As part of our September 2024 Publication Day, Jessica Grundeman’s creeping ghost story is the tale of haunted memories and long-lost dreams – just in time for the Halloween season!
The synopsis to Jessica’s book reads:
In the hidden folds of the world, Lily possesses a gift unlike any other - the ability to hear the untold stories of the departed. In ALL THE PEOPLE WHO DIED HERE, Lily's journey unfolds as she listens to the echoes of forgotten lives, each whisper revealing a new layer of truth. But as she delves deeper into the labyrinth of human emotion, she realises that some secrets are better left buried.
Intrigued and ready to read? Here are the book’s opening words:
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Lily Lagniappe was six years old the first time a spirit spoke to her; she was on the floor of her bedroom playing with some pink modelling clay when she first heard its voice. Like a whisper in her mind, it called her name to get her attention, and when it did, it told her a story. As the voice spoke, Lily could see what it was describing; stronger than imagination, it was a picture in her mind. Lily could see a child, a girl not much older than herself, her name was Kelly and she had red-brown hair in plaited pigtails, she wasn’t wearing any clothes because it was bath time, the girl told her. Her brother, Tom, was there too; he was a bit younger, but Lily was given the sense that although Kelly was older than Tom in age and body, Kelly was younger in mind; something had happened to her before she was born that made her mind slow, her thoughts came to her through a fog, heavy like wet sand or mud, and her body didn’t always do what her brain told it to do, or if it did it was delayed. Lily could see Kelly’s Dad putting Tom and her in the bath together; he added a mermaid toy, a boat and a duck and then sat on the floor beside them. His thoughts were slow too, not heavy like Kelly’s but messy and slurred; Kelly showed Lily a coffee table full of empty cans and bottles in explanation. The phone rang from the other room and at first their dad ignored it, it stopped ringing and then began again, he swore and stood up. “Tom, look after your sister, I’ll be back to wash you both in a minute.” He left the room.
Lily recognised the bathroom as her own and she knew that little kids shouldn’t be in the bath without their mum or dad, so she ran in to tell them to get out, planning to get her own mum to help. Arriving in the bathroom, she was confused when it was empty. She heard Tom yelling, “Dad, Dad!” And getting no answer. Then Lily realised that the story she could see in her head had already happened, and all at once she knew that Kelly was dead, she had drowned and no one ever knew what had happened, because Tom couldn’t speak properly yet. Lily knew, without even knowing the word yet, that Kelly had had a seizure; her dad was drunk and when he’d gone to answer the phone, he had gotten distracted and by the time he’d remembered that his kids were in the bath, it was too late. Tom had sat in the bath with his dead sister for an hour before his cries finally got through to his inebriated father. Tom hadn’t learnt to speak yet when he got in that bath, and after that bath, he never did.
Lily left the bathroom and ran back to her bedroom. There were other voices in her head now, and she was being told a plethora of stories all at once whilst being shown thousands of images. It was overwhelming for the little girl, especially as most of the stories were about how people had died, and Lily understood that they were all people who had lived and died in her house. She put her modelling clay away and reached for a notebook and pencil. There she sat still and quiet, listening to the different voices.
“One at a time, please,” she asked politely; nothing happened, so she asked again silently in her mind. The jumble slowed and Lily heard each story in turn; she worked as quickly as her little hands could to write them all down.
When she had finished and the voices were quiet, she went to find her mother, who had been busy doing housework.
“Mummy, do you know a little girl drowned here in the bath? Her name was Kelly. Do you know an old man called Roger had lung cancer and coughed blood all over the shower and then died in there? Did you know that Nora died in her sleep? She was very old and she missed her fiancé who died in the Korean War, her heart just stopped one night. They are all the people who died here.” Lily showed her shocked mother the pages she’d written.
“Lily, it’s okay. No, I didn’t know all of that, but I think we need to go see Grandma Carol,” she said with calm resignation, knowing that it had always been a possibility that this day would come, though seeing as that it had skipped herself, hoping that it wouldn’t. Although she felt the expected pang of maternal concern, she knew that Lily would be okay and that she would be able to handle the gift bestowed upon her. Lily had shown herself time and again, even at her tender age, to be intelligent and capable, almost fierce with independence, so pushing her motherly anxieties aside, she knew that she was right to be confident in Lily’s ability to grapple victoriously with their family ‘gift’.
