Authors: Ransom Riggs
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Fantasy & Magic, #Horror & Ghost Stories, #General
Copyright © 2014 by Ransom Riggs
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Number: 2013914959
eISBN: 978-1-59474-620-8
Designed by Doogie Horner
Cover photograph courtesy of John Van Noate, Rex USA, and the Everett Collection
Production management by John J. McGurk
Quirk Books
215 Church St.
Philadelphia, PA 19106
quirkbooks.com
v3.1
FOR TAHEREH
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
About the Photography
About the Author
Acknowledgments
And lo! towards us coming in a boat
An old man, grizzled with the hair of eld,
Moaning: “Woe unto you, debased souls!
Hope nevermore to look upon the heavens.
I come to lead you to the other shore;
Into eternal darkness; into fire and frost.
And thou, that yonder standest, living soul,
Withdraw from these people, who are dead!”
But he saw that I did not withdraw …
—Dante’s
Inferno
, Canto III
PECULIAR PERSONAE
J
ACOB
P
ORTMAN
Our hero, who can see and sense hollowgast
A
BRAHAM
P
ORTMAN
(
DECEASED
)
Jacob’s grandfather, killed by a hollowgast
E
MMA
B
LOOM
A girl who can make fire with her hands, formerly involved with Jacob’s grandfather
B
RONWYN
B
RUNTLEY
An unusually strong girl
M
ILLARD
N
ULLINGS
An invisible boy, scholar of all things peculiar
H
ORACE
S
OMNUSSON
A boy who suffers from premonitory visions and dreams
O
LIVE
A
BROHOLOS
E
LEPHANTA
A girl who is lighter than air