The Haunting of Cassie Palmer

by Vivien Alcock

Thirteen-year-old Cassie Palmer, the seventh child of a seventh child, has inherited the gift of second sight. Unsure whether or not she even believes in ghosts, Cassie heads to the cemetery to test her ability to communicate with the Other World. She starts with the departed spirit of a harmless child: CHARLOTTE EMMA ELIZABETH WEBB, BORN 1840 DIED 1847. But when a mysterious man appears, Cassie finds a new companion. Is he a gravedigger? A bum? Or did Cassie's inexperience cause her to bring back Charlotte's frightening neighbor: DEVERILL 1720 - 1762?

Genres: Childrens, Fantasy, Fiction, Paranormal, Horror, Middle Grade, Mystery

187 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Born September 23, 1924, in Worthing, Sussex, England; died October 11, 2003, in London, England. Author. Alcock was a bestselling author of mystery and fantasy fiction for young adults. Her early training and career, however, was in commercial art, and she attended the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Arts from 1940 to 1942. She left school to become an ambulance driver for the Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II; after the war, she held several different jobs, including as an artist for the duplicating firm Gestetner Ltd. from 1947 to 1953. This was followed by three years as an employment bureau manager; and from 1956 to 1964 Alcock worked as a secretary for Whiltington Hospital in London. Although she had enjoyed storytelling and novels since she was a child, Alcock was shy about trying to be a published author and was content to stay in the background behind her famous author husband, Leon Garfield. However, she did occasionally give him ideas for his books, such as the popular Smith stories. It was not until 1980, therefore, that she finally published her first novel for teenagers, The Haunting of Cassie Palmer. Alcock continued writing fantasies, ghost stories, and mysteries through 2001, many of which proved popular with teens and some of which were adapted to television as movies and series. She published almost two dozen books in all, including Travelers by Night (1983), The Cuckoo Sister (1985), The Monster Garden (1988), A Kind of Thief (1992), Time Wreck (1996), A Gift on a String (1998), Ticket to Heaven (2000), and her last book, The Boy Who Swallowed a Ghost (2001). Several of her novels were named notable books by the American Library Association (ALA), and The Monster Garden was named the best science fiction/fantasy book of 1988 by the ALA.

Reviews

[Capn]

'I'm not frightened,' Cassie boasted to the listening night. She was not a coward. She wasn't going to run away like Tom and Mary.
She began to gabble the words of her mother's call to the spirits: 'Come! O, come to me! I am ready! I am waiting!'
There was no answer, only the sound of the wind. Then a voice said,
'What do you want?'
A huge shadow towered above her - she saw it was a man, dressed in a black cloak. His face was thin, his eyes hidden by the shadow of his hat, his pale skin drained of all colour by the moon. As she stared in horror, he said again, 'What do you want? What do you want with me, little girl?'

There are already several full and helpful reviews (I love it when people take the time to do so! Thank you!), so I'll mention that ISBN 0 00 671895 7 has an alternative cover, and it's a low-resolution production still from "A Major TV Series":

Cover photographs by Tony Nutley show Helen Probyn as Cassie, Geoffrey Rose as Deverill and Elizabeth Spriggs as Mrs Palmer in the TVS drama for ITV, dramatised by Alfred Shaughnessy. Directed by Dorothea Brooking. Executive Producer Anna Home.

All that on the back cover, under the summary I gave above. Dreadful stuff.

3.5 stars, rounding up. I found it caught me up very quickly into the story - Mrs. Palmer is a larger (tee hee!) than life psychic medium who resembles an elephant when wearing a grey mac, a widow with seven children and bells, feathers and pieces of wood hidden under capacious gowns of crushed velvet for her totally-legit-but-perhaps-with-a-little-embellishment seances

'So we use a bit of - well, you might call it - er - showmanship! That's the word. Like in a circus. You know, the drums, the tinsel! All the razzmatazz before the lions come on. Well, it doesn't mean the lions aren't real. Now, does it?'

Take aways from this are: 1. Don't go into graveyards at night, calling up the dead. 2. If you absolutely insist on calling up the dead, you'd better have a good reason that suits both parties. And 3. If you call up a lonely ghost who calls you its friend, perhaps consider treating it like one. It was (is?) a person, too - kindness usually goes a long way in this life, who's to say it wouldn't also in another phase of reality?! 4. Not all men lurking about graveyards at night wearing capes are perverts and flashers (Cassie's brother Tom's pat explanation of Deverill was delightful!).

Also, it seems irresponsible, to say the least, to have seven children, just so you can have a 'seventh child of a seventh child'.

'Oh, I knew you'd have a great gift little though it showed! Let people say what they like against large families, what I say is, you can't have a seventh child of a seventh child without 'em! Just wait and see, I'd say, we didn't have all those children for nothing, I hope!'

Mrs. Palmer is a terrible mother. But a hilarious caricature. I think anyone with a Tiger Mom who has the child's life planned out for them before they are even conceived would recognise her faults. You might even feel hurt, especially if you're one of those other useless children. ;) Cassie, of course, gets a double-helping of crap from the self-absorbed parent, whereas the other kids just get neglect. Cassie was already 'haunted' well before she called up Deverill - haunted by her mother's expectations, a lack of autonomy, and doomed to a life she doesn't want. Fun stuff.

