When it wasn’t, they ate a lot of takeout. His mom, who ran the restaurant during the season, got tired of cooking. “A break, please. I beg,” she’d say, and call the Thai place or the burger spot. Everyone in town knew his mom.

Now Brian smelled something yummy. The next second, his dad came in, holding four flat boxes.

His dad said, “We met Roger and Zelda in town.” Roger and Zelda were Ollie’s dad and Coco’s mom. “They’re coming up for dinner. Brian, wash your hands, wash your ears. It’s time to make dinner!”

Coco said, “Mr. Battersby—­are we not eating pizza?”

Brian’s dad looked at the boxes in his hands and jumped, like he was surprised. “Oh,” he said. “Where did these come from?”

His dad liked to joke. So did Ollie’s dad. They got along amazingly. “Ha,” said Brian. “Come on,” he added to the girls. “Let’s wash up.”

As they were heading out, he heard his mom calling. “Brian—­Brian,” she said. “Did you leave anything on the front porch?”

Brian stopped. Beside him, he felt the girls go still.

Brian turned around. “Um, no,” he said. His tongue felt sticky. “Why do you ask?”

“Nothing, really,” said his mom. “Just found this on the ground in front of the door. Thought I’d check before I chuck it in the bin.” She held it up. It was a round black piece of paper about the size of Brian’s palm.

Brian hesitated. Then Ollie said clearly, “That’s mine, Ms. Battersby. I dropped it. School project.”

“Well, great,” said his mom. “Glad I could find it before it got wet.”

She held it out. Ollie glanced at her watch, as though for guidance. But her watch didn’t do anything, and Ollie marched over and took the black piece of paper from his mother’s hand.

“Hm,” said his mom, frowning at all three of them. Brian supposed they still looked a little freaked, from the darkness and the scratching footsteps. “Are you okay? Probably hungry, huh? Go get washed up. I’ll set the table.”

They went into the washroom. The second the door closed, Coco said, “Ollie, what’s that?”

Ollie was eyeing the thing in her hand with puzzlement. “A piece of paper. Look, someone charcoaled this side. That’s why it’s black.” She held up a black-­smudged hand to demonstrate.

“What about the other side?” said Coco.

Slowly, Ollie turned it over. The back of the paper wasn’t charcoaled. There were a few words written instead, in delicate, old-­fashioned cursive.

Bell, it said. Then, dog saturn day flower moon.

And then, Consider yourselves warned.—­S.

One shiver chased another up Brian’s spine.

“Who is it from?” whispered Coco. They looked at each other. “Is it—­is it him?” Her voice went shrill. When they first met him, the smiling man had called himself Seth, and he had seemed nice. He wasn’t, though. Not at all. Coco’s finger traced the spidery cursive S.

Another knock broke the silence of the bathroom. All three of them stiffened, glancing instinctively at the bathroom mirror. But nothing moved in the mirror but them. The knock had come from the front door. Again? But the lights were on.

Brian felt the hair rise on his arms.

The front door creaked. They all held their breath. And then a chorus of adult voices—­“So glad you could make it, come in, come in . . .”

US

Additional information

Dimensions	0.6700 × 5.0000 × 7.7500 in
Series	Small Spaces Quartet
Imprint	G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
ISBN-13	09780593109175
ISBN-10	0593109171
Author	Katherine Arden
Audience	Children
BISAC	JUV039060, JUV067000
Subjects	Halloween book, ghost stories for kids, scary stories for kids, gifts for 11 year old girls, gifts for 10 year old boy, campfire stories, summer reading for kids, psychological thrillers books, psychological thrillers, friendship gifts, chapter books for kids age 9-12, mysteries and thrillers, ghost book, Ghosts, scary stories, ghost stories, kids books ages 9-12, thriller books, thrillers, JUV067000, kindness, friends, books for kids age 9 12, JUV039060, Friendship, thriller, Halloween, 5th grade reading list, 6th grade reading list