Unhallowed Halls
by Lili Wilkinson
Allen & Unwin
Paige Whittaker has always been an outcast. She was too smart, too quiet and too weird, and always found it difficult to make friends. She did have a friend at her last school but after a catastrophic incident, that friendship was no more, and she needed a fresh start.
Fortunately, she had been offered a residential scholarship to Agathion College in Scotland and she was excited to see the blue-gray stone walls covered in ivy and the arched windows and turreted spires of the old building that was surrounded by romantic moorland.
With a uniform of wool kilts and tweed blazers, the school was an exclusive haven for gifted students, although it was also known as “a school for posh fuck ups”. It was also as far away from Paige’s home in Florida as she could get.
This was an opportunity to make friends with a group of these misunderstood miscreants from a range of sexual and gender preferences. But is seems that everyone has secrets, and the biggest secret is deep within the school itself.
There is no technology at the school, whose traditions and teachings seem very archaic. Gaelic mythology and Shakespearian references philosophy entwine with the ancient Greek philosophy behind the school motto, Mind Over Body, in this fantasy fiction.
Amidst this intriguing background, Paige discovers secret rooms, underground passage ways and what seem to be ancient rituals invoking demons and goddesses. As Paige tries to make sense of screams that echo from her past, she becomes friends with a group of students who want to solve the school’s darkest mystery.
Award-winning YA author Lili Wilkinson says of her supernatural novel Unhallowed Halls that it is “about found families and the value of friendship, and that deep sense of connection that you feel when you finally find your people. It’s about self-acceptance – celebrating ourselves for who we are, the messy bits included.”
Lezly Herbert
