Preview

The Seance

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
635 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Seance
The Seance

The Seance, by Joan Lowery Nixon (which won the Edgar Award for best Young Adult Mystery), is a story of a girl named Lauren and a group of her friends. The girls live in a small town and try to create some fun by playing with spirits....

Sara is Lauren's foster sister. The girls live with Lauren's Aunt Mel. Lauren is very jealous of Sara because she claims she grew up in a loving, picture-perfect household, unlike Lauren whose parents died in a timber mill accident. Sara is constantly sneaking out to meet older guys, which is another reason why Lauren is jealous of Sara. The girls are both seniors in high school and because of the old, traditional, boring town they have grown up in, they agree to help a girl, Roberta, in contacting the dead. Lauren, Sara and a few other girls, including Lauren's best friend, Ali, meet up at Lydia's house one Friday night when her parents aren't home. While proceeding with the seance, candles lit, lights turned off, Sara suddenly falls on top of the candles. Once the girls find the lamp in the never ending darkness, they discover that Sara is gone! It doesn't make sense to them. All of the windows are closed shut, doors locked and there is no Sara. The girls call the local sheriff and explain what happened. He comes up with the conclusion that one of the girls let her out and locked the door behind her. But who? Nobody will confess to it.

The next day Sara's body is found in the swamp. Throughout the book, such as Sara's funeral, people suspect Lauren knows something about Sara's death, but Sara did not confide in her, is Lauren's excuse. Carly, a guy who Sara had been meeting up with, is a suspect. Lauren also goes to visit his grandmother. She is a lonely woman and also extremely superstitious. She apparently believes a demon is the root of the tragedy. She wants the best for her grandson Carly and wants him to get into a nice college and live in the city. The sheriff

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Arielle Donovan is a fifteen year old girl who has just lost something very important to her, her best friend. On a dark summer night, Jenna leaves Arielle’s home without her insisting she’ll be right back, but never returns. Arielle suffers through a summer alone, desperate to find out what happened to her friend, but lacking the energy that the experience of loss has drained from her. On the afternoon of her fifteenth birthday however, Arielle has a dream. She sights Jenna outside her kitchen window, runs outside only to bolt after her as Jenna sprints away. Losing control of her body and breath, Arielle’s world becomes hazy as she sees her friend run into the burning structure of the old Dexter orphanage, and she is powerless to do anything after being confined behind the Iron Gate that protects the place.…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After hearing of Miss Emily’s fathers death the community come to the house to share their condolences and when they do Miss Emily tells them that her father isn’t dead only to find her realization 3 days later.…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Spence Missing Women

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages

    June Spence’s “Missing Women” is a story of three women’s mysterious disappearance. Indications of how the women, a mother, Kay, her daughter, Vicki, and her daughter’s friend, Adelle, lived their lives and may have vanished are provided throughout the story, but in the end, it appears no one had all of the details needed to provide closure to the case. The information contained in the story is obtained by a variety townspeople, including friends, family and neighbors thought to have known the women. Friends of the missing girls said they were last seen attending a graduation party; no one is certain when or where Kay was last seen. Rumors swirl of how they may have faded away, but it is undetermined if they were snatched by some passerby or fled to escape situations they did not want to face. The search for these women proved to be endless.…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Our Town Notes Act 3

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A few living people have been hovering at the back of the stage and now come to the foreground. The Stage Manager introduces Joe Stoddard, the town’s undertaker, who is watching over a freshly dug grave, and Sam Craig, a cousin of Emily Gibbs. We learn that Sam left Grover’s Corners twelve years ago to go west and has returned to town for Emily’s funeral. Sam reads the headstones, represented by the characters sitting in chairs. He sees his Aunt Julia, known to us as Mrs. Gibbs, and Mr. Stimson, who, we learn from Joe, hanged himself in his attic. Sam asks Joe how Emily died, and Joe replies that she passed away in childbirth.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Desert Blood

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages

    While she is trying to find evidence of what happened to Cecilia, Ivon's younger sister Irene is abducted and disappears in Mexico. Ivon knows that Irene must be found as soon as possible if she's to be found alive. When the Mexican and American police prove less that they will not help, Ivon decides to find her sister by herself. She finds herself confronting corrupt border officials, indifferent people on the lower ranks of society. As well as families and friends of the women who have already disappeared and members of her family who are divided in thinking that Ivon's lifestyle has caused this tragedy to fall on them. Ivon eventually discovers that trying to save her sister's life may cost her own life.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Mystifying Twins

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Once school started again, the three girls tried to catch the ghost. They found a trap door leading to a tunnel that ultimately led to the broom closet in the kitchen. They found out how the food was stolen, but they did not know who did it. The culprit ended up being Tommy, the workman’s son. After this was proven, the girls received a heartfelt apology from Miss Clark; and they went on enjoying their days at Rivercote. They were no longer the same mystifying twins they once were.…

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Winchester House

    • 3352 Words
    • 14 Pages

    child died because of a gun that they made called The Winchester gun. This gun killed many people during the war. The only way to save herself from dying was to build a house for the ghost and her, the only catch was that the building could never stop or she would die. With the money that Mrs.Winchester has gained, she builds a crazy house all due to the ghost. Many believes that the only reason why the house is built crazy was confuse the ghost and that they couldn 't find her as easy. She made this happen was by changing things every day, adding a new staircase or building a room inside another room.…

