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The Séance: A Paranormal Locked Room Thriller for Young Adults
Lauren is reluctant to participate in the séance, and she feels the first foreboding of evil shortly after the room is darkened. When the lights come back on, her fear turns to shock: Sara Martin is missing, even though all the doors and windows are locked from the inside...
224 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1980
22 people are currently reading
923 people want to read
About the author
Joan Lowery Nixon
188 books485 followersAuthor of more than one hundred books, Joan Lowery Nixon is the only writer to have won four Edgar Allan Poe Awards for Juvenile Mysteries (and been nominated several other times) from the Mystery Writers of America. Creating contemporary teenage characters who have both a personal problem and a mystery to solve, Nixon captured the attention of legions of teenage readers since the publication of her first YA novel more than twenty years ago. In addition to mystery/suspense novels, she wrote nonfiction and fiction for children and middle graders, as well as several short stories. Nixon was the first person to write novels for teens about the orphan trains of the nineteenth century. She followed those with historical novels about Ellis Island and, more recently for younger readers, Colonial Williamsburg. Joan Lowery Nixon died on June 28, 2003—a great loss for all of us.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 163 reviews
May 2, 2020
So many young women are getting murdered and yet, once again, the biggest choice a teenager faces is whether or not to go to college.
June 11, 2021
🕯 Throwback to the 80’s 🕯
I have a lot going on right now so I’ve been in and out of reading slumps for the past few weeks.
I’ve heard from many Booktuber & Bookstagrammer friends that reading a middle grade book can really get you out of your slumber, but I haven’t tested this theory until a few days ago.
“...You want to run, but your feet don’t move, and you want to scream but your mouth won’t make a sound.”
Lauren and Sara, who live together but not by choice, gather together with some friends one Friday night. They make plans ahead of time to hold a Seance since Roberta claims that she can speak to the dead and her parents are going away for the evening.
But, when the lights shut off and the candles blow out one of them disappears. Was she sneaking out to see the boy that frequently drops her off late at night? But if so,how did she escape through the doors that are still dead bolted?
When her body turns up in the woods, who will be next? What does Lauren know that she’s hiding from the police?
A whodunnit that was a breath of fresh air from the craziness that I usually read! I did figure the ending out, but I still really liked it nonetheless.
This takes me back to my middle grade years reading Goosebumps & Fear Street. I never was the type of girl who read Babysitter’s Club, I started off scared and hit the ground running.
4 ⭐️.
💭 What did you read in middle grade?
💭 Do you read middle grade books as an adult?
💭 How often do you get in reading slumps?
I have a lot going on right now so I’ve been in and out of reading slumps for the past few weeks.
I’ve heard from many Booktuber & Bookstagrammer friends that reading a middle grade book can really get you out of your slumber, but I haven’t tested this theory until a few days ago.
“...You want to run, but your feet don’t move, and you want to scream but your mouth won’t make a sound.”
Lauren and Sara, who live together but not by choice, gather together with some friends one Friday night. They make plans ahead of time to hold a Seance since Roberta claims that she can speak to the dead and her parents are going away for the evening.
But, when the lights shut off and the candles blow out one of them disappears. Was she sneaking out to see the boy that frequently drops her off late at night? But if so,how did she escape through the doors that are still dead bolted?
When her body turns up in the woods, who will be next? What does Lauren know that she’s hiding from the police?
A whodunnit that was a breath of fresh air from the craziness that I usually read! I did figure the ending out, but I still really liked it nonetheless.
This takes me back to my middle grade years reading Goosebumps & Fear Street. I never was the type of girl who read Babysitter’s Club, I started off scared and hit the ground running.
4 ⭐️.
💭 What did you read in middle grade?
💭 Do you read middle grade books as an adult?
💭 How often do you get in reading slumps?
June 4, 2012
This is one of my least favorite book.
The author got my hopes up because she's an EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD WINNER.
I was hoping the book was more about the supernatural with some awesome horror twist in it. What it turned out to be was just a simple murder mystery. Rather disappointing
The author got my hopes up because she's an EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD WINNER.
I was hoping the book was more about the supernatural with some awesome horror twist in it. What it turned out to be was just a simple murder mystery. Rather disappointing
August 26, 2025
It was like a nightmare in which a creature without eyes and nose and mouth is coming toward you, and you want to run, but your feet don't move; and you want to scream, but your mouth won't make a sound.
My mind reached out to the someone in the house, to the faceless spider in the web.
A creepy mystery of murder. Reminiscent of Twin Peaks and the question, "Who killed Laura Palmer?"
Favorite Passages:
I reached for the plate of buttered toast, and my eyes met Sara's clear blue ones. Her slow smile was sugared cream, spilled from the smugness of knowing things I didn't know, being where I had never been and might never go.
______
The words seemed to hang in a little pool of quiet air as the remembered echoes of our shouts banged around the walls and faded away.
______
She seemed to be in a weird state of unawareness.
______
"If we are to reach into the unknown, we must go there together."
______
"There is something fearful in this room! There's something terrible! Don't you feel it?"
______
We looked at each other, but at the same time we were really afraid our eyes would meet, so our glances shot back and forth from each other's faces like ricocheting bullets, leaving only little dents of mistrust.
______
". . . things from the other world aren't to be tempered with, but you also know that girls don't just spirited away from a seance, no matter how foolish they're behaving."
______
Carley turned white, and I mean really. I've read about people turning pale at bad news, but here it was in the flesh. He swayed the way pines do in a storm blown in from the Gulf, then grabbed my shoulder to steady himself.
