Say her name

Roberta 'Bobbie' Rowe does not believe in ghosts. At her boarding school, which looks every inch the haunted house, a Halloween dare seems harmless enough. Her best friend Naya and a local boy named Caine join her in front of a candlelit mirror to summon Bloody Mary by saying her name five times.

Nothing happens. The next morning, though, Bobbie finds a message on her bathroom mirror that mentions five days. She has no idea what it means or who wrote it.

The oddities pile up and turn frightening for Bobbie and Naya. It becomes plain that the summoning worked, and that the ghost they called up from the afterlife means them harm. Bloody Mary has come for many people before them, and the three friends have only the five days left on the message to stop her reaching them.

This is a teen horror novel with a witty streak, so the scares sit alongside jokes. The school setting and the ticking deadline give it a steady, building dread rather than a slow, quiet one. Readers get a ghost story built on a familiar legend, told through a sceptic who is forced to change her mind.