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Second Child

Fifteen-year-old Teri joins her wealthy father and half-sister at a secluded Maine resort. A century-old horror lies beneath the village’s summer playground.

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Beware the second child.

This lush, secluded Maine seaside resort is the summer playground of the superrich, but one hundred years ago, something disturbed their play. Horror came to this village. And though no one knows it yet, the horror has never left.

It waits for a shy young girl, outcast by her friends, her beautiful sister, even her own mother. She knows how it feels to be unwanted. She knows anger. And soon she will know the touch of unholy terror—and the rage of blood-drenched vengeance.

First published: 1990
Publisher: Bantam
Pages: 384
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Book tags

Content warnings

Bullying
Emotional Abuse

Missing warnings do not mean other content is absent.

Horror profile

Scary: Not rated
Creepy: Not rated
Gore: Not rated
Disturbing: Not rated
Weird: Not rated

How we calculate this

These are editorial estimates of intensity, informed by reading and review evidence, then checked before publication. They aren't star ratings, reader-vote averages or a measure of quality.

Each dimension runs from 1 (low) to 5 (exceptionally intense). A 5 is reserved for strongly consistent evidence. People experience horror differently.

Scary: Fear, tension and immediate threat.
Creepy: Unease, dread and an uncanny atmosphere.
Gore: Graphic injury, blood and bodily detail.
Disturbing: Upsetting ideas and lingering psychological impact.
Weird: Surreal, strange and reality-bending elements.

We draw a filled profile only when all five scores have been reviewed. Unrated does not mean mild. Missing scores are not estimated from genre tags or your saved taste. This profile isn't a complete content-warning guide.