The Carrefour Curse

by Dianne K Salerni (Author)

Reading Level: 6th − 7th Grade

The Addams Family meets The Westing Game in this exhilarating mystery about a modern magical dynasty trapped in the ruins of their once-grand, now-crumbling ancestral home.

Twelve-year-old Garnet regrets that she doesn't know her family. Her mother has done her best to keep it that way, living far from the rest of the magical Carrefour clan and their dark, dangerous mansion known as Crossroad House. But when Garnet finally gets summoned to the estate, it isn't quite what she hoped for. Her relatives are strange and quarrelsome, each room in Crossroad House is more dilapidated than the last, and she can't keep straight which dusty hallways and cobwebbed corners are forbidden.

Then Garnet learns the family secret: their dying patriarch fights to retain his life by stealing power from others. Every accident that isn't an accident, every unexpected illness and unexplained disappearance grants Jasper Carrefour a little more time. While the Carrefours squabbles over who will inherit his role when (if) he dies, Garnet encounters evidence of an even deeper curse. Was she brought to Crossroad House as part of the curse . . . or is she meant to break it? Written with loads of creepy atmosphere and an edge-of-your-seat magical mystery, this thrilling story reads like The Haunting of Hill House for preteens. Perfect for late-night reading under the covers.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

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Hardcover
$18.99

Kirkus

Starred Review
Salerni's gothic charmer is deliciously creepy and atmospheric, building an immersive fantasy world that gently explores intergenerational trauma. . . . An enchanting and evocative tale.

ALA/Booklist

A fun page-turner that touches on the deeper themes of family, identity, and what it means to pay for the sins of the past.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

A family reclaims its magical legacy in this standout, genre-bending dark fantasy from Salerni (Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghosts). Twelve-year-old Garnet Carrefour's mother raised her far from the family estate, the source of their ley-line-based nature powers, but with great-grand-father Jasper dying, the family's magic compels the two back for an impending transfer of magic. Initially excited to meet her extended family, Garnet soon learns why her mother never visited Crossroad House: Jasper prowls the dilapidated home, leeching life force from his most vulnerable descendants, and an augury predicts that Garnet will repeat the fate of a girl who vanished during Jasper's last seemingly fatal illness. As "time-traveling visions" unpredictably jolt her into the missing girl's past, Garnet probes her family history, hoping to dodge the curse by solving a decades-old mystery. Salerni enlivens classic horror tropes and gothic ambience, complete with a sentient manor house, blending wry humor with atmospheric descriptions to create Garnet's compulsively readable first-person voice. The meticulously built, grounded magic system provides a fantastical buffer around realistic depictions of abuse, while supportive family relationships transcend a cycle of generational trauma. Main characters read as white. Ages 8-12. Agent: Sara Crowe, Pippin Properties. (Jan.)

Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"Spooky, dark, and enthralling. I couldn't put it down until every mystery had been solved." —Cassie Beasley, New York Times bestselling author of Circus Mirandus
Dianne K Salerni
Dianne K. Salerni has written many books for children and young adults, including state-award nominated series The Eighth Day and Junior Library Guild selection Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghosts. She attended the University of Delaware and the University of Pennsylvania before teaching fourth and fifth grades for many years. Now Dianne spends her time hanging around creepy cemeteries, climbing 2,000-year-old pyramids for book research, and volunteering at her local rescue animal shelter. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family. Visit her at www.diannesalerni.com.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780823452675
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Holiday House
Publication date
January 31, 2023
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV001000 - Juvenile Fiction | Action & Adventure
JUV028000 - Juvenile Fiction | Mysteries, Espionage, & Detective Stories
JUV058000 - Juvenile Fiction | Paranormal, Occult & Supernatural
Library of Congress categories
Magic
Families
Dwellings
Inheritance and succession
Blessing and cursing
Novels
Junior Library Guild
Gold 2023

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