The Haunted (Hollow Trilogy Series #2)

by Jessica Verday

Overview

An impossible truth. An impossible love.

After a summer spent reclaiming her sanity and trying to forget the boy she fell in love with—the boy who must not exist, cannot exist, because she knows that he is dead—Abbey returns to Sleepy Hollow, ready to leave the ghosts of her past behind. She throws herself into her schoolwork, her perfume-making, and her friendship with Ben, her cute and funny lab partner, who just might be her ticket to getting over Caspian once and for all.

But Abbey can never get over Caspian, and Caspian has no choice but to return to her side, for Caspian is a Shade, and Abbey is his destiny. They are tied not only to each other, but also to the town of Sleepy Hollow, and to the famous legend that binds their fates—a legend whose dark truths they are only beginning to guess....

“Spectacular! The Hollow keeps you reading from beginning to end without coming up for air.” —L.J. Smith, bestselling author of The Vampire Diaries and Night World

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416978954
Publisher:	Simon Pulse
Publication date:	08/31/2010
Series:	Hollow Trilogy Series , #2
Pages:	467
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.70(d)
Lexile:	HL610L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

Jessica Verday is the New York Times bestselling author of The Hollow trilogy. Her short stories have been featured in The First Time anthology, which she co-edited, and Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions. She believes a shoe isn’t a shoe unless it has a three-inch heel, and nothing beats a great pair of boots. When not daydreaming about moving into a library of her own, she can be found working on her next story, redecorating her office, or buying vintage furniture. Find out more about The Beautiful and the Damned, The Hollow trilogy, and the forthcoming Of Monsters and Madness series at JessicaVerday.com.

Read an Excerpt

PREFACE

I was so lost when Kristen left. When she died. Then Caspian found me. I got to know him. Fell in love with him. He helped me deal with the fact that my best friend was never coming back. And when I found out that she’d been keeping so much hidden from me, he helped me try to understand.

But he had a secret too. A secret he should have told me from the beginning. Now I don’t even know if he’s real, or if I dreamt him up to help me process the pain. I can’t stay away from Sleepy Hollow forever.

Will he be waiting for me?

© 2010 Jessica Miller

Editorial Reviews

"Like Twilight (Little Brown) and the Vampire Diaries (HarperTeen) series, Verday’s planned trilogy (of which The Haunted is the second installment) is characterized by its protagonists’ unrequited passions and its narrative’s gradual revelation of a second, supernatural world, the rules of which are distinct and complicated. This lengthy novel ends with a cliffhanger, as Abbey is positioned to make a choice that may or may not ensure the eternity of her relationship with Caspian; this trope will all but guarantee an audience for the trilogy’s final novel. --VOYA, October 2010

From the Publisher

After spending time in the country with her great aunt in an effort to heal from the "nervous breakdown" her parents consider a psychological reaction to her best friend's death, seventeen-year-old Abbey returns to her home town of Sleepy Hollow, New York to participate in the memorial service for her friend. There, she rekindles her relationship with Caspian, the mysterious and handsome young man she only recently discovered is a Shade—a ghost who can interact with psychically-sensitive living humans. As Abbey learns more about Caspian's life and postmortem limitations, her love for him grows both more passionate and more frustrating; the couple may enjoy each other's physical touch only one day per year, on the anniversary of Caspian's death. Meanwhile, a quartet of strangers with musical voices lingers on the periphery of Abbey's life, and she has several chilling encounters with a good looking but malevolent young man she suspects was her best friend's secret boyfriend. Like Twilight (Little Brown) and the Vampire Diaries (HarperTeen) series, Verday's planned trilogy (of which The Haunted is the second installment) is characterized by its protagonists' unrequited passions and its narrative's gradual revelation of a second, supernatural world, the rules of which are distinct and complicated. This lengthy novel ends with a cliffhanger, as Abbey is positioned to make a choice that may or may not ensure the eternity of her relationship with Caspian; this trope will all but guarantee an audience for the trilogy's final novel. Reviewer: Amy Pattee

VOYA - Amy Pattee

The second book in "The Hollow" series finds seventeen-year-old Abbey still recovering from the pain of her best friend, Kristin's, murder. She has convinced herself that the boy she fell in love with while Kristin was missing was a figment of her imagination, a way for her brain to cope with the pain of losing a friend. But when she returns to Sleepy Hollow, Caspian appears to her again. She is undeniably drawn to him, real or not, and craves his companionship. Together they learn from Nikolas and Katy, the infamous headless horseman and Katrina from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, that Caspian is a Shade—a soul that does not go to the afterlife, not human but not quite a ghost either. Knowing how they feel for one another Nikolas also reveals to them that Abbey is also destined to be a Shade—Caspian's other half—and soon the Revenants will come to help her begin her new "life" with Caspian. While the plot line at times borders on the ridiculous, Verday manages to provide readers with a different take on the paranormal romance in a market flooded with vampires and werewolves. With the raw attraction heating up between Abbey and Caspian as their romance develops and the mystery surrounding Kristin's murder, this book is the epitome of the guilty pleasure. Reviewer: Kirsten Shaw

Children's Literature - Kirsten Shaw

Gr 8 Up—This sequel to The Hollow (S & S, 2009) finds Abbey home after recovering from the news that the unbearably beautiful boy she loves, Caspian, is actually dead. Neither vampire nor ghost, he is a Shade, a shadow "living within the shade of real life." The convenient plot slowly reveals that Abbey and Caspian are soulmates, but in order for them to be together as destined, she has to die. To that end, four Revenants, helpful sorts who are supposed to assist souls to crossover, appear. A fifth, Vincent, torments Abbey, but he wants her alive to prevent her union with Caspian. Set in Sleepy Hollow, NY, the series includes characters from Washington Irving's story "The Headless Horseman," and each chapter opens with a quote from the tale. Abbey's talent as a perfumer is the most interesting thing about her, but unfortunately this only results in lists of essential oils and nonessential details. Abbey and Caspian's unconsummated love—he can only touch her on the anniversary of his death—results in lines such as, "Desire hit me like a rock." Clumsy exposition and awkward sentence construction are not helped by clichéd language replete with pedestrian minutiae. The big revelations are obvious rather than powerful, and the cliff-hanger conclusion is more gimmicky than intriguing. Purchase only where the first book has fans.—Janice M. Del Negro, GSLIS Dominican University, River Forest, IL

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