______
She shook her head back and forth and looked a million years older than she had when I walked in the door.
______
Nothing made sense, but I could picture the dark tangle of pines and myrtles and oaks that kept the Big Thicket dim on even the brightest day. And the dense tangle of undergrowth, knotted together with tievines and briars. And the water moccasins that slip through ponds of swamp water, leaving silent ripples in their wake. And the rattlers, and the grunting wild hogs that attack the hunters and try to rip them apart with their tusks before the blast of a shotgun. There are people who love the Thicket and go there for the rich earth smells, and to gather may haws for jelly, but to me it's a fearsome place. I couldn't bear the thought of Sara's going inside the Thicket. What was she doing there? Why did she go?
______
We sat there silently, wrapped in our individual shrouds of guilt . . .
______
I was cold in spite of the September heat that carried the scent of fresh-cut grass from the Lester house next door and the buzz of angry black bees diving in and out of clusters of fat yellow blossoms on the bignonia vine.
______
"I wouldn't put too much blame on the girls," she said. "There are a lot of folks around here who lay it to the dark side of things."
______
"We all move inside ourselves too much. Dumping emotions on anyone who'll listen doesn't help that much."
______
. . . like a photograph that is slightly blurred.
______
Under the heat of the afternoon sun, which beat against the leaves of the ancient dusty oaks, each of us from the seance stood alone. Like so many pillars of salt, we had tried to look back and failed. And in the eyes of the others who shared the pale, flat sky with us, there was sometimes suspicion, sometimes a little fear.
_______
I had made my way past the kitchen windowsill with its bunches of dried leaves and odd-sized bottles and jars containing slips of plants growing in them, the roots stringing out through the water in tiny white fingers. I was standing before the stone fireplace in the corner, thinking how unusual it was to have a fireplace in a kitchen, when my glance fell on something that made me automatically step back. On the mantel, on a level with my eyes, was a row of little gray skulls!
There was a chuckle close to my ear, and Mrs. Hughes touched my shoulders, moving me forward again. "Those are my little birds," she said, laughing. "Aren't they precious? Little bird skulls. I began finding them in the Thicket years ago."
She picked up one and held it out to me. "Here, take it. Hold it. Feel how smooth it is. Look at the tiny beak."
I held it in my fingers gingerly. It seemed so vulnerable, so weird with the wide hole where the neck had been, and the gaping sockets for the tiny eyes. The beak curved over my index finger, and its point was sharp.
She took it from me and placed it back with care on the mantel, where it joined the others, mock guardians of the room.
Mrs. Hughes began to laugh again. "It's really a joke," she said. "All the birds, and the cat can't get to them."
I looked around the room. "You have a cat?"
"Don't you know where?" she winked at me. "In the fireplace."
I didn't say anything. I just walked around to the other side of the table, so that Ila Hughes wouldn't be between me and the door.
For a moment she looked puzzled. Then she shook her head, grinned, and said, "For goodness' sakes, Lauren. I this the first house you've been in where a cat was buried somewhere inside the walls to keep the devil away? I thought everybody knew about that."
_______
And I guess I clung to a kind of crazy hope that it hadn't happened, that Sara had never come to stay with us, that all the memories would drift off like winter fogs.
_______
I could put tonight into the back compartment of my mind. Scraping the fat orange carrots didn't mix with preternatural fears.
_______
"There are a lot of sick minds in this world," she said. "Some of them are inside people who look very normal on the outside, people you live next to and work with every day in the week. When something fearful happens to disrupt the pattern of their lives, they react."
"But it doesn't make sense."
"Neither do they," she said.
_______
I tried to think of a prayer, but my mind was blank, like an empty blotter soaking up the sounds and smells of the lush forest around me.
_______
It was like an unfinished painting or a song in which you can't remember the last line.
_______
Allie had bought the special of the day, which included a limp lettuce salad, a bowl of the okra that looked as though it were bleeding green through its shell of pale batter, and a meat concoction that was anyone's guess.
"How can you eat that?" I asked her.
"With a spoon," she said. "You really need a spoon, because the sauce is so runny, and - "
"Never mind," I said. "It doesn't look good."
"It doesn't taste so bad once you get used to it," she said, and I remembered that Allie's mother wasn't a very good cook.
_______
She reached across the table and patted my hand and sandwich, getting her fingers full of peanut butter. "Lauren, I would do anything in the world to help you. But not that. Why don't we talk about other things? Fun things?"
_______
"What's the matter with you, Lauren?" Carley asked. "You're not afraid to be alone with me for a few minutes, are you?"
I suppose that's exactly what I was afraid of. I couldn't tell him that it was like being out in a field with a norther coming toward me and the sky turning that deep, cold blue, spreading wider and higher as it came closer and closer. Only now it was danger that was sweeping toward me. I couldn't see the face behind the danger any more than I could see a face in the penetrating cold of the norther. The danger, if it reached me, would freeze me out, and I was terrified.
_______
The kitchen was too warm, and the faded curtains at the window were a long way from the bright yellow polka dots they once were. A bunch of once-green leaves were laid out in the sun on the windowsill to dry, and they were twisted and curled as the moisture inside them was squeezed out. Over on the mantel of the fireplace the row of little bird skulls stared down like so many little ghosts.
_______
We stared at each other across the table like two hypnotized chickens at a carny show.
_______
Nothing is as dark as a country town when the moon is hidden and most early risers have turned off their lights and gone to bed; so I launched myself into all that blackness with caution, walking gingerly, reaching out ahead to protect myself.
