GALLOWS HILL
				Duncan, Lois. 1997. GALLOWS HILL. New York: Delacorte Press.
					“There had been no valid reason for the words that had leaped into her mind, as sudden and stark as if somebody else were dictating them: This is a frightening place, and I don’t want to live here” (page 42).
		After being uprooted from her home in California, Sarah Zoltanne finds herself in a small town living with her mom’s new boyfriend and having an almost-stepsister as a roommate. So when the handsome Eric Garrett chooses Sarah to be a fortune teller at the fair, she reluctantly accepts the role, using a glass paperweight that once belonged to her grandmother as her crystal ball. When Sarah begins seeing visions and her predictions start coming true, students quickly believe she is a witch and threaten her. Sarah, herself, wonders what is happening when she dreams of the Salem witch trials so clearly she believes she may have been there as one of the girls.      GALLOW HILLS takes place in the small town of Pine Crest, with the story primarily occurring at Sarah’s home, school, or her mom’s boyfriend’s apartment. The final scene, however, takes place at Garrote Hill, which ironically sounds like Gallows Hill, providing further mystery into the similarity to the Salem Witch Trials. “Sarah is an insightful and perceptive character, and readers will identify with her anguish as she tries to deal with the cruelties inflicted on her” (School Library Journal review). Before any of the witch accusations happens, readers see a vulnerable girl who misses her friends back home and does not understand why her mother is so easily influenced by her new boyfriend. The insight provided about the other characters like Eric, Kyra, the almost-stepsister, and Charlie, Sarah’s one true friend in the town, is mostly limited to the knowledge Sarah has about each one.      Because the focus of the book is Sarah and her witch tendencies, the predications she makes in her fortune telling are not dwelt on. For example, Charlie is tripped down the stairs but who trips him is never revealed and Misty’s mother is abused by her husband but nothing ever happens with it. It is as if the evilness that is happening all around is used to further enhance the mystery but is never fully explained. The book ends abruptly, with an unclear final scene and with Sarah about to move back to California now that the evil hold of Pine Crest has left her mother. Readers may be left wondering what exactly happened at Garrote Hill and what happened with all of the other characters in the story. However, “the book has one important thing going for it--Duncan writes page-turners. Her well-known knack for mixing the sinister and the supernatural compensates for a lot--and it needs to here” (Booklist review). Cooper, Ilene. Booklist. Available at http://www.amazon.com Shook, Bruce Anne. 1997. School Library Journal. New York: Reed Business Information, Inc. Available at http://www.amazon.com                                               YA Literature Home Page