4.25/5. 8.5/10. I read this back in the day when I was teaching middle school, and I decided to reread it. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Lois Duncan's books. 17-yr.-old Sarah poses as a fortuneteller at her new school's Halloween fair and soon discovers that she actually is able to see the future in a crystal ball given to her by her mother. The other students brand her a witch, and it's 1600s Salem all over again.

Tragically, Duncan's youngest daughter was murdered in Albuquerque, NM, prompting her to write WHO KILLED MY DAUGHTER? The killer was indicted in 2022, but sadly, Duncan had passed away in 2016, never knowing who killed her daughter. The only horror story she wrote after her daughter's death was this one, GALLOWS HILL. ( )

Fast paced. I liked that there were little bits of history concerning the Salem Witch Trials sprinkled throughout. The plot was pretty telegraphed but I enjoyed the story so much that I didn’t mind it being obvious where the plot was going to end up. ( )

"In that instant of dislocation, as she fought to maintain her equilibrium and keep from tumbling headfirst into the pit of darkness, a voice seemed to shout directly into her right ear".

"Guilty as charged" it bellowed. "Away to Gallows Hill".

Gallows Hill by Lois Duncan

This is sure different then most of Duncan's books. This is a seriously creepy little read that combines both historical and contemporary fiction.

Sara has just settled in to a sleepy town in Missouri with her family. It doesn't take her long to discover the town isn't quite what she thought it was.

It is a very conservative very close knit town and Sarah is regarded with suspicion that quickly turns to hostility and then to paranoia and outright hysteria. This reaction is very much like the Salem Witch Trials as Sara becomes regarded with more and more hostility, mimicking the past, which becomes intersperced with the present, in more ways than one..

This book is contemporary but mixed with the past and the Salem Witch Trials. Although this story is fiction, what happened in Salem is not and Duncan really does well in switching from past to present.

The tension is unbelievably high and please do not expect light reading. This becomes really dark really fast.

I enjoyed this story. It isn't in the same league as a "Daughters of Eve" but it is well written and compelling..as well as genuinely creepy. If one likes spooky YA, this would be a good fit. ( )

Read at first publishing - excellent - highly recommended.

17-year-old Sarah doesn’t believe in magic, but she thinks it’s fun to pretend to be a psychic - until her startling visions of the future turn deadly.

When Sarah Zoltanne moves from sunny California to a small town in Missouri, she feels like she'll never fit in. Her mother is dating a jerk, the kids at her school despise her, and she misses her old home. So when a popular boy asks her to tell fortunes at a school fair, she jumps at the chance. But soon her crystal ball begins to swirl with strange visions and her outlandish predictions start to come true with startling accuracy. Now Sarah must confront a community that not only mistrusts her, but also fears her strange powers.

Gallows Hill is a spine-chilling thriller based on the story of the Salem witch trials. ( )

"Gallows Hill" is a very well crafted suspense/supernatural thriller. Although I don't usually go for the paranormal books, this one was presented in a way that was, for the most part, believable. It is also supposed to be a young adult book, but I found it entertaining for the not-so-young adults as well.

The book starts with Sarah Zoltanne being forced to relocate from Ventura, California, to tiny Pine Crest, Missouri, for her final year of high school. She was forced to follow when her mother Rosemary, widowed for several years, met Ted Thompson at a teacher conference and fell irresistibly in love. Ted was still married, although separated, and had a teenage daughter, Kyra, who was only one year younger than Sarah. The move was particularly rough for Sarah as no child wants to move away from their friends for their last year of high school. Add to that the fact that Pine Crest was a small community where the children had known each other almost from birth, and Sarah and Kyra couldn't stand each other, and you get what was the makings of a pretty miserable senior year for Sarah.

The class president, and anointed golden boy of Pine Crest, Eric Garrett, asks Sarah to help with the senior class fundraiser. They were holding a carnival in the gymnasium and Eric wanted her to be 'Madame Zoltanne,' fortune teller extraordinaire. Sarah tried every excuse she could think of to get out of it especially the fact that she didn't know the first thing about telling fortunes. Eric had a plan though. Kyra had a wireless radio and would feed info on all the people walking in Sarah's tent. Sarah would then put everything together and come up with a fortune. Her mother even had a crystal paperweight (which had a life of its own) that Sarah could use as a crystal ball.

Pressured to try and 'fit in' by Ted and Rosemary, Sarah agrees. The night turned out to be a major success. People were astonished that a stranger knew so many details about them, many she had never even spoken with before. All was going very well until Charlie Gorman walked in. Overweight and uncoordinated, Charlie was the class whipping board and was constantly being teased. When Sarah looked in the crystal ball for Charlie, she saw him being pushed down a flight of stairs. She was so taken aback by this that she feigned a headache and, since the carnival was almost over, decided to call it a night. When Charlie showed up at school the next day with a cast on his arm, things started getting sticky for Sarah.

Eric, having a hidden agenda of his own, pressures Sarah into holding private readings for cash. Kyra has a major crush on Eric and agrees to help. As she holds more fortune readings, Sarah sees things in the crystal ball which ultimately come to fruition. Add to this her nightmares about the Salem Witch trials and her growing friendship with Charlie, who is a proponent of reincarnation, and things start to spiral out of control for Sarah.

I very much enjoyed reading this book and while the plot was not really surprising, it kept the pages turning. None of us know what's on the other side of the grave, so who can say what happens. ( )