_______
It was like a nightmare in which a creature without eyes and nose and mouth is coming toward you, and you want to run, but your feet don't move; and you want to scream, but your mouth won't make a sound.
My mind reached out to the someone in the house, to the faceless spider in the web.
My mind reached out to the someone in the house, to the faceless spider in the web.
A creepy mystery of murder. Reminiscent of Twin Peaks and the question, "Who killed Laura Palmer?"
Favorite Passages:
I reached for the plate of buttered toast, and my eyes met Sara's clear blue ones. Her slow smile was sugared cream, spilled from the smugness of knowing things I didn't know, being where I had never been and might never go.
______
The words seemed to hang in a little pool of quiet air as the remembered echoes of our shouts banged around the walls and faded away.
______
She seemed to be in a weird state of unawareness.
______
"If we are to reach into the unknown, we must go there together."
______
"There is something fearful in this room! There's something terrible! Don't you feel it?"
______
We looked at each other, but at the same time we were really afraid our eyes would meet, so our glances shot back and forth from each other's faces like ricocheting bullets, leaving only little dents of mistrust.
______
". . . things from the other world aren't to be tempered with, but you also know that girls don't just spirited away from a seance, no matter how foolish they're behaving."
______
Carley turned white, and I mean really. I've read about people turning pale at bad news, but here it was in the flesh. He swayed the way pines do in a storm blown in from the Gulf, then grabbed my shoulder to steady himself.
______
She shook her head back and forth and looked a million years older than she had when I walked in the door.
______
Nothing made sense, but I could picture the dark tangle of pines and myrtles and oaks that kept the Big Thicket dim on even the brightest day. And the dense tangle of undergrowth, knotted together with tievines and briars. And the water moccasins that slip through ponds of swamp water, leaving silent ripples in their wake. And the rattlers, and the grunting wild hogs that attack the hunters and try to rip them apart with their tusks before the blast of a shotgun. There are people who love the Thicket and go there for the rich earth smells, and to gather may haws for jelly, but to me it's a fearsome place. I couldn't bear the thought of Sara's going inside the Thicket. What was she doing there? Why did she go?
______
We sat there silently, wrapped in our individual shrouds of guilt . . .
______
I was cold in spite of the September heat that carried the scent of fresh-cut grass from the Lester house next door and the buzz of angry black bees diving in and out of clusters of fat yellow blossoms on the bignonia vine.
______
"I wouldn't put too much blame on the girls," she said. "There are a lot of folks around here who lay it to the dark side of things."
______
"We all move inside ourselves too much. Dumping emotions on anyone who'll listen doesn't help that much."
______
. . . like a photograph that is slightly blurred.
______
Under the heat of the afternoon sun, which beat against the leaves of the ancient dusty oaks, each of us from the seance stood alone. Like so many pillars of salt, we had tried to look back and failed. And in the eyes of the others who shared the pale, flat sky with us, there was sometimes suspicion, sometimes a little fear.
_______
I had made my way past the kitchen windowsill with its bunches of dried leaves and odd-sized bottles and jars containing slips of plants growing in them, the roots stringing out through the water in tiny white fingers. I was standing before the stone fireplace in the corner, thinking how unusual it was to have a fireplace in a kitchen, when my glance fell on something that made me automatically step back. On the mantel, on a level with my eyes, was a row of little gray skulls!
There was a chuckle close to my ear, and Mrs. Hughes touched my shoulders, moving me forward again. "Those are my little birds," she said, laughing. "Aren't they precious? Little bird skulls. I began finding them in the Thicket years ago."
She picked up one and held it out to me. "Here, take it. Hold it. Feel how smooth it is. Look at the tiny beak."
I held it in my fingers gingerly. It seemed so vulnerable, so weird with the wide hole where the neck had been, and the gaping sockets for the tiny eyes. The beak curved over my index finger, and its point was sharp.
She took it from me and placed it back with care on the mantel, where it joined the others, mock guardians of the room.
Mrs. Hughes began to laugh again. "It's really a joke," she said. "All the birds, and the cat can't get to them."
I looked around the room. "You have a cat?"
"Don't you know where?" she winked at me. "In the fireplace."
I didn't say anything. I just walked around to the other side of the table, so that Ila Hughes wouldn't be between me and the door.
For a moment she looked puzzled. Then she shook her head, grinned, and said, "For goodness' sakes, Lauren. I this the first house you've been in where a cat was buried somewhere inside the walls to keep the devil away? I thought everybody knew about that."
_______
And I guess I clung to a kind of crazy hope that it hadn't happened, that Sara had never come to stay with us, that all the memories would drift off like winter fogs.
_______
I could put tonight into the back compartment of my mind. Scraping the fat orange carrots didn't mix with preternatural fears.
_______
"There are a lot of sick minds in this world," she said. "Some of them are inside people who look very normal on the outside, people you live next to and work with every day in the week. When something fearful happens to disrupt the pattern of their lives, they react."
"But it doesn't make sense."
"Neither do they," she said.
_______
I tried to think of a prayer, but my mind was blank, like an empty blotter soaking up the sounds and smells of the lush forest around me.
_______
It was like an unfinished painting or a song in which you can't remember the last line.
_______
Allie had bought the special of the day, which included a limp lettuce salad, a bowl of the okra that looked as though it were bleeding green through its shell of pale batter, and a meat concoction that was anyone's guess.
"How can you eat that?" I asked her.
"With a spoon," she said. "You really need a spoon, because the sauce is so runny, and - "
"Never mind," I said. "It doesn't look good."
"It doesn't taste so bad once you get used to it," she said, and I remembered that Allie's mother wasn't a very good cook.