That said, light-hearted stuff. Though as an adult, I felt sorry for Deverill the whole time, and the discovery of his past just made it worse. A bit depressing, but if I had read this at the intended 8 - 12 years of age, I probably woudn't have noticed a thing. ;)

[Laina SpareTime]

Cross-posted from my blog where there's more information on where I got my copy and links and everything.

I read this as a kid, and I remember liking it, but I didn’t know if I would as an adult. Turns out, it held up pretty well. There’s a decent voice, with a decent plot, and it’s very atmospheric. I liked that their mom was fat and it wasn’t treated some a terrible thing. Some of the language used about her wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t horrible.

It didn’t take a lot of time to read, and overall was just fine. I’m not sure if this is one where I’d say they should put out a reprint, but I had a fun time reading it. Two of the books advertises in the back of this are When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson, and The Sara Summer by Mary Downing Hahn and I think those are perfect to describe what kind of book this is. If you saw it in a secondhand store or something, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick it up. Or if you read this as a kid and you’re curious about it, I wouldn’t say you’d be disappointed rereading as an adult.

Also, points on the book for a jab at Flat Earthers. That’s just funny. This is a slim little book, and my copy is in great shape, so I think I’m gonna keep it for now.

[Aung Khant]

The book I read is The Haunting of Cassie Palmer. It is written by Vivien Alcock. The genre of this book is fantasy and mystery. This book takes place before cars were invented. It is in a place where people speak English.
The main character of this book is Cassie Palmer. She is thirteen years old. She has blonde hair. She is the seventh child of the seventh child, which means she has the power to summon the departed spirits and to see them. She believes in spirits, but she says she does not to her family. Her mother’s name is Madame Palmer. She has put on weight and also has the power of second sight. She and Cassie do not always see eye to eye with each other. Cassie’s father is not mentioned in the book. She has six other siblings but only the younger two siblings are left because the older three siblings left Madame Palmer. So, Cassie has only a brother and a sister left. Their names are Tom Palmer and Mary Palmer.
The antagonist of the story is Deverill 1720-1762. He is a departed spirit who once was the son of an evil witch. People bullied and tried to kill him because his mother was a witch. Deverill was summoned when Cassie tried to test her powers and now Cassie wants to get rid of him. The McTodds are the couple who wants to adopt Tom and he wants to answer them with open arms . But Cassie disagrees because she is afraid she will not see him anymore like the other elder brothers. Mrs. Pettifeather’s house was once Deverill’s house. She also has a dog named Otto.
In the beginning of the story, Cassie was dared by her brother and sister to use her power to call a spirit and to show that she was not afraid. So she went to a cemetery and summoned Deverill. Deverill started showing up after school and told Cassie how to make evil potions to use against bullies at her school. She didn’t want to use it and ignored them. Cassie wanted to unsummon Deverill. So she told her mother about Deverill but her mother did not know how to help her. Mrs. Palmer said that since Cassie is the one who called Deverill, she will have to be the one to make him go back to sleep. Soon after six or seven days walking with Deverill Casie began to get familiar with Deverill’s frightening features. She began to know that Deverill was just a poor creature and started to feel sorry for him.
Her mother was worried about Cassie so she called the Psychic Society to deal with Deverill. Cassie’s mother told Cassie that Mr. Roberts from the Psychic Society was going to come on Monday and put Deverill back to his grave. Cassie doesn’t want to betray Deverill so she told him. Cassie was surprised that he was okay with it. The next day, Cassie and Deverill met once more and he showed Cassie his old house and told her about the hidden treasure that he hid in the attic of the house. Now the house is owned by an old woman called Mrs.Pettifeather. Everyday in the morning, she took her dog, Otto, on a walk. While she taking it for a walk, Deverill brought Cassie to Deverill’s house. Deverill encouraged her to steal the treasure. He simply said that the treasure was his but now that he is dead, he just wants to give it to Cassie. Cassie declined the offer and quickly ran home. The next day, Cassie’s family woke up early and waited for Mr. Roberts.Before Mr. Roberts came to Cassie’s house, she got a future vision that a person stood in front of Mr. Roberts’s car and cause it to crash. She could not see the person but she guessed that he/she was Deverill. So she went to the road that the Mr. Roberts’s car and tried to warn him. But she was the one that ran in front of the car and caused the crash. Luckily, Mr. Roberts was not seriously hurt. Deverill stood by her watching her. Cassie yelled at him and he got angry. Deverill challenged her to come to the cemetery tomorrow night to kill him. He said that it was where he was called and so it must be where he would have to go.
Spoiler Alert!!!
That tomorrow night, Cassie sneaked of to the cemetery from her family. When she got to the gloomy graveyard, she saw a long shadow holding a spear. She was ready to fight Deverill. But the shadow was actually Tom who followed her to help her fight Deverill. He had overheard her talk with Deverill so he wants to help Cassie. One minute later, Deverill showed up looking more frightening than ever. He saw the stick Tom was holding and asked Tom to kill him. “Kill, kill, kill” he kept whispering. Tom raised the stick and was about to strike when Cassie stopped her. Cassie said that Deverill wants to turn us into a devil like him. So Tom dropped the stake and Deverill glared at them. The mist in the cemetery raised and for a second, Cassie can’t see anything and then the mist cleared and they were completely in a different place. There was this crowd that surrounded a poor looking boy. “ Kill the little devil! Burned him like her mother the damn witch!” said the angry people in the crowd. The boy was bruised and crying. Cassie saw him and called him to help him but the boy did not see Cassie. Once again the mist raised and cleared out and they were back in the cemetery. Deverill said goodbye to Cassie and then vanished. That was the end of the haunting of Cassie Palmer. Cassie told her family everything that night. Cassie’s mother looked fidgety so Cassie asked what was going on and she said that they had a saying “Early come, early go” . It means that Cassie’s power came too soon it was used to summon a ghost which required a lot of power so the power that Cassie has was all burned. Her mother said that Cassie has no more powers and Cassie was delighted because she always wanted to be a doctor, not a medium who helps the dead.Then Mary said that they should take the treasure.She said that she will deal with Mrs. Pettifeather. Then they went to her house the next day and told her about the treasure. She agreed and let them take the treasure. They used it to buy a house and lived there since.
The theme words that I chose for this story are fairness and bravery. I chose fairness because in the story Cassie was not being fair to Deverill. She treated him like an animal and yelled at him when she wanted. I think what the author is trying to tell us is do not look a person by his/her appearance. There are some people that are rough diamonds too. For bravery, I chose it because Cassie was brave enough to summon him in the first place but in the end it was her bravery that made her go to the cemetery to end Deverill. I think the author is trying to say that sometimes we have to make risks and explore.I think this book is boring for the first two chapters but when I read on, it sucked my mind into the story. I would recommend it to students and teachers who like mystery and fantasy.

