Deep and Dark and Dangerous

By Mary Downing Hahn

A ghostly secret resurfaces, threatening a family's summer retreat.

4.2/5 Goodreads · 23,776 ratings

208 pages· 50,978 words· Est. 5.5 hour read

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Bookroo's summary

Thirteen-year-old Ali's summer at a lake house turns eerie when she meets Sissy, a spiteful child who influences her niece, Emma. As Sissy's dangerous dares escalate, Ali uncovers a chilling truth: Sissy is the ghost of Teresa, a girl who drowned years ago, and she blames Ali's family for her death. Can Ali unravel the mystery before it's too late?

From the publisher

Mary Downing Hahn is at her chilling best in this supernatural tale, where the long-buried secret of a young girl’s death in a canoe accident relentlessly makes its way to the surface of an idyllic vacation. A family secret is at the root of Mary Downing Hahn’s story of supernatural events in Maine. Thirteen-year-old Ali is eager to spend her vacation with Aunt Dulcie, helping to care for her little niece, Emma, in the lake house where Dulcie and Claire, Ali’s mother, spent summers. Claire, who is phobic about water, is dead set against her going but is forced to agree. The vacation by the lake turns unpleasant when Ali and Emma meet a mean, spiteful kid named Sissy. Emma idolizes and imitates Sissy, becoming bratty and hostile and accepting Sissy’s dangerous dares. Sissy keeps talking about Teresa, a girl who drowned under mysterious circumstances when Claire and Dulcie were kids. At first Ali thinks Sissy is just trying to scare her with a ghost story, but soon she discovers the real reason why Sissy is so angry: she is the ghost of Teresa and blames Claire and Dulcie for her death.

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