_______
She reached across the table and patted my hand and sandwich, getting her fingers full of peanut butter. "Lauren, I would do anything in the world to help you. But not that. Why don't we talk about other things? Fun things?"
_______
"What's the matter with you, Lauren?" Carley asked. "You're not afraid to be alone with me for a few minutes, are you?"
I suppose that's exactly what I was afraid of. I couldn't tell him that it was like being out in a field with a norther coming toward me and the sky turning that deep, cold blue, spreading wider and higher as it came closer and closer. Only now it was danger that was sweeping toward me. I couldn't see the face behind the danger any more than I could see a face in the penetrating cold of the norther. The danger, if it reached me, would freeze me out, and I was terrified.
_______
The kitchen was too warm, and the faded curtains at the window were a long way from the bright yellow polka dots they once were. A bunch of once-green leaves were laid out in the sun on the windowsill to dry, and they were twisted and curled as the moisture inside them was squeezed out. Over on the mantel of the fireplace the row of little bird skulls stared down like so many little ghosts.
_______
We stared at each other across the table like two hypnotized chickens at a carny show.
_______
Nothing is as dark as a country town when the moon is hidden and most early risers have turned off their lights and gone to bed; so I launched myself into all that blackness with caution, walking gingerly, reaching out ahead to protect myself.
_______
It was like a nightmare in which a creature without eyes and nose and mouth is coming toward you, and you want to run, but your feet don't move; and you want to scream, but your mouth won't make a sound.
My mind reached out to the someone in the house, to the faceless spider in the web.
July 24, 2011
Great book! I never would have suspected who the real killer was. One of the greatest young adult mystery books ever!
March 28, 2023
Why are all these people removing bodies from crime scenes. Wtf
February 7, 2022
All random observations:
-My first JLN book! Looking forward to more by her...Her writing is evocative and such a MOOD.
- The protag is annoying, self-absorbed and difficult to empathize with. I was kinda hoping she'd get spirited away during the Seance but nah, the skanky girl goes missing instead.
- The ending felt like a cop out and wasn't fleshed out enough to feel truly satisfying.
- Never trust old people.
-My first JLN book! Looking forward to more by her...Her writing is evocative and such a MOOD.
- The protag is annoying, self-absorbed and difficult to empathize with. I was kinda hoping she'd get spirited away during the Seance but nah, the skanky girl goes missing instead.
- The ending felt like a cop out and wasn't fleshed out enough to feel truly satisfying.
- Never trust old people.
May 31, 2011
This is one of the best suspense book I've ever read! I really thought that the Seance they did worked and I was darn terrified the whole night while reading it--yes, I read at night :P
Perfectly plotted.
Perfectly plotted.
March 21, 2011
This book makes you keep on reading it!!!!
February 18, 2023
So... I guess I'm going down this road now. Because I really want to see how these books hold up. Also, I want to throw out there that these covers are all really intriguing - and I think part of the reason I picked them up as a kid. Each one has a little bit of a spooky element to them.
This one I liked a lot better than Christina Lattimore. I really doubt any of these are the epitome of great literature, hence their fading into obscurity, but I at least didn't want to throw the book across the room in the same way.
The thing about this one - and something I just want to clock as I read through these because I never really noticed as a kid - is the atmosphere of these books. As I'm reading through chronologically, our setting is still set in the late 70s/early 80s (this book being published in 1980). And the atmosphere of this book really feels like an early 80s horror film. And I guess I found that the most interesting element?
I mean - life was just different back then. Before technology really began to run everyone's lives, what did kids do? They went to seances? Okay - maybe not, but there was just a different way kids kept themselves busy. But, also adding to the atmosphere, there's a creepiness the permeates throughout the book - because there's this knowledge that technology is going to save you. So when Lauren is alone with another character - there's a tension there that may not be there in a more modern adaptation.
I'm probably overselling this book, though, it still is a product of its time, and there are still issues due to that.
Lauren (and I'm blanking if she's ever given a last name) is more interesting than Christina Lattimore, and a lot less whiny. But there are still some trappings that I'm finding are staples of Nixon's writing. She lives in a small town in East Texas. Her guardian is a very religious aunt - and the church does play a role in the novel, especially playing against the idea of hosting a séance, and the prejudice spewed against the family of the girl who hosted. And the fact that Lauren is constantly worried about getting into college.
I will say - Lauren is an unreliable narrator - which works better than it should, since the novel hinges on information not given to the reader.
The other thing, though, that really interested me - was the first victim Sara. Because she's a 'bad girl'. In classic 80s horror tropes - the girl having the most sex is the one who dies, while the virgin (Lauren) survives. Sara is a girl who flirts with all the guys -- even guys who are much, much older (a theme that isn't really looked down upon, it was just expected that men of all ages would just pick up a teenage girl, despite being a minor). Does she actually have sex? The book is a bit murky on actually having it spelled out, but it's somewhat implied.
Adding an interesting twist, though is the fact that she was driven out by her mother because she was such hussy -- but the mother was the same way - even explaining that she's a woman who just needs a man in her bed cause she can't do without.
Idk - beyond giving me real Jen Lindley (from Dawson's Creek) vibes, it was interesting that the book doesn't necessarily condemn Sara's actions (beyond killing her off, which I suppose says enough) but tries to explain the reason as to why she is the way she is.
The other thing I want to clock is the usage of the teenage male hero in these books. Because so far, one turned out to be a dude the main character walked away from. Here, there's the slight hint of romantic possibility that is left open ended. I remember these books all having some kind of romantic twist in them, but I'm kind of surprised that it's just not the focus of the novel, and both Christina and Lauren have been so busy with their horror plights that it's not really a focus of either novel. I kind of wonder if Nixon through it in there because there's always a romantic element in these novels.
