Angol
Four kids. One house that isn't finished with them yet.
Sarah and her younger brother Ryan have exactly one rule, and it has kept them alive through every bad night, every bad placement, and every social worker's promise that this time will be different: don't get separated, no matter what. When their father is arrested and they're sent to Blackthorn House, a group home in a town they've never heard of, that rule is the only thing they have left to hold onto.
Blackthorn House already has two kids living in it - Mateo and Lucia, a brother and sister who've clearly learned to expect the worst from every new arrival - and a house that feels wrong in ways none of them can quite name at first. A door that's always cold, no matter the season. A room nobody uses and nobody explains. A woman named Ms. Ferro who watches all four of them a little too carefully, like she's waiting for something she hasn't decided whether to be afraid of.
Then the impossible starts happening, one kid at a time.
None of them asked for this. None of them chose each other, either not at first, and not easily. But when the four finally sit down and compare the impossible things happening to each of them, one truth becomes impossible to keep ignoring: they are not the first kids this house has done this to. And something out past the tree line has been watching, patiently, for a very long time waiting for the next group of kids to finally figure that out.
Ms. Ferro isn't just staff at Blackthorn House, either. She watches the four of them like someone who already knows exactly what they're starting to feel because she's not telling them everything she knows about this house, or about herself.
The Ones Who Remain is Book One of The Blackthorn House Chronicles, a found-family supernatural series for readers who like their ghost stories with real heart underneath the goosebumps. Four kids who've already survived more than most adults ever will slowly learn that the family you choose can be every bit as fierce as the one you were born into.
Perfect for readers who love:
This series is written for middle grade and up. The hardest parts of these kids' pasts the reasons they ended up in foster care are handled off-page and through their own reactions, never shown directly. There's no graphic violence and no gore; the scares here come from mystery and atmosphere, not horror-genre content.
Sarah, Ryan, Mateo, and Lucia didn't pick Blackthorn House. But it may have picked them, generation after generation and it isn't finished yet.
Start the series today, and continue the story in Book Two, The Locked Room.
