The Narrator

by Michael McBride and Norman Prentiss

(2016)

Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications

Something is wrong with Julia Linder’s sixth-grade class.

Julia is the teacher of a 6th grade class. Suddenly, minor issues that certain children have are being magnified to a horrific extent. Julia suspects her “almost-too-perfect” student, Abbie, of somehow intensifying the fears of the others. Anna pattern of raps becomes frighten and repetitive.

Robbie, one boy’s harmless tendency of getting lost becomes a crippling fog of disorientation. A girl’s mild twitch turns into an obsessive pattern of frightening raps and repetition. The symptoms are spreading and the source seems to be stories that seize upon the children’s deeply seated fears and intensify them exponentially.

But how can mere stories change their behavior?

Abbie is a bright girl at the heart of the mystery. The others are inexplicably drawn to her and become increasingly devoted to her with each passing day. Is it possible that Abbie is manipulating her classmates and using their worst fears against them?

The secrets are locked in tales from the past, where only The Narrator can find them.

The story weaves between the classroom and the tales, each of which is adequately spooky and specifically tailored to wreak havoc. Julia soon finds herself in a battle of wills with a sixth-grader.