A PLACE FOR VANISHING
YA SUPERNATURAL THRILLER
Delacorte Press | Release Date: 1.16.24
Recommended for Ages 14+ (please consult content warnings below)
✦ An instant USA Today Bestseller! ✦
A teen girl and her family return to her mother's childhood home, only to discover that the house's strange beauty may disguise a sinister past, in this contemporary gothic horror from the author of What We Harvest.
The house was supposed to be a fresh start. That's what Libby's mom said. And after Libby’s recent bipolar III diagnosis and the tragedy that preceded it, Libby knows she and her family need to find a new normal.
But Libby’s new home turns out to be anything but normal. Scores of bugs haunt its winding halls, towering stained-glass windows feature strange, insectile designs, and the garden teems with impossibly blue roses. And then there are the rumors. The locals, including the mysterious boy next door, tell stories about disappearances tied to the house, stretching back over a century to its first owners. Owners who supposedly hosted legendary masked séances on its grounds.
Libby’s mom refuses to hear anything that could derail their family’s perfect new beginning, but Libby knows better. The house is keeping secrets from her, and something tells her that the key to unlocking them lies in the eerie, bug-shaped masks hidden throughout the property.
We all wear masks—to hide our imperfections, to make us stronger and braver. But if Libby keeps hers on for too long, she might just lose herself—and everyone she loves.
Cover Art: Zoë Van Dijk
Designer: Trisha Previte
Author's Note: Mental Health & Content Warnings
As a teen, I never got to read a book with a main character who had cyclothymia (aka bipolar III). And of all the narratives I’ve drafted, this is the first time I’ve tackled one from the perspective of a mind like my own. A daunting task, in part because I know I can only speak for myself. I’ve done my best to reflect my experiences, but please know this book cannot and does not attempt to speak for everyone who shares that bipolar III lens, let alone folks with bipolar I and II, who may find Libby’s symptoms differ from their own. Regardless, I hope Libby’s journey speaks to some readers, and can be a reminder that you are not even a little alone. <3
Please note that while I would describe A Place For Vanishing as a mental health recovery story—one that carries hope and growth and a hell of a lot of fight—this book centers a character recuperating from a suicide attempt. At times, she struggles with lingering suicidal ideation, and she reckons throughout with a recent bipolar III diagnosis. Another character has wounds that appear to be self-inflicted by cutting. Please use your best judgment about whether this story is right for you.
If you or someone you know is considering self-harm, please visit 988lifeline.org or call or text the National (US-based) Suicide & Life Crisis Lifeline at 988. Support is 24/7, free, and confidential. The International Association for Suicide Prevention also offers additional lifelines and international resources at findahelpline.com.
Above all, please take care of yourself.
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Praise for A PLACE FOR VANISHING
✦ An instant USA Today Bestseller! ✦
✠"A compelling, darkly creative, and intensely haunting examination of the masks we wear."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
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✠"An expertly woven narrative that is both a frightening slow-burn psychological thriller and a nuanced and touching exploration of the complicated aftermath of trauma."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
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✠"Ann Fraistat writes about the effects of trauma with sensitivity and care in this eminently entertaining horror tale rife with thrills, chills and heart."
—BookPage, starred review
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✦ “As a seasoned fan of the haunted house genre, I thought I knew what I was in for when I started this book, but Fraistat surprised me at every turn. Every bug-riddled, mask-filled page of A Place for Vanishing is vivid, original, and absolutely compelling.” —Erica Waters, Bram Stoker Award–winning author of The River Has Teeth
✦ “Brimming with eerie atmosphere and insects most foul, A Place For Vanishing gave me the best shivers! I loved exploring the hidden stairwells and long-kept secrets of Madame Clery’s House of Masks, and so will you.” —Erin A. Craig, #1 New York Times bestselling author of House of Roots and Ruin
✦ “Like the haunted house at its center, A Place for Vanishing is a gorgeous, terrifying fever dream, hypnotizing from the start. Ann Fraistat is the queen of lush, immersive horror, and she delivers both a heart-wrenching family drama and a brilliant exploration of mental health wrapped in prose as sharp and beautiful as a thorn-covered rose. No one writes books like Fraistat, and this is her best yet. I absolutely loved it.” —Ashley Winstead, author of Midnight is the Darkest Hour
✦ "Fraistat’s wildly inventive novel drags you into a world of stained-glass horrors and crawling nightmares—and may never let you leave. At its rotting heart is my new favorite gothic heroine, clawing her way back to herself with a quiet, determined strength. Poignant, rewarding, and revolting in the absolute best way."
—Allison Saft, New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic
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✦ “Intricately and wildly imagined, A Place for Vanishing is a twisting, gothic maze of a book that led me down crooked halls and secret rooms into revelations I couldn’t possibly predict. Fraistat’s prose is as lush and sickeningly sweet as the house of horror she’s imagined. I sank into this novel and could hardly come up for air.” —Courtney Gould, author of The Dead and The Dark and Where Echoes Die
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✦ “Riveting and sublimely creepy, A Place for Vanishing unearths a haunting family legacy chilling layer by chilling layer, revealing an explosive truth that will have you racing to the last page.” —Amanda Glaze, bestselling author of The Second Death of Edie and Violet Bond
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✦ “With her chillingly inventive take on the haunted house, Fraistat takes us through a (stained) glass darkly in A Place for Vanishing.” —Amy Goldsmith, author of Those We Drown
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✦ “A Place For Vanishing has it all: a heroine you’ll love from the beginning, masks that aren’t what they seem, and blue roses that are as sinister as they are beautiful. Enter a haunted house that provides the perfect backdrop for Fraistat’s nuanced and thoughtful depiction of a family working through the fallout of a traumatic event. And if you feel something crawling on your skin while you read, don’t worry. It’s probably just a beetle trying to say hello!” —Alex Brown, author of Damned If You Do
