Gallows Hill (novel)
Encyclopedia
Gallows Hill is a supernatural
thriller novel
for young adults by Lois Duncan
. It was her first and so far only young adult novel written after the death of her daughter. It was written eight years after her previous young adult novel, Don't Look Behind You
. It is about a girl who moves to a small town with a secret.
When the school's students start planning the Halloween fair, Eric Garrett, the school golden-boy, convinces Sarah to play a fortune teller at the fortune telling booth. He says it is to benefit the prom and she would be perfect because she is new and almost no one knows her. Sarah accidentally agrees while having a strange vision at home. At the carnival, Kyra feeds her information on the customers coming in. Sarah uses an old paperweight that belonged to her grandmother as her crystal ball.
The night is going well until Sarah does a reading for a boy named Charlie Gorman. When reading for him, she sees a vision in the paperweight of Charlie falling down a flight of stairs. Shaken by the vision, Sarah quickly closes down the booth and leaves.
She becomes friends with Charlie, and discovers that he believes in reincarnation
and past lives. Sarah starts writing a history paper about the Salem Witch Trials
, and begins having dreams and visions in which she is participating in the trials. Charlie tells her he thinks that everyone in the town participated in the trials, and they are back together to finish something.
Meanwhile, Eric convinces her to start doing readings as a business, but things start going down hill when Sarah makes the popular cheerleaders angry and keeps seeing visions about people. The cheerleaders become convinced that Sarah is a witch. Sarah receives threats, such as a sketch of a gallows and a dead crow in her locker. In desperation, she goes to the principal, and then Ted and her mother. Neither party does anything to help her.
Later, Ted forces Sarah to go to a party with Kyra. Eric comes by to pick up Sarah for the party, but she has changed her mind about it. Eric persuades her to come out and apologize to Kyra, but she is forced into the car and brought to the party. Eric and the others take Sarah to Garrote Hill, in the middle of Pine Crest, where many drunk students are waiting. The students begin acting strangely and calling the place Gallows Hill, the place in Salem, Massachusetts where the witches of the trials were hanged. They try to hang Sarah, but Charlie intervenes, and the students suddenly relive their past lives in Salem before attacking Charlie. Sarah almost ends up getting hanged until Ted saves her.
Sarah and Rosemary decide to move back to California, and Sarah realizes that in a past life, she was Betty Parris
, the young girl who brought about the Salem Witch Trials. She leaves Charlie with a night of passion, and gives him the paperweight. It was once cloudy, but now it is 'clear and transparent as window glass'.
(1998), loosely based on the novel, was made. It was an NBC
Movie of the Week and starred Sarah Chalke
, Markie Post
, Ben Foster, and Soleil Moon Frye
.
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
thriller novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
for young adults by Lois Duncan
Lois Duncan
Duncan is best known for her novels of suspense for teenagers. Some of her works have been adapted for the screen, the most famous example being the 1997 film I Know What You Did Last Summer, adapted from her novel of the same title...
. It was her first and so far only young adult novel written after the death of her daughter. It was written eight years after her previous young adult novel, Don't Look Behind You
Don't Look Behind You
Don't Look Behind You is a 1990 young adult thriller novel by Lois Duncan.-Plot summary:Because of April's father's work in the Federal Investigation Bureau, a hitman in a black camaro is after her family so they have to be put under the Federal Witness Protection Program...
. It is about a girl who moves to a small town with a secret.
Plot summary
Sarah Zoltanne moves to Pine Crest, a small town in Missouri, with her mother Rosemary, who is engaged to a teacher named Ted Thompson. Ted has left his wife, but is not divorced. His daughter, Kyra, hates Sarah who hates her in return. When Sarah starts school as the new pupil, she makes no friends and longs for her hometown.When the school's students start planning the Halloween fair, Eric Garrett, the school golden-boy, convinces Sarah to play a fortune teller at the fortune telling booth. He says it is to benefit the prom and she would be perfect because she is new and almost no one knows her. Sarah accidentally agrees while having a strange vision at home. At the carnival, Kyra feeds her information on the customers coming in. Sarah uses an old paperweight that belonged to her grandmother as her crystal ball.
The night is going well until Sarah does a reading for a boy named Charlie Gorman. When reading for him, she sees a vision in the paperweight of Charlie falling down a flight of stairs. Shaken by the vision, Sarah quickly closes down the booth and leaves.
She becomes friends with Charlie, and discovers that he believes in reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
and past lives. Sarah starts writing a history paper about the Salem Witch Trials
Salem witch trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693...
, and begins having dreams and visions in which she is participating in the trials. Charlie tells her he thinks that everyone in the town participated in the trials, and they are back together to finish something.
Meanwhile, Eric convinces her to start doing readings as a business, but things start going down hill when Sarah makes the popular cheerleaders angry and keeps seeing visions about people. The cheerleaders become convinced that Sarah is a witch. Sarah receives threats, such as a sketch of a gallows and a dead crow in her locker. In desperation, she goes to the principal, and then Ted and her mother. Neither party does anything to help her.
Later, Ted forces Sarah to go to a party with Kyra. Eric comes by to pick up Sarah for the party, but she has changed her mind about it. Eric persuades her to come out and apologize to Kyra, but she is forced into the car and brought to the party. Eric and the others take Sarah to Garrote Hill, in the middle of Pine Crest, where many drunk students are waiting. The students begin acting strangely and calling the place Gallows Hill, the place in Salem, Massachusetts where the witches of the trials were hanged. They try to hang Sarah, but Charlie intervenes, and the students suddenly relive their past lives in Salem before attacking Charlie. Sarah almost ends up getting hanged until Ted saves her.
Sarah and Rosemary decide to move back to California, and Sarah realizes that in a past life, she was Betty Parris
Betty Parris
Elizabeth "Betty" Parris was one of the accusers during the Salem witch trials. In the winter of 1691–1692, Betty, the nine-year-old daughter of the Salem, Massachusetts' Reverend Samuel Parris and his wife Elizabeth, was the first to claim illness due to being "bewitched"...
, the young girl who brought about the Salem Witch Trials. She leaves Charlie with a night of passion, and gives him the paperweight. It was once cloudy, but now it is 'clear and transparent as window glass'.
Television/movie adaptation
A TV-movie called I've Been Waiting For YouI've Been Waiting for You (film)
I've Been Waiting for You is a 1998 made-for-tv horror/slasher film directed by Christopher Leitch. The film is based on the 1997 novel Gallows Hill written by Lois Duncan.- Plot :...
(1998), loosely based on the novel, was made. It was an NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
Movie of the Week and starred Sarah Chalke
Sarah Chalke
Sarah Chalke is a Canadian-American actress known for portraying Dr. Elliot Reid on the NBC/ABC comedy Scrubs, "Second Becky" Conner Healy on Roseanne, and Stella Zinman in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother...
, Markie Post
Markie Post
Marjorie Armstrong "Markie" Post is an American actress, best known for her roles as bail bondswoman Terri Michaels in The Fall Guy on ABC from 1982 to 1985, as public defender Christine Sullivan on the NBC sitcom Night Court from 1985 to 1992, and as Georgie Anne Lahti Hartman on the CBS sitcom...
, Ben Foster, and Soleil Moon Frye
Soleil Moon Frye
Soleil Moon Frye is an American actress, director and screenwriter. Frye is best known for her childhood role as the title character in sitcom Punky Brewster, and as Roxie King in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.-Early life:...
.
See also
- Salem Witch TrialsSalem witch trialsThe Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693...
- Gallows Hill (disambiguation)
- WitchcraftWitchcraftWitchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...