Excerpt from an internal memo GracevilleĪBBIE LAFLEUR WAS AN OUTSIDER, a third-generation Bostonian, so no one warned her about summers in Graceville.

There was no history of irregular behavior to presage the summer’s unthinkable events. The new English instructor at Graceville Prep was chosen with the greatest care, highly recommended by the board of directors at Blake Academy in Boston, where she had an exemplary career for twelve years. I also felt that I had quite a bit more sympathy for the main character than the author did. The teacher is strongly drawn to the lake in back of her new house, and although she's always been a bit timid of the water, finds herself spending more and more time swimming in the murk.Ī very strong horror story - it would've been a full 5 stars from me if not for the off-stage 'appearance' of Mary Kay Letourneau, which I felt weakened the effect considerably. But things don't culminate in the way the reader might expect. We're not told exactly why she left her last position, but it's hinted right from the beginning that she might have some rather unprofessional plans concerning some of the teenage boys in her class. In 'The Lake' we meet a schoolteacher who's decided to take a job in Gracetown, sight unseen. Gracetown is a rural Florida location, just over the Georgia border a hot and sticky, sleepy town - with a chilling dark undercurrent of supernatural influences - which boil to the surface in the summer.

Ghost summer stories by tananarive due