The Nightmare House

＂A gorgeous book with scares enough for the brave at heart and heart enough for everyone. I loved every page.＂ --Lora Senf, author of The Clackity

In this spooky middle grade novel perfect for fans of Small Spaces, Doll Bones, and V. E. Schwab, a young girl’s deepest fears take on terrifying new life when she confronts a supernatural foe who can manipulate her nightmares.

Penny Hope used to be brave, but that was before she met the Fear Maker. Years later, he still haunts her dreams--a tall, thin man with red eyes, in a haunted house in the woods, who devours human souls and leaves his victims’ eyes hollow and empty. Penny’s beloved grandma tells her to write down these nightmares as poems in her notebook. But then Penny starts seeing blank-eyed people in the waking world, too. She’s the only one who notices.

As more people around her fall prey to the Fear Maker, Penny must gather her courage once and for all to save the souls of those she loves. With the help of her notebook and a new friend, she ventures to the Fear Maker’s house. But the house is a labyrinth of nightmares and tricks--and the Fear Maker’s fun is just beginning.

In this just-scary-enough monster story that’s also about dealing with relentless anxiety, see how far a penny’s worth of hope will take you when you enter Sarah Allen’s The Nightmare House.

Sarah Allen is the author of What Stars Are Made Of and Breathing Underwater, as well as poems for kids published in places like Cicada, The Caterpillar, and more. Born and raised in Utah, she received an MFA in creative writing from Brigham Young University, and now lives in Orlando, fifteen minutes from the Magic Kingdom. She spends her non-writing time watching David Attenborough documentaries and blasting show-tunes, which helps keep her Fear Maker at bay.