If there’s any place on the internet that can answer my question, I’m pretty sure it’s this one. I’m trying to find the name of a horror novel I read when I was 12ish (so assume a publish date of pre 1992). It was set on an island on the South Carolina coast that featured the gullah language (or something similar). The basic plot as I remember was a son returning to his famliy home with his own nuclear family in tow. Lots of bad things happen including one scene where someone gets killed by being held in a tub of scalding water. There is also a creepy shack on the property where the kids get into trouble with voodoo type magic and posession. I don’t think the author was Koontz or Straub. I paged through their books on Amazon and anything that sounded similar turned out to not be the book.
Damn! I opened this thread hoping I could help you, but now I’m stuck – because I think I read it too, and I can’t for the life of me remember the author or title or anything!
There was a vengeful 12-year-old girl ghost involved, right? The kids found her skull in the voodoo hovel, or something like that?
And it was mostly depicted from the point of view of one of the kids – a young-teenage or preteen lad, who had bad circulation. Right?
Because if it’s that book you mean, well, I’m real sorry, but that’s all of it I can recall. And now it’s gonna bug me all afternoon.
PS:You’re right that it wasn’t Koontz or Straub or any of those “pop” horror authors, I’m pretty sure of that.
That sounds very similar to what I remember…and yes it was from the boy’s point of view. I had forgotten that part. Maybe it will help someone else who comes along.
I asked over at Shocklines and guess who answered – the author!
From Doug Clegg: " It’s my novel, Neverland. Your friend has a good memory for aspects of the story. The novel was slightly based on a summer experience I had on Sea Island, Georgia, long before it was developed. That was a beautiful, almost desolate island back in those days."
Holy crap that’s it! I knew I’d get an answer, I just didn’t realize it would be so quick. I read a lot of horror when I was 11-14 and that was the only one that made it hard to fall asleep without a light on. Off to Amazon…