Anyway, despite me writing a novel of a review, the book doesn't really get that into the character work. Most of the other characters aren't really that developed -- we barely see the second victim, and all of Lauren's friends are just sketchy archetypes. What really does work for this novel is the atmosphere. It is spooky (again in that YA, early 80s way) and the book just does pretty well with keeping the tension going throughout.
So, yeah, for a book that really doesn't have a lot going for it - I definitely had a lot of thoughts about it. I didn't even get into some of the minor things - such as there's a description of a guy who had a hair color the same as his skin, and I could not figure out if this dude was super pale or black. (But figuring there really haven't been any black people yet explicitly stated in either novel - probably not the latter.)
Overall, I think it was a fascinating read -- again, read in only a few hours. Much better than her first book, but I remember, as a kid, not loving this one much either -- and I didn't find this one that bad. So, i'm looking forward to continuing this project.
This one I liked a lot better than Christina Lattimore. I really doubt any of these are the epitome of great literature, hence their fading into obscurity, but I at least didn't want to throw the book across the room in the same way.
The thing about this one - and something I just want to clock as I read through these because I never really noticed as a kid - is the atmosphere of these books. As I'm reading through chronologically, our setting is still set in the late 70s/early 80s (this book being published in 1980). And the atmosphere of this book really feels like an early 80s horror film. And I guess I found that the most interesting element?
I mean - life was just different back then. Before technology really began to run everyone's lives, what did kids do? They went to seances? Okay - maybe not, but there was just a different way kids kept themselves busy. But, also adding to the atmosphere, there's a creepiness the permeates throughout the book - because there's this knowledge that technology is going to save you. So when Lauren is alone with another character - there's a tension there that may not be there in a more modern adaptation.
I'm probably overselling this book, though, it still is a product of its time, and there are still issues due to that.
Lauren (and I'm blanking if she's ever given a last name) is more interesting than Christina Lattimore, and a lot less whiny. But there are still some trappings that I'm finding are staples of Nixon's writing. She lives in a small town in East Texas. Her guardian is a very religious aunt - and the church does play a role in the novel, especially playing against the idea of hosting a séance, and the prejudice spewed against the family of the girl who hosted. And the fact that Lauren is constantly worried about getting into college.
I will say - Lauren is an unreliable narrator - which works better than it should, since the novel hinges on information not given to the reader.
The other thing, though, that really interested me - was the first victim Sara. Because she's a 'bad girl'. In classic 80s horror tropes - the girl having the most sex is the one who dies, while the virgin (Lauren) survives. Sara is a girl who flirts with all the guys -- even guys who are much, much older (a theme that isn't really looked down upon, it was just expected that men of all ages would just pick up a teenage girl, despite being a minor). Does she actually have sex? The book is a bit murky on actually having it spelled out, but it's somewhat implied.
Adding an interesting twist, though is the fact that she was driven out by her mother because she was such hussy -- but the mother was the same way - even explaining that she's a woman who just needs a man in her bed cause she can't do without.
Idk - beyond giving me real Jen Lindley (from Dawson's Creek) vibes, it was interesting that the book doesn't necessarily condemn Sara's actions (beyond killing her off, which I suppose says enough) but tries to explain the reason as to why she is the way she is.
The other thing I want to clock is the usage of the teenage male hero in these books. Because so far, one turned out to be a dude the main character walked away from. Here, there's the slight hint of romantic possibility that is left open ended. I remember these books all having some kind of romantic twist in them, but I'm kind of surprised that it's just not the focus of the novel, and both Christina and Lauren have been so busy with their horror plights that it's not really a focus of either novel. I kind of wonder if Nixon through it in there because there's always a romantic element in these novels.
Anyway, despite me writing a novel of a review, the book doesn't really get that into the character work. Most of the other characters aren't really that developed -- we barely see the second victim, and all of Lauren's friends are just sketchy archetypes. What really does work for this novel is the atmosphere. It is spooky (again in that YA, early 80s way) and the book just does pretty well with keeping the tension going throughout.
So, yeah, for a book that really doesn't have a lot going for it - I definitely had a lot of thoughts about it. I didn't even get into some of the minor things - such as there's a description of a guy who had a hair color the same as his skin, and I could not figure out if this dude was super pale or black. (But figuring there really haven't been any black people yet explicitly stated in either novel - probably not the latter.)
Overall, I think it was a fascinating read -- again, read in only a few hours. Much better than her first book, but I remember, as a kid, not loving this one much either -- and I didn't find this one that bad. So, i'm looking forward to continuing this project.
October 11, 2025
4.5🌟 This vintage middle grade story really impressed me! Wow! I didn't think I would like it as much as I did.
Lauren, living with her Aunt Mel in a small town in eastern Texas, goes to a friend's house for a seance one night and that changes everything. Even though the seven girls are only there for a short amount of time, a murder of one of the girls is announced the next morning. Lauren is in the thick of suspicion, fear, confusion and the unknown for almost the entire book.
The Seance seriously kept me on the edge of my seat until the very last page. Highly recommended!
Lauren, living with her Aunt Mel in a small town in eastern Texas, goes to a friend's house for a seance one night and that changes everything. Even though the seven girls are only there for a short amount of time, a murder of one of the girls is announced the next morning. Lauren is in the thick of suspicion, fear, confusion and the unknown for almost the entire book.
The Seance seriously kept me on the edge of my seat until the very last page. Highly recommended!
