Daughters Unto Devils

Gr 9 Up—There isn't a moment of reprieve for haunted protagonist Amanda Verner in Lukavics's intensely creepy debut. Tormented by the guilt of sleeping with a local post boy and the unplanned pregnancy that results and confused by the strange visions that appeared after the birth of Hannah, her blind and deaf sister, Amanda is convinced that the troubles that follow her family are a result of her sins. Turn-of-the-century prairie life is already intrinsically tough. The previous winter was long and arduous, and the small cabin that her family has called home no longer seems hospitable for the coming one. In a protective move, her father decides to relocate the family to an abandoned settlement, where the harsh winter weather should prove milder. The Verners enter their new abode, a large cabin that from the outside looks promising, to find the floors and walls covered with blood. This is only the first in a series of chilling ordeals that ultimately leads to possession, death, and a flight from a demon whose evil seems baked into the very land the family inhabits.