Psst . . .
Come closer. Yeah, you.
Take a peek at this.
Tell me what you see?
Are you sure?
Look closer . . . what do you think is in the girl’s hands? Or in the pictures behind her?
Nice answers! Well, I don’t see specific things, but I do sense a bit of shock and some awe. Maybe a sliver of curiosity, too. And a cat. But I guess a cat is specific. #shrugs Any hoot, before I share the rest of this amazing book cover, here’s a bit about this spooky tale which is set for release in January 2023 by Holiday House.
BOOK SUMMARY📙
The Addams Family meets The Westing Game in this exhilarating mystery about a modern magical dynasty trapped in the ruins of their once-grand, now-crumbling ancestral home.
Twelve-year-old Garnet regrets that she doesn’t know her family. Her mother has done her best to keep it that way, living far from the rest of the magical Carrefour clan and their dark, dangerous mansion known as Crossroad House.
But when Garnet finally gets summoned to the estate, it isn’t quite what she hoped for. Her relatives are strange and quarrelsome, each room in Crossroad House is more dilapidated than the last, and she can’t keep straight which dusty hallways and cobwebbed corners are forbidden.
Then Garnet learns the family secret: their dying patriarch fights to retain his life by stealing power from others. Every accident that isn’t an accident, every unexpected illness and unexplained disappearance grants Jasper Carrefour a little more time. While the Carrefours squabbles over who will inherit his role when (if) he dies, Garnet encounters evidence of an even deeper curse. Was she brought to Crossroad House as part of the curse . . . or is she meant to break it?
Written with loads of creepy atmosphere and an edge-of-your-seat magical mystery, this thrilling story reads like The Haunting of Hill House for preteens. Perfect for late-night reading under the covers.
So, fellow readers who love some spook and creep in their books, what comparison got you first? The Addams Family reference or The Haunting of Hill House?
Haha! I know! They both got me, too. Well, enough with all that. Here’s The Carrefour Curse cover in all it’s spookiness!
BOOK CHARM
INSPIRATION BEHIND THE BOOK🌟
When I was very young, I fell in love with the supernatural soap opera, Dark Shadows. (My mom was a fan.) The show centered on an old house and a family with a menacing family patriarch. There was magic and mystery and the nearby ruins of an older, larger house. When the main character went traveling into the past century, the “Old House” was restored to its former glory, blowing my childhood mind. Many of these elements made it into The Carrefour Curse, mashed together with a haunting Ambrose Bierce vignette about two men who found a room full of dead people that later disappeared, taking one of the men with it.
THE AUTHOR🪧
DIANNE K. SALERNI is the author of middle grade and YA novels, including Eleanor, Alice, & the Roosevelt Ghosts and Jadie in Five Dimensions, both Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections, and The Eighth Day series, nominated for seven state award lists. Her eighth book, The Carrefour Curse, is a spine-chilling mystery inspired by Dianne’s love of all things gothic, but especially the supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows. Dianne was a Pennsylvania public school teacher for 25 years before leaving the profession to spend time hanging around creepy cemeteries, attending ghost hunting classes, and climbing 2000 year-old pyramids in the name of book research. In her spare time, she volunteers at her local animal rescue shelter, walking dogs and serving the needs of the feline overlords.
Thank you so much for sharing in Dianne’s exciting cover reveal! Make sure to come back in a few months, when we release more about this eerie story with a full interview with Dianne.
Spooky Middle Grade 
FANtastic cover! You had me at curse, Dianne…well, maybe Dark Shadows, too. Can’t wait for the release!
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