BAD THINGS HAPPENED HERE (Holiday House, fall 2026)
Pre-order the book here!
Add the book on Goodreads!
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection!
For fans of R.L. Stine, this supernatural horror follows twelve-year-old Sam to his unsettling family home in Singapore, where his journey to unearth details of his dead mother’s life entangles him in a deadly decades-old mystery.
Sam doesn’t remember much about his mom, who died when he was young. So when he’s gifted a plane ticket to visit his grandma in Singapore-at his mom’s childhood home-he jumps at what he imagines will be the perfect summer break.
Instead, Sam arrives to find a derelict hoarder house in a shadowy neighborhood haunted by a dark, secret history. All Sam wanted was to get to know his mom… but when he comes face-to-face with her ghost, stuck in time at age twelve, he realizes that something has gone terribly wrong.
Priya Malhotra is nothing like the mother he’d imagined. She’s got skinned knees and a sharp tongue, and she won’t let him call her “Mom.” But she does need his help: a young girl’s vengeful spirit is keeping her trapped. What does Priya have to do with the girl’s tragic death? Can Sam really untangle a decades-old mystery-even if it means losing his mom forever?
And if Sam gets too close to the answers… will he be the next to disappear?
Press
Bad Things Happened Here was featured on Good Day Sacramento! Watch the clip here