September 21, 2024
I adored The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore but this one paled in comparison. It fell kind of flat and seemed mediocre.
Though I can admit that it did keep me intrigued and I didn’t guess the killer.
Though I can admit that it did keep me intrigued and I didn’t guess the killer.
July 9, 2019
Great mystery book with a hint to darkness, easy to read wonderful for a dark and stormy night.
Won't scare your socks off but does give you nice creepy feels.
Won't scare your socks off but does give you nice creepy feels.
October 2, 2019
3.5 stars
September 18, 2021
Excellent young adult mystery, definitely worthy of the Edgar Award.
October 10, 2022
2.5 stars? idk. the writing style and story were alright (if not a bit cliché) but the grand reveal that the whole book was building up to was anything but grand.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 14, 2025
Another middle-grade blast from the past. This had some good suspense. It's not supernatural at all - the seance was just the jumping-off point for a fairly standard whodunnit. I liked how the suspicious town-folk came in and out of focus and really made me believe that it could have been any one of them.
There was a mid-story twist that caught me by surprise and some pretty believable plot points and relationship stuff. I liked this!
My old copy is going to a new home
There was a mid-story twist that caught me by surprise and some pretty believable plot points and relationship stuff. I liked this!
My old copy is going to a new home
October 15, 2025
I should have dropped it after the first 25 pages. This is what I get for being optimistic.
February 21, 2022
Such lovely writing! JLN’s prose is atmospheric and subtly spooky. It’s no wonder she is known for her mysteries.
With that said, lots of weird victim blaming in this one and a too selfish protagonist I could not sympathize with. And we miss the entire climax; strange choice to jump forward right when it was about to get interesting.
With that said, lots of weird victim blaming in this one and a too selfish protagonist I could not sympathize with. And we miss the entire climax; strange choice to jump forward right when it was about to get interesting.
October 3, 2016
Great YA book. Definitely a few good twists, and it was a quick read!
March 25, 2023
Second Joan Lowery Nixon book I have read and I enjoyed it slightly more than The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore which was also really good so that says something...maybe.
Written again in first person which still isn't my favorite narrative style. It just makes the other people being described seem like they are being judged by how they look and even act as well as the narrator themselves. I don't know...sometimes it works other times it just gives more of a rambling feeling.
For someone like me who writes in third person all the time and still seems to ramble that should tell you something. I mean...do I sound pretentious to you or just yapping on like a little kid? *shrugs*
Anyway...
Being written in 1980, there is also another decade's thoughts of the time being thrown in by adults against the morals or lack thereof of the teenagers at the time. Lots of paranormal talk but not a lot of paranormal action as well which is why it is missing that one star to be a five star review.
Again only my opinion...
Lauren has lived with her Aunt Melvamay (yes one word instead of Melva May I guess to save time spacing it out) since her mother died when she was four, her father sent away and killed in an Army incident not even knowing she was born.
Small Texas town full of God fearing, Christian folk who won't refuse to take care of those who need it. That's how Sara Martin came to live with them four months ago. No one to take her in and the preacher mentions Melvamay would be kind enough to offer her roof to the teenage girl since her own great-niece lives there.
Lauren and Sara may both be seventeen and seniors in high school but that is really all they have in common. Lauren is thin (she uses gaunt but I'm imagining her being almost skin and bones so I'm sticking with thin) and Sara blossomed early in all the right places.
Lauren hears Sara sneaking out almost every night and sometimes she comes home alone or parked just far enough with her beau of the evening to have him hidden in shadow but Lauren can see Sara leaning over to share a kiss.
Lauren doesn't like Sara from the start out of jealousy and the other girls at school will be nice to her face but call Sara a tramp behind her back for having attention from almost all the boys in school and even the men in town.
Heck even the older women say she is quite a Jezebel and we know that is probably the nicest thing a church going person should call someone.
The people in this small Texas town have known each other since they were born and are not very keen on outsiders so Sara isn't the only girl being judged and maybe even slightly ostracized.
Roberta Campion and her family moved here a year ago, renting a house on the outskirts, and not too many people jumped on a welcome wagon. They're from Louisiana...Cajuns so you know that must mean they are all into voodoo and such.
Roberta claims that she is psychic and she can communicate with the dead, spirits from the other side, and Lauren thinks it is only a way to get some kind of attention than none at all. Sara seems to believe it and soon she has all of the other girls in the senior class eager to go to Roberta's house and have a seance.
This includes Lauren's best friend Allie and Lauren just can't believe how gullible they are to take Sara's word on anything just the way all the guys hang onto her every word and drool over her.
Lauren soon has enough when Sara claims she had a really good childhood to rub in her face but also lies to her aunt, saying she was at the library when Lauren saw her get into a car. The car belonging to the much older Ashe Norvell, town sheriff.
In an exchange of heated words, Lauren says she wishes Sara would just go away and never come back. Sara oddly says that maybe Lauren should just wish her dead but Lauren says no one deserves that.
To try and make up for what she said and show Sara that she isn't scared...Lauren agrees to join the other girls at the seance Roberta will be having at her house that Friday night while her parents are out of town.
It all seems like a game to the others but Roberta is serious, Allie is frightened and Sara seems so eager to get answers...Lauren confused on how she should actually feel.
The lights are turned out, they begin to ask dumb questions but then Sara lets out a scream, knocking over the only candle lit in the darkness. When the main lights of the house come back on, Sara Martin is gone but the doors are still locked.
