Find That Book

Lois Duncan has several paranormals I liked, but the only book by her I've ever truly loved is the little known Season of the Two-Heart, which is about a meeting of cultures (Pueblo and white) and has nothing paranormal or fantastic about it. I throw in a lot of caveats when I rec it to people, but I do love it.

Oh, caveat about the paranormals: Duncan has a habit of "updating" her books to include references to email and cell phones and stuff, because apparently she thinks millennials can't relate otherwise. According to the Amazon reviews, Down a Dark Hall is one such, and the Kindle version dismayed a lot of people by being the updated version. It's just not as creepy without that sense of total isolation! Not having cell phone reception is a completely different atmosphere from being accustomed to not being in touch with people far away for months at a time and having very little chance of reaching them and certainly not at a moment's notice if you can just get to a place with reception.

So be warned, OP, that any copy you pick up may or may not be the same version that you read in the 80s, and definitely not if you get the Kindle version.

I did recently acquire the updated version of Gift of Magic, and sure enough, there were a couple throwaway references to emails that felt very shoehorned in. They didn't ruin the atmosphere, but they also didn't fit, because there's supposedly email but no one ever owns or sees a computer or cell phone, and the ways in which computers have shaped our lives are completely absent. It felt weird, and I miss the original.

But I'm avoiding the e-book of Down a Dark Hall, because it was always one of my favorites, and I agree that such a change would completely alter the atmosphere. Sigh.