When September Ends

by J.G. Faherty

When Debbie Holten and her friends find her little sister’s body sprawled on the beach at the bottom of a thirty-foot drop, they’re terrified. Mallory’s fall was her own fault, but the four kids are sure they’ll get blamed.

Debbie’s still trying to find her place in her new foster family. The last thing she wants is to give them a reason to send her back. In a panic, they hide Mallory’s broken body in a cave, hoping her “disappearance” will be easier to explain to the adults. And it works.

For a while.

On the first anniversary of Mallory’s death, one of the group turns up dead. The kids try to explain it away—but each “death-versary” brings about more horror and tragedy.

Debbie knows her baby sister’s death was an accident…but it seems Mallory’s spirit disagrees.

84 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 2025

About the author

JG Faherty is a Bram Stoker Award® and ITW Thriller Award nominee and the author of six novels, nine novellas, and more than 50 short stories. He writes adult and YA horror/sci-fi/fantasy, and his works range from quiet, dark suspense to over-the-top comic gruesomeness.

His novels and novellas, all of which are listed on Goodreads, include THE CURE, CARNIVAL OF FEAR, GHOSTS OF CORONADO BAY, CEMETERY CLUB, THE BURNING TIME, LEGACY, CASTLE BY THE SEA, FATAL CONSEQUENCES, THIEF OF SOULS, THE COLD SPOT, and HE WAITS.

He enjoys urban exploring, photography, classic B-movies, good wine, and pumpkin beer. As a child, his favorite playground was a 17th-century cemetery, which many people feel explains a lot. His personal motto is "Photobombing people since 1979!" You can follow him at www.twitter.com/jgfaherty, www.facebook.com/jgfaherty, http://about.me/jgfaherty, and www.jgfaherty.com.

Reviews

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did I stay up til 2 am to read this entire story? Yes.

Any regrets? Not a single one.

Super creepy, atmospheric, with an ending I never saw coming 🫢

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. Thank you to Graveside Press for the ARC.

I enjoyed this story, for the most part. Young teens making a bad choice upon finding one of their little sisters has accidentally died on their watch is a pretty standard YA horror/thriller trope, and this one is done better than a lot of them. As other reviewers have mentioned, this is *very* short - only 80 pages. I feel like that didn't give the story room to breathe; it all felt rushed, with a lot of simply telling us things that had happened instead of showing us the scenes or letting us get to know the characters better.

What *was* there was great! It just felt like more of an outline than a full story. If it had been fleshed out a little more, I'd be giving it a more enthusiastic, full 4 or 4.5 stars. Still wholly worth your time, though, as it moves quickly and is very easy to read in one sitting. And a bit unpredictable, as well. I was sure the cryptic ghost messages meant one thing, and . . . I was wrong, y'all.

Side note: you guys, the gasp I gasped when we're told the protagonist is taking a full community college course load, and it's 24 FREAKING CREDIT HOURS IN A SEMESTER - eight classes five days a week?! Five classes three days a week, and three classes the other two days?! How does community college work in the universe of this story, because that's a double course load in the real world! 12 hours is considered full time, and I'm not even sure a college advisor would *approve* double that for a freshman's very first semester! I'm sorry, but the distraction this caused me for all of Chapter 6, oh my lord. 🫣

[JJ Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun! It was well written and so easy to read. It swept me up and I finished it in just one night. It was warmly familiar but quirky enough, with the 'teens do something they shouldn't and get inordinately punished for it' trope.

Reminiscent of our favourite horror films from our youth: Nightmare on Elm Street and Final Destination. Loved it!

[Epiphany Ferrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mallory Holten could be kind of a brat. She’s much worse now that she’s dead.

When September Ends, the new novella by JG Faherty, is a story about the end of summer. And innocence. And, one by one, the lives of Mallory’s sister Debbie’s friends.

But what would you do? It’s not Debbie’s fault Mallory didn’t listen. She didn’t want her kid sister to come along anyway. If her foster parents—who only recently adopted Debbie—would hadn’t made Debbie take the kid hiking, and if only Mallory would listen and quit fooling around, this never would have happened. And if anyone finds out, it won’t matter that it wasn’t Debbie’s fault. She’ll get blamed and then what, back to the foster system? Juvenile detention?

Guilt is a terrible thing. A vengeful dead 10-year-old is more terrible still.

