The Dead House Blog Tour: Kaitlyn's Book Recommendations

Today I'm SUPER excited to be a part of a very unique blog tour for Dawn Kurtagich's The Dead House, releasing in September from Little, Brown. The Dead House introduces us to Carly and Kaitlyn, two souls inhabiting a single body yet living separate lives. Carly gets the day and Kaitlyn gets the night, so in following in Carly and Kaitlyn's footsteps, this promotional tour also has a dual nature. Two blogs will be posting each day, one from the UK and one from the US, each featuring the same topic but written by two very different girls.

I LOVED this book (review coming soon!), so it's with great pleasure today I welcome Kaitlyn to the blog to share her top 5 book recommendations. Be sure and stop by Bookbabblers to see what Carly has chosen and how her picks differ from Kaitlyn's, and don't forget to follow along with the tour so you can get a feel for what makes each of these girls tick ;-)

The Dead House contains journal entries, interviews and various other media, so all Kaitlyn's responses below are written in journal form (how cool is that?!). If they're hard to read, just click to enlarge.

KAITLYN'S TOP 5 BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

The Woman In White  by Wilkie Collins

'In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop... There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth, stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white'

The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons, and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.

Matthew Sweet's introduction explores the phenomenon of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, and discusses Wilkie Collins's biographical and societal influences. Included in this edition are appendices on theatrical adaptations of the novel and its serialization history.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Harry is furious that he has been abandoned at the Dursleys' house for the summer, for he suspects that Voldemort is gathering an army, that he himself could be attacked, and that his so-called friends are keeping him in the dark. Finally being rescued by wizard bodyguards, he discovers that Dumbledore is regrouping the Order of the Phoenix - a secret society first formed years ago to fight Voldemort. But the Ministry of Magic is against the Order, lies are being spread by the wizards' tabloid, the Daily Prophet, and Harry fears that he may have to take on this epic battle against evil alone.

The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith

Sixteen-year-old Jack gets drunk and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped. He escapes, narrowly. The only person he tells is his best friend, Conner. When they arrive in London as planned for summer break, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses. Through the lenses, he sees another world called Marbury.

There is war in Marbury. It is a desolate and murderous place where Jack is responsible for the survival of two younger boys. Conner is there, too. But he’s trying to kill them.

Meanwhile, Jack is falling in love with an English girl, and afraid he’s losing his mind. Conner tells Jack it’s going to be okay.

But it’s not.

Scowler by Daniel Kraus

Imagine your father is a monster. Would that mean there are monsters inside you, too?

Nineteen-year-old Ry Burke, his mother, and little sister scrape by for a living on their dying family farm. Ry wishes for anything to distract him from the grim memories of his father's physical and emotional abuse. Then a meteorite falls from the sky, bringing with it not only a fragment from another world but also the arrival of a ruthless man intent on destroying the entire family. Soon Ry is forced to defend himself by resurrecting a trio of imaginary childhood protectors: kindly Mr. Furrington, wise Jesus, and the bloodthirsty Scowler. 

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

Once an aristocrat in the heady days of pre-revolutionary France, now Lestat is a rockstar in the demonic, shimmering 1980s. He rushes through the centuries in search of others like him, seeking answers to the mystery of his terrifying exsitence. His story, the second volume in Anne Rice's best-selling Vampire Chronicles, is mesmerizing, passionate, and thrilling.

We follow Lestat as he searches for others like him--in churches and brothels, in gambling houses, huts and palaces--sometimes joined by the vampire-angel Gabrielle, who is bound to him both by blood and by passion; sometimes traveling with his adored Nicolas, the violinist whose music and beauty are equally transcendent.  We follow Lestat as he travels from the snowcapped mountains of the Auvergne and the primeval forest of ancient Gaul to Sicily, Istanbul, Venice and Cairo, searching for his origins, sometimes finding clues to the birth of the vampire race, knowing always that the central truth eludes him.

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THE DEAD HOUSE

 

Over two decades have passed since the fire at Elmbridge High, an inferno that took the lives of three teenagers. Not much was known about the events leading up to the tragedy - only that one student, Carly Johnson, vanished without a trace...

...until a diary is found hidden in the ruins.

But the diary, badly scorched, does not belong to Carly Johnson. It belongs to Kaitlyn Johnson, a girl who shouldn't exist Who was Kaitlyn? Why did she come out only at night? What is her connection to Carly?

The case has been reopened. Police records are being reexamined: psychiatric reports, video footage, text messages, e-mails. And the diary.

The diary that paints a much more sinister version of events than was ever made publicly known.

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

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DAWN KURTAGICH

Dawn Kurtagich writes psychologically sinister fiction, where girls may descend into madness, boys may see monsters in men, and adults may have something to hide. She lives in Wales, but grew up all over the world, predominantly in Africa. She writes and blogs for YA Scream Queens and is a member of the YA League. THE DEAD HOUSE is her first novel.

Website • Facebook • Twitter

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THE MIRROR TOUR

Be sure and follow the entire tour to get to know Carly & Kaitlyn better, and don't forget to add The Dead House to your lists for September!