    • 3352 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In William Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night or What you Will, The characters in the play face a plot complete with love and trickery. William Shakespeare includes many examples of love and trickery throughout the play and it makes it very detailed and interesting.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    After Alison and Tara ran off into the woods and relaxed by the lake. They both told each other stories that they have always wished would come true. They imagined those stories coming true by acting them out in an imaginary play scene. They sang “Kokomo at the top of [their] lungs over and over again” (Evans 39), wishing that they were somewhere else than at their grandmothers house. They would run off into the woods to get away from their grandmother Lydia, to get away from all the controlling rules and regulations that she has placed over the girls. However Lydia did not place harsh rules on Alison, which might be because Alison is the favorited granddaughter. After a while of the girls running off, Lydia finally had it. Lydia did not want the girls “disobeying her and running off” (Evans 40), anymore. So Lydia scared the girls by stating that “snakes are in the lake… [they] love water” (Evans 40). Lydia tells this little white lie so that she can manipulate the girls into thinking that the only safe place is to stay inside of that once luxurious house. However, Lydia’s little white lie spiraled into an occurrence of both day and night terrors for Tara. Tara could not sleep by herself anymore because of a night terror that caused her to toss and turn right off the top bunkbed and smack her head hard onto the solid cold floor. Startled, Alison was the one who ran to Tara’s side. When Lydia heard the loud…

    • 1721 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kildany's grandson died because they were very poor and he didn't get enough warmth. So, Kildany blamed Mr. Raven for her grandson's death because he did not care about their difficulties and he was demanding every month's rent.Then, Uncle Gard had to leave for a business trip and soon Nellie and Sam learned about strange things happening at Ravenscourt.They drew up a list of strange things were a red 13 was painted on the sign, the furnace kept breaking, rats were in the building and Bridget and Jenny were infected with chicken pox.Later, Aunt Cornelia received a phone call from her mother and she went to visit her in Connecticut.Mary and Gertrude were looking after the children in the absence of Aunt…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ghost Story The short story "A Rose for Emily,"� by William Faulkner, is a very predictable ghost story. Three things that make this story so predictable are: the haunted house setting, the creepy old woman, and the disappearing fiancé.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Swallowing Stones

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages

    When Michael hears about Charlie’s death on the radio his best friend Joe Sadowski, who was with him when he shot his .45-70 Winchester rifle, tried to convince him that it wasn’t him who killed the man. Soon, the two friends find out that it was him and Michael tries to hide the evidence. The police manage to narrow their search to about forty kids that were at Michael’s party. Michael starts to feel unsafe around everyone except one friend, Amy Ruggerio. He visits her every day after work, but she starts to feel uncomfortable with him. She finally tells him that she saw him and Joe walk out of the woods with the rifle on the day of his party. While this was happening, Jenna kept dreaming with Michael and a huge tree but she didn’t know why. She also thought she saw him waiting outside her house on some nights, watching her. She begins to question why. Whenever she thinks about the killer Michael’s face pops into her mind. Everybody started to suspect it was Joe so Michael starts feeling guilty. Finally, he takes the rifle and drives to police station to confess. On his way there, he visits the Spirit Tree, a huge tree in the woods that Joe and he visited as little kids to hang out. When he gets there he’s surprised to find Jenna sleeping next to the tree. He decides to wait until she wakes up to tell her the truth.…

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He decided to stop and waited for the girls to get out of school. As the two girls, Alison and Hannah, walked home from school he followed them closely. Charlie spoke to Steven telling him “You should talk to them about their bad decisions and encourage them to never do it again.” Then he became Crimson who told him “Those girls need to learn a lesson! You need to punish them for their cruelty!” Steven had trouble keeping his thoughts straight and as the girls were getting closer to his home he became Crimson and decided to kidnap Alison and Hannah and hide them in an abandoned warehouse. Alison had waken up and realized that he was sitting in the entrance of the door. When Hannah finally gained consciousness, Steven approached them and told them “a creature is coming to get you because that is what you deserve!” The girls cried in terror. They were terrified because they didn't know nothing about the creature and what it might do to them or what it is. Hannah told Alison “we have to find a way out!” Allison responded “there is no way out...we are going to die if no one comes and rescues us.” The girls heard voices of men outside of the room. Suddenly Hannah noticed a keyhole that she could peek through to see who was talking outside. When she looked through the hole she was terribly confused because she only saw the same man and he was speaking in different tone of…

    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The father engaged in conflict with all of his daughters, especially Sara. Sara’s eldest sister Bessie was over 25 years old and was still unmarried. She met a man one day named Berel Bernstein and was immediately determined to win him over. Bessie convinced Mashah to help her clean and beautify the house to impress Berel by fixing the chandelier with gold paper, tacking lace curtain around the sink, and adding a white oilcloth on the table. When Reb met Berel, he interviewed him with questions based on Berel’s income and faith. After arguing and fighting, Reb finally disapproved of Bessie continuing to see Berel. The next night, Berel asked Bessie to come with him despite her father’s discontent. Bessie remained loyal to her father and watched the man she loved walk away, leaving her lonely and…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Giant Wistaria

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The second part of the story, which takes place a hundred years after the first, is both disturbing and mysterious. It involves a group of young people, Mr. and Mrs. Jenny, their pretty sisters and their sisters’ lovers who talk about the possibility of having a ghost inside their house and eventually discover the house’s dreadful secret. This part reveals the secret from the first part. Without it, the first part would have been very vague and incomplete. Along with the characters from the second part, we must attempt to read across a hundred years of silence to reconstruct the first woman’s story. We are forced to discover what traditions, what historical and cultural continuities link the two halves of the story together.…

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays