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What Stayed
As a child, Elena experienced things she could never unsettling encounters and moments that left her questioning what was real. Her mother knew more than she ever shared, but as Elena grew older, she learned to leave those memories behind.
Years later, her mother disappears without explanation.
Elena returns to the apartment where she grew up, hoping to find a clue to what happened. Nothing appears disturbed. Her mother’s belongings are still there, as though she never intended to leave.
But the longer Elena stays, the more the past begins to feel uncomfortably close.
Finding out what happened to her mother may mean confronting what Elena has spent years trying to forget.
Years later, her mother disappears without explanation.
Elena returns to the apartment where she grew up, hoping to find a clue to what happened. Nothing appears disturbed. Her mother’s belongings are still there, as though she never intended to leave.
But the longer Elena stays, the more the past begins to feel uncomfortably close.
Finding out what happened to her mother may mean confronting what Elena has spent years trying to forget.
167 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 22, 2026
About the author
Aurelie Duncanson
12 books17 followersI grew up in France and moved to the United States when I was 26 years old. With a degree in French literature and a lifelong love of reading, I have always been especially drawn to thrillers, mysteries, and psychological fiction.
For the past ten years, I have been teaching French while pursuing my passion for storytelling. My stories blend suspense, mystery, and psychological tension, often exploring the unsettling things that hide beneath the ordinary.
I am the author of The Mind’s Appetite, The Neighbor She Never Knew, Whispers From the City of Light, The Woman Who Came for Christmas, Death at Crystal Cliffs, the first book in the Lina Brémont Mysteries, and What Stayed, a supernatural thriller.
My short stories have also appeared in anthologies, including “La Dame Blanche” in As Told Under the Moon (also available as a standalone publication) and “Sweetheart Cage” in The Cages We Endure.
For the past ten years, I have been teaching French while pursuing my passion for storytelling. My stories blend suspense, mystery, and psychological tension, often exploring the unsettling things that hide beneath the ordinary.
I am the author of The Mind’s Appetite, The Neighbor She Never Knew, Whispers From the City of Light, The Woman Who Came for Christmas, Death at Crystal Cliffs, the first book in the Lina Brémont Mysteries, and What Stayed, a supernatural thriller.
My short stories have also appeared in anthologies, including “La Dame Blanche” in As Told Under the Moon (also available as a standalone publication) and “Sweetheart Cage” in The Cages We Endure.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 27, 2026
Looking for a creepy ghost story to kick off spooky season? Aurelie Duncanson's new novel, What Stayed, is exactly what the occasion calls for.
Elena grew up experiencing things she couldn't explain. Strange encounters and moments that blurred the line between real and imagined. Her mother always seemed to know more than she let on, but as Elena got older, she pushed those memories aside and moved on with her life.
Years later, her mother vanishes.
Elena heads back to the apartment she grew up in, searching for any sign of what happened. Doors and windows are open, as if she just stepped out for an errand. Her mother's things are all still there. The longer Elena lingers in that space, the harder the past is to keep at arm's length.
What Stayed keeps you on edge from start to finish. Elena’s predicament is genuinely tense, and Duncanson ratchets up the dread with sharp prose. Something dark is watching. And it wants something from Elena. The question is what, and why.
Duncanson's writing grips you with lines such as, "Then I would wake. The old lady would be standing in the doorway," and "We stood in darkness. From somewhere down the hall came the soft sound of a woman humming." It's the kind of quiet, creeping dread that gets under your skin.
Half the fun here was trying to puzzle out what the entity was after, right alongside Elena, as she strings together broken memories and her mother's cryptic warnings. This book is packed with details that feel genuinely fresh and unnerving. You’ll never look at a closet the same way again. Her mother's clues come as notes on cards, scattered like breadcrumbs, and piecing them together felt like doing detective work alongside the character.
There's a moment that still sticks with me: "Whatever had been standing in my doorway all those nights was not only watching me. It was waiting." And another, from one of those cryptic cards: "If she comes back, do not let her open it.”
Solving the mystery of her mother's disappearance means Elena has to face the very thing she's spent years running from. Fans of supernatural suspense and paranormal thrillers, don’t skip this one.
Elena grew up experiencing things she couldn't explain. Strange encounters and moments that blurred the line between real and imagined. Her mother always seemed to know more than she let on, but as Elena got older, she pushed those memories aside and moved on with her life.