The End

[Jennifer]

This is an easy read, and just a tinge of fear. Cassie is a 13 yr old seventh child of a seventh child, set to become a medium like her mother when she gets older. But unlike her mother, it seems Cassie has a real gift. When teased about her abilities, she raises a specter named Deverill (by mistake. It was supposed to be a young girl) and becomes convinced he’s her personal devil. He tries to convince her of wicked things under the guise of being helpful.

Some of this book is difficult to understand as far as plot. Why does her mother say she’s lost the gift at the end? What sense do her brothers and sisters make? Her mother is kind of nonsensical anyway. I also feel there could have been a lot more done with her gift at the beginning, like when she “saw ghosts” at the beginning.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer]

I saw this as a BBC mini-series before I read the book. I enjoyed them both.

[Cherry]

Multidimensional, flawed and fairly realistic characters in a spooky coming-of-age contemporary fantasy story. This standalone book was something I read many many years ago after having seen an adaptation of it in the British series "Into the Labyrinth", if I am remembering correctly. There were several stories that stuck with me from that show and I am starting to try to track them down and re-read them.

Cassandra is just turning 13 and dealing with the standard anxieties of a new teenager as well as trying to rebel against her domineering mother's ideas of what she should do and be. The story is a little spooky but not over the top, and keeps you guessing as to the motivations of a mysterious stranger who might or might not be an evil spirit.

[Macjest]

Reading this for the first time as an adult, and it was…okay. Cassie is the seventh child of a seventh child. You can already see where this is going. She’s supposed to begin showing signs of an ability but at age 13 she hasn’t yet. Until she calls forth a dead person. This is written for young people, so it isn’t super scary. I probably would have liked it more as a kid.

[Emma Spreckley]

Didn’t realise it was a children’s book at first- probably would of changed my view when reading. Got a about half way through and stopped as found the plot too easy to read and not scary enough for me. Would be good for a child or teen interested in ghosts though.

[MR A STRACHAN]

I read this when it was 1st published back in 1980. I was 7.
It was the very time a character in a story came to life.
The character was Deverill.
I actually could see him and I'm fairly confident that was when my love of books and reading began.

[Doodles McC]

I liked this children's chilling tale as a young child. 13-year-old Cassie Palmer, the seventh child of a seventh child, has inherited the gift of second sight. Unsure whether or not she even believes in ghosts, Cassie heads to the cemetery to test her ability to communicate with the Other World.

[Emily]

Blah. The writing was choppy and character's actions didn't always make sense. Skip this one.

[Sarah Somehagen]

Halfway through but can't get into it.

[Shiloah]

A good one for Halloween

[Janet Bird]

I sometimes think the young adult books are more enjoyable, not so much waffle. Enjoyed it, as good as the tv series.

[Kassie]

Picked up this book from the library a couple days ago. The description reminded me of "The Dark is Rising" and "Wait Till Helen Comes" (another children's ghost story that I like). I'd recommend this book to any children's lit enthusiast. It's quick, suspenseful, and has all the elements of a good "scary" story.

[Catherine Mustread]

Grades 5+. 13-year-old Cassie doesn't believe in the psychic power of being the 7th child of a 7th child until she conjures up a ghost.