Beneath the Stairs

September 24, 2021

DEBUT NOVEL Fawcett's debut novel features protagonist Clare, who has seen her fair share of recent tragedy, having lost her first child to miscarriage and then lost her marriage as a result. When Clare's childhood friend Abby attempts suicide in the supposedly cursed Octagon House in the town where they grew up, Clare must return to the beginning of a series of events that unfolded nearly 20 years ago. Haunted by guilt and grief, Clare comes face to face with the ghosts of her past. Those ghosts--whether or not they are in fact real, or figments of Clare's teenage imagination, or products of Abby's mental illness--are undeniably difficult to deconstruct. This novel reminds readers how easily a thought becomes a truth, how quickly a dream becomes a nightmare, and how unknowingly we ourselves can become haunted houses. The first-person narration by a cast of characters at times makes it feel more like a series of stage monologues, which is understandable since Fawcett is a renowned playwright (among her works is Atlas of Mud, winner of a Kennedy Center National Science Playwriting Award). VERDICT Fawcett's debut is both incredibly suspenseful and immersive. A word of caution to readers: leave the light on.

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November 29, 2021
Octagon House in Sumner’s Mills, N.Y., the setting of Fawcett’s atmospheric if cliché-hobbled debut, is notorious for the never-solved disappearance of its builder’s fiancée and her six-year-old daughter in 1936 and the murderous attack on a mother and her two young girls there in 1965. In the present, the ruined house’s pernicious pull threatens Clare Madden and Abby Lindsay, long-estranged childhood friends who remain haunted in different ways after their traumatic experience there as teens in 1998. When Abby’s parents reach out to tell Clare that Abby’s hospitalized following an apparent suicide attempt at Octagon House, Clare, whose life in Chicago has been unraveling after a miscarriage, returns to help—and to see if she can figure out how to finally free them both from the house’s spell. Fawcett skillfully intercuts present-day action with flashbacks to adolescents Abby and Clair and Octagon House’s fraught earlier history, but the genuine horrors she gradually reveals are buried under haunted-house chestnuts and jumbled plotting leading to what feels like a forced optimistic finale. The imaginative flair she displays promises better for next time. Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman Literary.

January 1, 2022
Fawcett's creepy and engrossing debut is a chilling page-turner that will have readers racing to the end to find out how everything is unveiled. When Clare receives a call from her childhood best friend's mother after her friend's failed suicide attempt, she immediately packs her bags and heads home. Once in her old town of Sumner's Mills, she starts uncovering forgotten memories about a place called Octagon House that shattered her friend and ended their relationship. Different perspectives tell different haunting stories connected to this building, delving into grief and traumas that echo through time and resonate beyond the pages. Clare must uncover what lies buried within the ominous house, unearthing truths about herself and the past--possibly more terrifying and daunting than a ghost. This character-driven read is a wild ride reminiscent of Jennifer McMahon's supernatural suspense and Riley Sager's thrillers. Fawcett successfully weaves a horror-thriller blend that promises an adrenaline rush while also touching upon real-life nightmares such as abuse, PTSD, and mental illness.

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