Give yourself time, you’ll want to read this at one sitting. This one is like a bullet-train—it takes off fast, and it does not slow down. Faherty is expert at piling on the terror, and at crafting characters you want to root for. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself advising Debbie and her friends about their course of action. Careful though, you don’t want Mallory to hear.

Graveside Press. AI-free, all human. Including the very cool cover.

[Catherine Cavendish · Rating 5 out of 5]

When ten-year-old Mallory dies in a tragic accident, her foster sister, Debbie, along with her friends, panics. They hide the body which goes undiscovered. Debbie and her friends get on with their lives except that one year later, on the anniversary of the little girl's death, the first friend dies. The next year, it happens again, and by now the friends know this is no tragic coincidence. Mallory's spirit is angry - and hellbent on revenge. Time is running out for Debbie.

I have long been a fan of JG Faherty's stories and this is no exception. It's a short novella that lacks a lot of punch into its pages. I read it one thoroughly enjoyable and gripping session. I loved the ending - just when you thought it was over, the unexpected happened. Brilliant!

[Terry Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

When September Ends by JG Faherty is a fast-paced, frightening novella that tells the lesson of something we've all done--making bad decisions. When 10-year-old Mallory falls from a cliff and dies, her sister Debbie and her friends devise a scheme to save themselves from possible repercussions, but soon learn the truth is always the best option. Mallory will not rest until her point is made. Can Debbie make amends for her mistake, or will she pay the ultimate penalty? A great, fun read!

[Jim Donohue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this tale of the dead girl and the teens that tried to hide it. Mallory falls off a cliff on her sister Debbie's watch. Debbie and her friends try to hide it to escape blame, but poor dead Mallory won't hear of it. Debbie soon learns the error of her ways in this fast paced, exciting novella by JG Faherty.
This is the kind of book you pick up and don't want to put down until you reach the end. And those are the best kind!

[Ilia Epifanov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Graveside Press for the ARC!

I enjoyed this novella - it's short and sweet, with some good scary imagery! My only complaint was it was a little too short for a story spanning several years. I would've liked a longer version that let me get more invested in the characters so the outcome is more effective.

[lucky 13 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good 3.75 for me.

[PrettyBookish13 · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️4.5
This was a really well written short horror and I was hooked from the first page until the last! The ending was brilliant and unexpected

[Kamiye · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short read you didn’t know you needed to stay awake until September.

The plot:
Debbie’s little sister, Mallory, ends up dead on the beach. She and her friends are terrified and start a series of bad choices, the first one being hiding Mallory’s broken body. The adults seem to understand what happened, a pact is being made between friends, and it all looks normal. Almost normal. Until each “death-versary” of Mallory brings more than bad memories.

“Dammit, Mallory. You’ve really screwed things up.”

The atmosphere:
Everything in the book is tragic. Tragic because of the teenager's choices, tragic because no one should be scared like Debbie is scared in the book, and tragic because little sisters should stay at home and not drop from a thirty-foot drop.
Each passing year marks a sense of finality, and each page you read gives you a sense of dread, something is coming, there is no way to avoid it, and when September ends, you might not leave unscattered.

What I think:
I have a thing for ghosts. I tend to prefer the friendly ones, like Casper, but I also love the bad ones. The ones haunting you in your dreams, but also outside of them, the ones that can hurt you whenever you think about them. When September Ends packs a punch in very few pages. It’s creepy, the sense of guilt is powerful, and we sincerely want to believe Mallory’s ghost is right, but is she?

Who is it for?
New reader to the horror genre, and maybe a little freaked out by long books filled with ghosts. Pick a short one, the ghosts are still there, but it will pass quicker, maybe. The haunting is still haunting, and the ghosts are strong. I also recommend this read to people who love the horror genre, plain and simple. The recipe works, you won’t regret reading it.


--- PREVIOUS REVIEW ---
Debbie's little sister Mallory dies tragically on the beach. Debbie and her friends hide the body. She's scared to go back to foster care, scared to be blamed. However, Mallory's death-versary brings more death and tragedy.

A short (80 pages) and entertaining horror story. It was a nice read, I liked it. I liked how the teenagers tried to move forward after Mallory's death and failed to do so.

I would recommend this short story for people who maybe never read horror before and might want to try the genre. The trigger warnings are available at the end of the book.

I received a free copy of this book via Graveside Press and am voluntarily leaving a review. This review is my own.