Years later, her mother vanishes.
Elena heads back to the apartment she grew up in, searching for any sign of what happened. Doors and windows are open, as if she just stepped out for an errand. Her mother's things are all still there. The longer Elena lingers in that space, the harder the past is to keep at arm's length.
What Stayed keeps you on edge from start to finish. Elena’s predicament is genuinely tense, and Duncanson ratchets up the dread with sharp prose. Something dark is watching. And it wants something from Elena. The question is what, and why.
Duncanson's writing grips you with lines such as, "Then I would wake. The old lady would be standing in the doorway," and "We stood in darkness. From somewhere down the hall came the soft sound of a woman humming." It's the kind of quiet, creeping dread that gets under your skin.
Half the fun here was trying to puzzle out what the entity was after, right alongside Elena, as she strings together broken memories and her mother's cryptic warnings. This book is packed with details that feel genuinely fresh and unnerving. You’ll never look at a closet the same way again. Her mother's clues come as notes on cards, scattered like breadcrumbs, and piecing them together felt like doing detective work alongside the character.
There's a moment that still sticks with me: "Whatever had been standing in my doorway all those nights was not only watching me. It was waiting." And another, from one of those cryptic cards: "If she comes back, do not let her open it.”
Solving the mystery of her mother's disappearance means Elena has to face the very thing she's spent years running from. Fans of supernatural suspense and paranormal thrillers, don’t skip this one.
October 7, 2026
“What Stayed” by Aurelie Duncanson also stayed with me in a deliciously dark way.
I started reading this book on an airplane. Somewhere around the second chapter, I yearned for a quiet nook to dig in. When I finally made that happen, I stopped being sure I was alone.
Nothing happened, not exactly. That's the trick of it. Elena the MC returns to the apartment where she grew up, searching for her vanished mother, and finds every belonging in its place, as if she meant to come back any minute. Then the past begins to lean in through her backstory, and so, somehow, did the room I was reading in. I turned a page and heard the house settle.
Aurelie Duncanson writes with an unnerving certainty, like someone who has stood in that very place and listened to what it had to say. She understands how the mind buries what it cannot explain, and how those buried things wait for the precise moment to emerge. Whether she's gifted with second sight or simply listening harder than most of us, I cannot say. I only know the dark presence in this story saw me coming.
Beneath the creeping dread and mystery lives something tender and true about relationships with mothers and daughters, between spaces that carve holes in brooding silence, and the secrets that protect us… until they don't. The ending lingers and prompts one to consider what symbols and signs you’ve missed. Read with the lights on. It won't help, but you'll feel better for trying.
Review of advance copy received from Author
LOVED IT!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The queen of isolation horror delivers again with her new supernatural suspense story! ‘What Stayed’ is the kind of story that keeps you balancing on a knife’s edge the entire time you’re reading. Elena situation is precarious and Duncanson makes you feel every bit of her dread with her razor-sharp writing style, dialing up the anxiety by having Elena’s mother talk in riddles. There’s a dark entity that likes to watch and learn. It wants something specifically from Elena. But what and why?
I loved trying to figure out what the entity wanted from Elena as she attempted to piece together memories and her mother’s warnings. There were so many elements of this story that were so creepy and original. I already had issues with closets, after reading ‘What Stayed’ they are ten times worse!
If you like supernatural suspense/ paranormal thrillers this is one you’re going to want to move to the top of your TBR. It’s absolutely PERFECT for the spooky season!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The queen of isolation horror delivers again with her new supernatural suspense story! ‘What Stayed’ is the kind of story that keeps you balancing on a knife’s edge the entire time you’re reading. Elena situation is precarious and Duncanson makes you feel every bit of her dread with her razor-sharp writing style, dialing up the anxiety by having Elena’s mother talk in riddles. There’s a dark entity that likes to watch and learn. It wants something specifically from Elena. But what and why?
I loved trying to figure out what the entity wanted from Elena as she attempted to piece together memories and her mother’s warnings. There were so many elements of this story that were so creepy and original. I already had issues with closets, after reading ‘What Stayed’ they are ten times worse!
If you like supernatural suspense/ paranormal thrillers this is one you’re going to want to move to the top of your TBR. It’s absolutely PERFECT for the spooky season!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews