17 new SFF books to get nice and cozy with this September
By Lacy Baugher
The Tenth Girl – Sara Faring
Sara Faring’s The Tenth Girl is an atmospheric, creepy debut novel that’s being touted as story for fans of Black Mirror and The Haunting of Hill House.
The novel follows the story of Mavi, a girl fleeing Buenos Aires after the death of her mother at the hands of the Argentinian military government. She winds up in Patagonia, where she ends up teaching at a mysterious finishing school that’s full of secrets and hiding a dark history.
It also may or may not be plagued by hostile spirits. (Yikes.)
The official synopsis certainly makes it all sound very ominous.
"At the very southern tip of South America looms an isolated finishing school. Legend has it that the land will curse those who settle there. But for Mavi―a bold Buenos Aires native fleeing the military regime that took her mother―it offers an escape to a new life as a young teacher to Argentina’s elite girls. Mavi tries to embrace the strangeness of the imposing house―despite warnings not to roam at night, threats from an enigmatic young man, and rumors of mysterious Others. But one of Mavi’s ten students is missing, and when students and teachers alike begin to behave as if possessed, the forces haunting this unholy cliff will no longer be ignored… and one of these spirits holds a secret that could unravel Mavi’s existence."
An nontraditional ghost story (sort of), there are lots of twist and turns in this tale, several of which you’ll do well to not get spoiled for beforehand.
The Tenth Girl is available on September 24.