Wild speculation is that the girls messed with forces they couldn't understand, didn't need to meddle with and evil spirits whisked Sara away. Sheriff Norvell, level headed policeman he is, believes maybe Sara ran away with a boy. Perhaps a man instead but when no one else in town of the male population is missing it turns into maybe hitching a ride with a stranger?
All the doubt is put aside when Sara Martin's body is found drowned in the swampy water of The Thicket, supposedly haunted but still a hunting spot nonetheless despite its history. Yet was she murdered by evil spirits for messing with the unknown or by a pair of human hands?
A jealous wife of a married man Sara was messing with or perhaps an overbearing sister like Lauren's neighbor Feenie Lester for her brother Fant, who Sara had an eye on? Another girl jealous of the attention Sara received...maybe even one of them present at the seance?
A town full of suspects especially when another girl goes missing and is soon found dead, drowned in the same marshy spot...another girl present at the seance.
There are still other girls but Lauren has an unsettling feeling that she just might be next...
We get a lot of good suspects, some reveals if not that many twists and a pretty good climax. The ending may feel like it just put the kibosh on all of the "spooky" elements but that made it seem a little more creepy. There were nice grounded themes of family, jealousy and gossip thrown in and that was the saving grace that kept me from hating most of the characters.
So much hen squawking and good old boy nonsense but some of the characters had growth and development while some just kind of flitted out of the story. Good riddance for some and a welcome change to the others who got more focus that was rightfully deserved.
I would recommend The Seance more than The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore if you want to start on some Joan Lowery Nixon. More conflict and tension yet intriguing enough to check out the other books if you become curious.
So good so far...
Written again in first person which still isn't my favorite narrative style. It just makes the other people being described seem like they are being judged by how they look and even act as well as the narrator themselves. I don't know...sometimes it works other times it just gives more of a rambling feeling.
For someone like me who writes in third person all the time and still seems to ramble that should tell you something. I mean...do I sound pretentious to you or just yapping on like a little kid? *shrugs*
Anyway...
Being written in 1980, there is also another decade's thoughts of the time being thrown in by adults against the morals or lack thereof of the teenagers at the time. Lots of paranormal talk but not a lot of paranormal action as well which is why it is missing that one star to be a five star review.
Again only my opinion...
Lauren has lived with her Aunt Melvamay (yes one word instead of Melva May I guess to save time spacing it out) since her mother died when she was four, her father sent away and killed in an Army incident not even knowing she was born.
Small Texas town full of God fearing, Christian folk who won't refuse to take care of those who need it. That's how Sara Martin came to live with them four months ago. No one to take her in and the preacher mentions Melvamay would be kind enough to offer her roof to the teenage girl since her own great-niece lives there.
Lauren and Sara may both be seventeen and seniors in high school but that is really all they have in common. Lauren is thin (she uses gaunt but I'm imagining her being almost skin and bones so I'm sticking with thin) and Sara blossomed early in all the right places.
Lauren hears Sara sneaking out almost every night and sometimes she comes home alone or parked just far enough with her beau of the evening to have him hidden in shadow but Lauren can see Sara leaning over to share a kiss.
Lauren doesn't like Sara from the start out of jealousy and the other girls at school will be nice to her face but call Sara a tramp behind her back for having attention from almost all the boys in school and even the men in town.
Heck even the older women say she is quite a Jezebel and we know that is probably the nicest thing a church going person should call someone.
The people in this small Texas town have known each other since they were born and are not very keen on outsiders so Sara isn't the only girl being judged and maybe even slightly ostracized.
Roberta Campion and her family moved here a year ago, renting a house on the outskirts, and not too many people jumped on a welcome wagon. They're from Louisiana...Cajuns so you know that must mean they are all into voodoo and such.
Roberta claims that she is psychic and she can communicate with the dead, spirits from the other side, and Lauren thinks it is only a way to get some kind of attention than none at all. Sara seems to believe it and soon she has all of the other girls in the senior class eager to go to Roberta's house and have a seance.
This includes Lauren's best friend Allie and Lauren just can't believe how gullible they are to take Sara's word on anything just the way all the guys hang onto her every word and drool over her.
Lauren soon has enough when Sara claims she had a really good childhood to rub in her face but also lies to her aunt, saying she was at the library when Lauren saw her get into a car. The car belonging to the much older Ashe Norvell, town sheriff.
In an exchange of heated words, Lauren says she wishes Sara would just go away and never come back. Sara oddly says that maybe Lauren should just wish her dead but Lauren says no one deserves that.
To try and make up for what she said and show Sara that she isn't scared...Lauren agrees to join the other girls at the seance Roberta will be having at her house that Friday night while her parents are out of town.
It all seems like a game to the others but Roberta is serious, Allie is frightened and Sara seems so eager to get answers...Lauren confused on how she should actually feel.
The lights are turned out, they begin to ask dumb questions but then Sara lets out a scream, knocking over the only candle lit in the darkness. When the main lights of the house come back on, Sara Martin is gone but the doors are still locked.
Wild speculation is that the girls messed with forces they couldn't understand, didn't need to meddle with and evil spirits whisked Sara away. Sheriff Norvell, level headed policeman he is, believes maybe Sara ran away with a boy. Perhaps a man instead but when no one else in town of the male population is missing it turns into maybe hitching a ride with a stranger?
All the doubt is put aside when Sara Martin's body is found drowned in the swampy water of The Thicket, supposedly haunted but still a hunting spot nonetheless despite its history. Yet was she murdered by evil spirits for messing with the unknown or by a pair of human hands?
