A Drop of Night

Description

A genre-bending thriller from internationally bestselling author Stefan Bachmann perfect for fans of The Maze Runner and Joss Whedon's The Cabin in the Woods. "A fast-paced thrill ride . . . Chilling . . . The suspense begins from the first page. I Know What You Did Last Summer meets Frankenstein."-YA Books Central Seventeen-year-old Anouk has finally caught the break she's been looking for-she's been chosen to participate in an exclusive program that includes an all-expenses-paid trip to France and a chance to explore the hidden underground Palais du Papillon, or Palace of the Butterfly. Along with four other gifted teenagers, Anouk will be one of the first people to set foot in the palace in more than two hundred years. But the expedition is not all it seems. The students' supposed benefactors are trying to kill them. And so is the palace itself, which is filled with deadly traps and invisible monsters. Can Anouk and the others figure out how to work together and escape Bachmann's masterful scene-building alternates between Anouk's flight through the palace and the struggles of Aurelie, who escaped the French Revolution by fleeing into the Palais du Papillon in 1789. "Certain to please those who demand constant action blended with their historical fiction."-Booklist

Stefan Bachmann was born in Colorado and spent most of his childhood in Switzerland, where he graduated from the Zurich University of Arts with degrees in music composition and theory. He is the author of The Peculiar, his debut, which was published to international acclaim when he was nineteen years old. He is also the author of The Whatnot and A Drop of Night.

"Bachmann's writing is as polished as in his earlier books-the violence is fittingly gruesome, the decadent and mazelike palace is gorgeously described, and Anouk has an engagingly snarky narrative voice." -- Publishers Weekly "Bachmann keeps the pages turning with this thriller...The peculiar circumstances add to the strange atmosphere and also to the suspense, lending the book an appealing, unworldly quality. When the explanation finally arrives, it fits quite well with the odd atmosphere. Bizarre and hugely suspenseful." -- Kirkus Reviews "Anouk's and Aurelie's stories skillfully mirror each other and are engaging...it is certain to please those who demand constant action blended with their historical fiction." -- Booklist "The sadistic house of horrors is fantastically drawn...readers looking for a scare for scare's sake will revel in the grotesqueness and cheer when Anouk and company take down their captors for a satisfying end." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books