Riddance : Or: The Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing-Mouth Children

"Shelley Jackson is a writer of such extraordinary, uncanny power that the hair on the back of my neck stands up when I encounter her work. What an exhilarating, prickling, blistering book Riddance is! I made myself read it as slowly as possible in order to stay in as long as I could." Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble: Stories , finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction Eleven-year-old Jane Grandison, tormented by her stutter, sits in the back seat of a car, letter in hand inviting her to live and study at the Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing-Mouth Children. Founded in 1890 by Headmistress Sybil Joines, the schoolat first glanceis a sanctuary for children seeking to cure their speech impediments. Inspired by her haunted and tragic childhood, the Headmistress has other ideas. Pioneering the field of necrophysics, the Headmistress harnesses the gift she and her students possess. Through their stutters, together they have the ability to channel ghostly voices communicating from the land of the dead, a realm the Headmistress herself visits at will. Things change for the school and the Headmistress when a student disappears, attracting attention from parents and police alike. Set in the overlapping worlds of the living and the dead, Shelley Jacksons Riddance is an illuminated novel told through theoretical writings in necrophysics, the Headmistresss dispatches from the land of the dead, and Janes evolving life as Joiness new stenographer and central figure in the Vocational Schools mysterious present, as well as its future. Finalist for the Believer Book Award for Fiction Named a Best Book of Fall by Vulture , New York Magazine , and more "A ravishing novel charged with the idea of the incommunicable." — The New Yorker Eleven–year–old Jane Grandison, tormented by her stutter, sits in the back seat of a car, letter in hand inviting her to live and study at the Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing–Mouth Children. Founded in 1890 by Headmistress Sybil Joines, the school—at first glance—is a sanctuary for children seeking to cure their speech impediments. Inspired by her haunted and tragic childhood, the Headmistress has other ideas. Pioneering the field of necrophysics, the Headmistress harnesses the “gift” she and her students possess. Through their stutters, together they have the ability to channel ghostly voices communicating from the land of the dead, a realm the Headmistress herself visits at will. Things change for the school and the Headmistress when a student disappears, attracting attention from parents and police alike. Set in the overlapping worlds of the living and the dead, Shelley Jackson’s Riddance is an illuminated novel told through theoretical writings in necrophysics, the Headmistress’s dispatches from the land of the dead, and Jane’s evolving life as Joines’s new stenographer and central figure in the Vocational School’s mysterious present, as well as its future. Eleven-year-old Jane Grandison, Tormented By A Stutter, Is Invited To Live And Study At The Sybil Joines Vocational School For Ghost Speakers & Hearing-mouth Children, Founded In 1890 As A Seeming Sanctuary For Children Seeking To Cure Their Speech Impediments. However, The Headmistress Has Found That Her Students Can Channel Ghostly Voices Through Their Handicapped Utterances, Communicating With The Land Of The Dead, A Realm That The Headmistress Herself Visits At Will. Things Change For The School When A Student Disappears, Drawing Attention From Parents And Police-- (shelley Jackson). Place Of Publication From Publisher's Website. "Eleven-year-old Jane Grandison, tormented by a stutter, is invited to live and study at The Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing-Mouth Children, founded in 1890 as a seeming sanctuary for children seeking to cure their speech impediments. However, the Headmistress has found that her students can channel ghostly voices through their handicapped utterances, communicating with the land of the dead, a realm that the Headmistress herself visits at will. Things change for the school when a student disappears, drawing attention from parents and police"-- Provided by publisher In Riddance; or, The Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing-Mouth Children, children with speech impediments attend a school in Massachusetts to learn how to channel the dead. Written in the form of transcripts, found documents, and archival material, the novel is a disquieting supernatural investigation into life after death, and marks the much-anticipated return of a brilliant writer