Down a Dark Hall

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Down A Dark Hall (1974) is a novel for young adults by Lois Duncan. It is a supernatural/suspense novel and is her only gothic fiction. It tells the story of a girl who starts at a boarding school where she is one of only four students.

[edit] Plot summary

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When her newlywed mother and stepfather decide to have their honeymoon overseas, fourteen-year-old Kit Gordy is enrolled at a new private boarding school called Blackwood. Devastated to be separated from her long time best friend, Kit is reluctant to go to the new school. Because of her mother's honeymoon, Kit arrives at the school a day before the other students. As their car drives up the driveway, the word "evil" flashes through her mind and a feeling of uneasiness settles over her. She is welcomed by a {French]] woman who owns, runs and is the principal of Blackwood (she has also run other schools in Paris and London). The other teachers at the school are Jules (her son whom Kit has a crush on), and Alex Weber. The next day, the other students arrive. Kit is expecting there to be maybe thirty or forty kids. First comes Sandy Kayser, who quickly becomes Kit's closet friend. Ruth Stark and Lynda Hannah arrive next. To their shock, the four girls discover that they are the only students. As their school years begins, Kit starts having nightmares and cannot shake her feelings of uneasiness. She slowly begins to discover the horrifying secret to why she and the other three students were the only ones selected.

Kit, Ruth, Sandy, and Lynda are possessed by famous spirits of artists, musicians, mathematicians and poets such as Emily Brontë, Schubert, and Thomas Cole. But they soon figure out with the help of Jules that all of the other girls from Madame's schools have either committed suicide or gone into mental institutions. Kit escapes when Blackwood catches on fire, even after she saves Lynda and sees her father (in spirit).