False Haven
Rebecca Rook
Publication date: February 13th 2024
Genres: Horror, Young Adult
False Haven is a young adult horror novel for fans of Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, Asylum by Madeleine Roux, and Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff.
Seventeen-year-old Vivienne Barston’s life has fallen apart.
With her mother recently dead, her father disappears into his grief – leaving Viv to deal with her sadness and anger alone. Viv turns to destructive behaviors like petty vandalism, but after a disturbing stint in a juvenile detention center frightens her, Viv agrees to a court mandated service opportunity designed to expunge her record. The deal: work for six weeks with a trail conservation crew in the rural woods of southern Oregon, and she’ll be free with a clean slate.
She knows it’s her last chance to fix her life.
When Viv arrives at the small town of Hard Luck, Oregon, she meets her motley crewmates, all with troubles of their own. The unusual group travels to Grafton Stake, a remote and derelict former asylum with a haunted history–and now Viv must face the ghosts of the past while fighting for her future.
Don’t miss this inventive horror novel where Holes meets The Haunting of Hill House!
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Excerpts of False Haven by Rebecca Rook
Excerpt One
“Morgan! She’s here, oh my god, she’s here.” Cat tried to push past Viv.
Viv flung up an arm to bar Cat’s movement. “Stop,” Viv hissed through gritted teeth. “Look.”
Cat stopped. She saw. And fell back, almost behind Viv.
“Oh my god,” Viv heard the other girl whimper from behind her.
But she couldn’t take her eyes off the scene before her.
Morgan stood several feet away, near the center of the graveyard. Dressed in a white gown that
gleamed like bone in the twilight, Viv saw that the garment was old-fashioned, with flounces at
the hem and on the chest. The hem trailed in the wet grass at Morgan’s feet. Long sleeves
covered her arms, and Morgan’s long hair draped down her gown and around her body like
ropes, the ends of her hair coated in a sticky fluid. Viv’s eyes trailed over the gown. Red stains,
etched in symbols that resembled keys, were traced across the fabric. Morgan’s hands were
coated in red, and Viv realized, in a distant corner of her mind, that the red was blood.
More blood dripped from her scalp, a gory crown that haloed her white face and wide eyes. Her
lips were stained red, and more fluid dribbled from her mouth as Morgan’s face stretched into
the familiar too wide, grotesque grin. Feathers, blue and black and red, rested on the ground at
Morgan’s feet, also stained with blood.
Morgan turned from the sky and focused on Viv. The grin grew wider.
“Hello.” The high, thin, childish voice was back.
“Have you come to join us?”
Excerpt Two
A short, weathered black stone pyramid rose from a hewn base buried deep into the ground. Viv
could see the chisel marks at the base, lined with dirt and moss. No words or dates were
inscribed, only the symbol of a single open eye.
A shiver skittered across her scalp. She recognized the symbol for the evil eye.
An obelisk, she thought. It’s an obelisk.
What is an obelisk doing in the middle of the woods?
Viv peered past the obelisk. The stone stood waist-high and before a wide, flat stretch of
pasture mostly clear of trees and brush. Thick holly bushes with sharp, black-green leaves lined
the edges of the pasture. Unsettled, Viv rubbed her arms. Why would a clearly man-made
pasture be up here, away in the woods? So far from the homestead? Viv stepped forward to
take in more — and paused.
A rectangle of the same black stone lay next to her foot, embedded in the ground and with
edges coated in moss. The numbers 81469 were chiseled into the dark stone.
Viv swallowed. She took another step, then another.
Then she saw it — another stone, half buried in the dirt. Almost six feet away from the first stone
plaque. The numbers were 73071.
Now knowing what to seek, she scanned the earth around her. There were more. Many more.
42198.
32777.
21374.
91868.
Viv shook her head, trying to make sense of what she saw before her. She stumbled down the
length of the pasture, seeking more and more of the stone plaques wedged into the earth’s sod,
half visible.
Wholly terrible.
There were more than fifty plaques in the pasture, Viv realized.
She couldn’t be sure, but she thought she stood upon a graveyard.
Author Bio:
Rebecca Rook designs tabletop games, manages a little free library dedicated to sequential art and comics, and lives in the Pacific Northwest with two wonderful dogs. She writes young adult fiction in the fantasy, thriller, and horror genres.
A 2021-2022 Hugo House Fellow in
Seattle, WA, she also attended the 2021 Tin House YA Fiction Workshop in
Portland, OR. Rebecca was selected as one of the 100 invited writers to participate in the Write Team Mentorship Program’s curated Pitch-a-Thon event before being chosen as a Mentee for the 2021 Program. Prior to this, she completed the wonderful Yearlong Workshop for Young Adult and Middle Grade Fiction at Hugo House.
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