Gallows Hill (Laurel-Leaf Books) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "The first time Sarah Zoltanne saw Eric Garrett, he was standing out by the flagpole in front of the school building talking with a group..." (more)
Key Phrases: Pine Crest, Eric Garrett, Madam Zoltanne (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-9. Sarah, 17, has just moved from California to a small Missouri town so that her mother can be near her new boyfriend. The teen reluctantly agrees when handsome, popular Eric asks her to run a fortune-telling booth at the school's Halloween carnival. After her impressive performance, he convinces her to continue telling fortunes off campus. Then Sarah becomes unnerved by the startling visions about other students that she sees in the antique paperweight/crystal ball and begins to have terrifying nightmares. Her classmates, not knowing how to deal with Sarah's unsettling information, label her a witch. Her only friend is another misfit, Charlie. Because both of them are having dreams about the Salem witchcraft trials, Charlie develops a theory that they are living out the results of what happened in past lives in Salem; that many of Sarah's classmates may be former victims of her false accusations seeking revenge. Parts of the plot stretch credibility. That so many students could so easily become convinced that Sarah is a witch seems highly unlikely. Equally hard to accept is the idea that Sarah's mother has been drawn to the town so that Sarah can fulfill some sort of karmic destiny. Charlie's belief in reincarnation causes him to sound like a textbook on Eastern religions. Adult characters merely serve to move the story along. Sarah, however, is an insightful and perceptive character, and readers will identify with her anguish as she tries to deal with the cruelties inflicted on her. Unfortunately, the ending is abrupt and loose ends get tucked in too easily. Despite its weaknesses, this is still an exciting, suspenseful tale that will certainly be welcomed by Duncan's many fans.?Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 6^-9. Sarah Zoltanne is new in town, dragged from California to Missouri by her mom, who is in love with a local teacher. Sarah is miserable, but after she plays a fortune-teller at a school event, popular Eric Garret enlists her to make fortune-telling a side business. When the fortunes start coming true, and Sarah begins having dreams about the Salem Witch Trials, reality becomes frightening and dangerous. This is a mish-mash that works best when it focuses on the effect Sarah's fortune-telling has on a parochial town, but the plot spins out of control when Sarah and the other kids turn out to be reincarnations of people from the witch trials. Despite the flaws (including a narrow portrait of "Christians" and the inaccurate information that most early Christians believed in reincarnation), the book has one important thing going for it--Duncan writes page-turners. Her well-known knack for mixing the sinister and the supernatural compensates for a lot--and it needs to here. Ilene Cooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Laurel Leaf (September 8, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440227259
• ISBN-13: 978-0440227250
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #648,730 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Bewitching Read!, February 23, 2000

By	Amy Danielle (ILLINOIS) - See all my reviews

This was my first Lois Duncan novel. I thought it was excellent! The book was very suspenseful and gave tons of descriptive detail, as well as lots of feelings and emotions in the characters. The story is about a girl named Sarah that has just moved from a town called Ventura,California. She moves to a small little town called Pine Crest that seems nice on the outside, but is really twisted and hidden with unbearable lies underneath. Sarah is asked to take part in a school fundraiser, a carnival and is asked to be a gypsy that tells fortunes, by the school jock. She uses an old paper weight as her glass ball, but later she discovers that she can see people's secrets and predict the future! I don't want to give the book away, but something terrible happens.. sending lies, mischeif,backstabbers,magic, and witches into the small quiet town of Pine Crest. I really enjoyed this novel, it was a great thriller! Next I will be reading one of her books that I ordered off the internet, called Daughter's of Eve. I suggest you try reading this book or one of her many novels, she is truely a GREAT writer!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most recent of Duncan's fabulous suspense novels, March 25, 2003

By	Elizabeth Fields (Wyomissing Hills, PA United States) - See all my reviews

Gallows Hill is the most recent of Lois Duncan's young adult suspense novels, published just when I was deciding that she was probably never going to write another one. It is one of my favorites, though I don't know if that's because I read it after reading her other books. It is the story of Sarah Zoltanne, a 17-year-old high school senior who moves to the tiny town of Pine Crest, Missouri, with her mother, who has fallen in love with Ted Thompson, a local teacher with two kids of his own. Sarah is immediately faced with the problems of starting school in a small close-knit community in her senior year, as well as dealing with two stepsiblings and being an outsider, not to mention the terrible nightmares and visions the place gives her.

Her only friend is Charlie Gorman, an overweight boy who is also an outsider in his own town. Researching the story of the Salem Witch Trials brings up terrible visions for Sarah, and the students at school terrorize her, believing that she is a witch. Eventually she realizes that she is remembering memories from a past life as nine-year-old Betty Parris, who triggered the Salem Witch Hunt 300 years earlier. Many of the students in the town, including Charlie, have been reincarnated from that lifetime, and have come together to repeat the incident as a way of teaching the lessons that people didn't quite get the first time around.

Duncan put an incredible amount of research into this book, and she does a fantastic job of weaving a fast-paced modern story with history. She even inspired me to read some other historical fiction on Salem, which is usually not something I read. Readers will share Sarah's discomfort in her brand-new stepfamily, especially with her stepsister, 16-year-old Kyra. They will also itch to throttle Eric, the smooth-talking, two-timing golden boy who convinces Sarah to tell fortunes at the school carnival.

The hardest part about Gallows Hill is knowing that Sarah is telling the truth when no one believes her. Everyone, including the principal at her school and her own mother, think she is exaggerating when she tells them about the crow left in her locker and people spying on the house. Sarah goes through this ordeal with a minimum of support - just Charlie. It can be near impossible to believe in yourself when no one else does.

The flashbacks, too, are done very well. The modern-day teenagers who have been reincarnated all play strong roles in Sarah's life, just as they did in little Betty Parris' in Salem. The final scene, when Kyra and Eric kidnap Sarah and threaten to hang her because she is a witch, is powerful and frightening. Readers will feel like they are watching the flickering fire and hearing the sound of New Age music as the students put a noose around Sarah's neck.

Duncan also pulls together some utterly beautiful writing - "It's Governor Phips, Sarah thought, hovering between lifetimes, before she realized that it was Ted Thompson who was removing the noose from her neck and lowering her into the upraised arms of her mother."

Like all of Lois Duncan's other young adult novels, this one is highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars She's Into Superstition, Black Cats, and Voodoo Dolls(?), August 18, 2003

By	Rayna Gorowitz "Sparkina" (Pembroke Pines, Florida USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: Gallows Hill (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (School & Library Binding)

This book really touches the heart as it tingles the spine. I felt for heroine Sarah as she is haunted by the memories of young Betty Parris, who triggered the Salem Witch Hunt, and persecuted by her classmates. I almost cried when no one believed what she said about the drawing of the noose and about the dead crow.
Another thing I loved was her relationship with the large-bodied-but-kindhearted-and-cute Charlie. That really touched my heart because I too was in love with a generously-sized gentleman.
This book is well-crafted and entertaining and just plain excellent. Buy two copies. You'll wear out the first from reading it so much. Lois D. does it again. I think all her "teen-suspense" books are great, even though I said goodbye to my teenhood some years ago.