The Seance
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The Seance
The Seance, by Joan Lowery Nixon (which won the Edgar Award for best Young Adult Mystery), is a story of a girl named Lauren and a group of her friends. The girls live in a small town and try to create some fun by playing with spirits.
Sara is Laurens foster sister. The girls live with Laurens Aunt Mel. Lauren is very jealous of Sara because she claims she grew up in a loving, picture-perfect household, unlike Lauren whose parents died in a timber mill accident. Sara is constantly sneaking out to meet older guys, which is another reason why Lauren is jealous of Sara. The girls are both seniors in high school and because of the old, traditional, boring town they have grown up in, they agree to help a girl, Roberta, in contacting the dead. Lauren, Sara and a few other girls, including Laurens best friend, Ali, meet up at Lydias house one Friday night when her parents arent home. While proceeding with the seance, candles lit, lights turned off, Sara suddenly falls on top of the candles. Once the girls find the lamp in the never ending darkness, they discover that Sara is gone! It doesnt make sense to them. All of the windows are closed shut, doors locked and there is no Sara. The girls call the local sheriff and explain what happened. He comes up with the conclusion that one of the girls let her out and locked the door behind her. But who? Nobody will confess to it.
The next day Saras body is found in the swamp. Throughout the book, such as Saras funeral, people suspect Lauren knows something about Saras death, but Sara did not confide in her, is Laurens excuse. Carly, a guy who Sara had been meeting up with, is a suspect. Lauren also goes to visit his grandmother. She is a lonely woman and also extremely superstitious. She apparently believes a demon is the root of the tragedy. She wants the best for her grandson Carly and wants him to get into a nice college and live in the city. The sheriff (Sheriff Norvel) is still working on this case. He suggests they have a second seance to replay what happened that night. After everyone