Rest in Pieces

House of Horrors #2

by Suzanne Weyn

When the Buckner dog, Gruff, digs up a mysterious claw, Sara and Michael can no longer control him, and when the ring on the claw begins glowing, they know trouble lies ahead

Genres: Horror

133 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Suzanne Weyn grew up in Williston Park, Long Island, New York. She has three sisters and a brother. As a girl, she was very interested in theatre and in reading. Louisa May Alcott was her favorite author, but she also read every Sherlock Holmes story. Suzanne lived pretty close to the ocean and going to Jones Beach was one of her favorite activities. Even today, if she goes too long without seeing the ocean, she starts feeling restless.

Suzanne now lives in upper New York State with her husband, two teen daughters and Abby the cat. Her house is at the edge of the woods and is nearly 200 years old. She graduated from State University of New York at Binghamton and received her master's degree from Pace University. She teaches part-time at City College in New York.

Suzanne's other books for Simon Pulse include South Beach Sizzle, a romantic comedy written with Diana Gonzalez. Her novels for the Simon Pulse line "Once Upon a Time" are The Night Dance: A Retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, Water Song: A Retelling of the Frog Prince, and The Crimson Thread: A Retelling of Rumplestiltskin. She very much enjoys rethinking these classic tales from an original point of view, always looking for the real psychological underpinning of the story. Suzanne is currently doing revisions on her fourth book in the line, which will be coming in 2009.

Suzanne's other recent novels are include The Bar Code Tattoo (2004) and its sequel, The Bar Code Rebellion (2006). The Bar Code Tattoo was selected by the American Library Assoc. (ALA) as a 2005 Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and was a 2007 Nevada Library nominee for Best Young Adult Fiction. It is currently translated into German and was nominated for the 2007 Jugenliteraturpreis for Young People's Literature.

Reviews

[BRANDON · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read, Rest in Pieces, for the first time on a family trip to Tennessee when I was eleven years old. At 37, I'm backtracking and rereading a lot of those old books that had such a lasting impression on me. I suppose the reason that Rest in Pieces stuck with me for so long is because it reminded me of Elvira Mistress of the Dark: the ruby ring, the mysterious portrait, the dark magic.
A staple of the House of Horrors series is Weyn scattering breadcrumbs but being stingy with backstory. I suppose she eventually planned to wrap it up or provide some history of Moonlight Manor and the horrors within. I fear, like many of those middle grade horror series of the 90s there never was a true conclusion. Still, I have managed to get access to some of the other books in the series and I intend to read them for my inner child's sake, spooky little bastard.

[Jessie Maisonville · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this as a kid. So scary and creepy I loved it.