Tyler High experiences frightening changes after voting to become a charter school.

Thirty-two stories of hot blood and frigid terror that could have come only from the mind of Bentley Little. And that's a scary place to be.

Flowing seamlessly between time and place (from the present-day hassles of HMOs to the once-uncharted territory of the American West), the Bram Stoker Award- winning author's ability to transfix his audience while relinquishing scant details about the foreboding evil is superb.

A pregnant woman gives birth to a cactus, a small church grows hair and bleeds, a man sprouts an umbilical cord and, one by one, residents of a tiny Southwest town die violently.

His attempts at fitting in at a new school complicated by disturbing dreams, Dion Semele befriends Penelope Daneam, an orphan who has been raised by nuns, and the two become catalysts for a reign of incredible terror.

Julian and Claire Perry and their two children, Megan and James, have made the move to a bigger, nicer home in the city's historic district. But something isn't right. The neighbors seem so reluctant to visit. Claire can't shake the feeling that she's not alone. Megan receives increasingly menacing and obscene texts. And James is having dreadful dreams. No wonder, considering what he's seen int he corner of the basement, staring at him, and shuffling...

Five strangers, drawn by disturbing memories of the past, return to the house of their haunted childhoods to confront their nightmares.