Fountain
Dead
by
Theresa Braun
Genre:
YA Horror
Mark
is uprooted from his home and high school in the Twin Cities and
forced to move with his family into a Victorian in Nowhere-ville.
Busy with the relocation and fitting in, Mark’s parents don’t see
what’s unfolding around them—the way rooms and left behind
objects seem alive with a haunted past.
Of
course, Mark keeps his ghostly encounters to himself, all the while
sinking deeper into the house's dark, alluring, and ultimately
terrifying history. As romantic entanglements intensify, the
paranormal activity escalates. Past and present come together.
Everything is connected—from the bricks in the walls to the hearts
beating in their chests, all the secrets of Fountain Dead are finally
unearthed.
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Emma
sensed the shockwaves of the earthquake before it struck. The air fizzled with
rage.
If
Sasha hadn’t run off to get married while Emma was away, the maidservant
might’ve proven a heroic buffer to what was to come. Emma missed working
alongside her assistant. Now even more than ever.
Emma’s
underarms dampened, despite the chill seeping in through the windows. Her
trembling hands fiddled with the tray of bandages, ointments, and miscellaneous
implements as she mimicked organizing them. When would she get Jonathan alone
to update him on her trip? She wondered if having already spoken to him
would’ve done any good at the moment.
The
door thwacked open.
Riley
stormed into the room and menaced beside her.
She
straightened her spine to avoid cowering.
His
gravelly voice indicated a control of his anger. “Remember what I told you?”
As
he neared, Emma’s knees locked, her eyes closed. Where was Jonathan? The entire
house had fallen eerily still. God, where was Hugh? Was he ever returning home?
“You’re
coming with me.”
His
directive left no room for resistance.
“This
is as good a time as any to tell you your precious brother’s dead. So you can
get it out of your head that he’ll come rescue you. He ain’t ever coming back.
And, Pa, well—”
Emma
still hadn’t turned to acknowledge him. Even if she did, he’d merely be a haze
of color through her tears. The need to know what happened to Hugh attacked her
like a swarm of bees. A desperate sadness was the brutal sting. Could the news
be accurate? Or was it the cruelest invention meant to debilitate her? She
shamefully wished Riley had been the one to die. Tempted to rectify that, she
lamented her pistol lay back in her bedroom.
When
she didn’t move, he seized her by the arm.
Noticing
her attention on the dark object in his other hand, Riley raised it to her face
and twirled it between his fingers.
It
was Jonathan’s pipe. Had he not taken it with him that next morning? Did Riley
discover it in her room? Is that what this was about?
When
her brother jerked Emma away, the tray of medical supplies crashed to the
floor. Her feet stumbled along through the dining room, into the kitchen, and
then down the stairs into the basement. The Mason jars of blood, fluids, and
organs stared at her from the shelves, in commiseration, or condemnation. She
couldn’t fathom either.
The
metal door to the safe gaped wide like a broken jaw.
Her
arms and fingers numbed.
Riley
shoved her sidelong through the open maw, into the remnant of daylight within.
Praying
he’d have a last minute change of heart, Emma faced him, her eyes pleading.
“You
better not be carrying that red-devil’s spawn—or I’ll do you like I did that
squaw. Don’t think I won’t.”
What
was he talking about? One of his war atrocities? Could she be pregnant—the
thought hadn’t occurred to her.
“Please,”
she begged as the door banged shut, the light snuffing out.
“Think
about what you’ve done, you whore.”
He
spun the combination lock. The clatter and clicks equaled the lit fuse on a
stick of dynamite.
Emma
battered the door. “Let me out.”
Riley’s
stifled yelling thundered on the other side.
“Please.”
Her cheek smashed against the frigid iron.
The
tramping of his boots overwhelmed her sobs.
Fountain Dead gives us two stories with two points of view.
One set in 1862 and one set in 1988.
In 1988 a young boy’s parents uproot him from his hometown
and move him out into the middle of nowhere and to beat it all they move into a
house that is said to be haunted.
When strange things start to occur in the house Mark is
ready to move somewhere else and begins to talk his parents into selling. I don’t
think his parents actually believe Mark about the things he has witnessed in
the house.
Tragedy strikes Mark’s life and turns it upside down. When
his family is put in danger Mark must find out what is going on with the house and
its history if he wants to save his family.
In 1862 a young woman wants to have the life she wants
without a man telling her what to do. Emma’s father wants her to be a doctor
like him but Emma has other plans. She wants to be a teacher. Emma is a strong
woman who definitely knows what she wants out of life and doesn’t need any man
running it for her. She knows how to go after what she wants and how to make it
happen.
When I read the summary for Fountain Dead I was like ooh I
have got to read this one. The haunted house and the ghost got me. I couldn’t
wait to dive into Fountain Dead and see what the ghosts were up too and to find
out the history of the house and why it was haunted and who was haunting it.
At the beginning when I was just getting to know each
character and who they were I kept trying to figure out who they were and how
their lives where going to intertwine. I didn’t want to put it down I had to
keep reading so I could see more ghosts and to know why they were there still
in the house.
I would recommend Fountain Dead to anyone who likes a good
haunting.
Theresa
Braun was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and has carried some of that
hardiness with her to South Florida where she currently resides. An
English teacher and adjunct college professor for over thirteen
years, she continues to share her enthusiasm for literary arts with
her students. She earned a Masters in English literature with a
thesis on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. In her spare time, she
enjoys delving into her own creative writing, painting, photography
and even ghost hunting. Spending time with her family and traveling
as often possible are two of her passions. In fact, her world
meanderings are often backdrops for her work. Striving to make the
world a better place is something dear to her heart.
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