A jealous wife of a married man Sara was messing with or perhaps an overbearing sister like Lauren's neighbor Feenie Lester for her brother Fant, who Sara had an eye on? Another girl jealous of the attention Sara received...maybe even one of them present at the seance?
A town full of suspects especially when another girl goes missing and is soon found dead, drowned in the same marshy spot...another girl present at the seance.
There are still other girls but Lauren has an unsettling feeling that she just might be next...
We get a lot of good suspects, some reveals if not that many twists and a pretty good climax. The ending may feel like it just put the kibosh on all of the "spooky" elements but that made it seem a little more creepy. There were nice grounded themes of family, jealousy and gossip thrown in and that was the saving grace that kept me from hating most of the characters.
So much hen squawking and good old boy nonsense but some of the characters had growth and development while some just kind of flitted out of the story. Good riddance for some and a welcome change to the others who got more focus that was rightfully deserved.
I would recommend The Seance more than The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore if you want to start on some Joan Lowery Nixon. More conflict and tension yet intriguing enough to check out the other books if you become curious.
So good so far...
September 12, 2014
Lauren has lived with her Aunt since she was 4 years old. Her mother died and her father died in an accident without ever knowing she was born.
Things have been fine with her Aunt all these years, but Lauren's Aunt takes in a 17 year old girl named Sara. Lauren and Sara don't exactly get along.
Sara begs Lauren to come with her to a seance done by a local girl named Roberta. Lauren doesn't believe in that stuff and doesn't want to go, but eventually gives in.
Everything is going well until the lights go out. And when they come back on, Sara is missing.
This book starts off with seemingly having to do with the paranormal, but it's really a murder mystery. I wouldn't say that the characters are deep, but they are likeable enough. The plot is good, it's fast-paced and definitely kept me guessing. I thought I knew who the murderer was. I was sure it was that person, but in the end, I was wrong. It was a complete surprise who the murderer was.
It was a great mystery, one that kept me reading to find out what was really going on. I enjoyed this book a lot. And really liked that it was a surprise who the murderer really was.
If you like mystery, then I'd recommend this book and just to check out other books by Joan Lowery Nixon.
Things have been fine with her Aunt all these years, but Lauren's Aunt takes in a 17 year old girl named Sara. Lauren and Sara don't exactly get along.
Sara begs Lauren to come with her to a seance done by a local girl named Roberta. Lauren doesn't believe in that stuff and doesn't want to go, but eventually gives in.
Everything is going well until the lights go out. And when they come back on, Sara is missing.
This book starts off with seemingly having to do with the paranormal, but it's really a murder mystery. I wouldn't say that the characters are deep, but they are likeable enough. The plot is good, it's fast-paced and definitely kept me guessing. I thought I knew who the murderer was. I was sure it was that person, but in the end, I was wrong. It was a complete surprise who the murderer was.
It was a great mystery, one that kept me reading to find out what was really going on. I enjoyed this book a lot. And really liked that it was a surprise who the murderer really was.
If you like mystery, then I'd recommend this book and just to check out other books by Joan Lowery Nixon.
December 9, 2009
Have you ever been in a Seance.Well this book will tell you all about one.This book is about a group of friends who decide to hold a Seance.The characters are Sara,Lauren,Roberta,Allie,Maddie and Luemma. This all takes place at Roberta's house while her parents are away.As the lights flicker on and off wierd things start to happen.But soon after the lights completely shut off and when they finally come back on the fins that Sara had dissappeared.Few weeks went by and the police end up finding Sara's dead body in a swamp. So the police tell the girls that they have to hold another Seance and see what happens.But just as you think everything is fine Roberta ends up dissappearing too! So now everyone is scared and terrified and all the girls try to solve the mystery.I'll have to leave it at that don't want to spoil the ending.
March 13, 2009
Have you ever had a group of friends that experiences a tragedy? In the book The Séance by Joan Lowery Nixon, a group of friends named Sara, Laren, Roberta, Maddie, Allie, and Luemma start a Séance. However, Laren didn't want to do it at first but they all convinced her to join. A Séance is a group of people who send messages to the dead. It all happens at Roberta's house, where the doors and windows are locked but lights start flickering. Sara gets murdered during the spooky event. They all didn't know what happened to her until they found her body in the pond the next day. When they finally meet up again another person goes missing. In conclusion, the Séance was very interesting to read it because it was mysterious.
July 9, 2017
Though this was a decent book there was nothing that makes it stand out from other thrillers. A group of teenage girls, a séance, and a small, Southern town full of religious and superstitious people. Then like every other teen thriller someone decides to become a serial killer out of the blue and the lead character is on the killers list of victims and so on.
September 24, 2008
for now this book is mysterious and weird....and i love it
i just finished reading it...the murder is carley's grandma!!!
i know that was an unexpected ending, still i enjoyed this book really much ...my compliments to the Author!!!
i just finished reading it...the murder is carley's grandma!!!
i know that was an unexpected ending, still i enjoyed this book really much ...my compliments to the Author!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 22, 2009
I love Joan Lowery Nixon's books. The way that the main character described Sara was intriguing, and so was the way that her thoughts didn't let on that she had done something. Another book that almost managed to scare me.
March 31, 2017
Must say for a young adult read this was very well done. Usually I can pick out the murderer unless it ends up being a demon undisclosed or another party also not mentioned till the end.
Yes this book had me dumbfounded till the very end. Excellent read for girls
Yes this book had me dumbfounded till the very end. Excellent read for girls
December 1, 2007
this book is great
everyone should read it
i need to read again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
everyone should read it
i need to read again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 27, 2008
Awesome Book!! Anyone who like mystery, this is your book!!
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