The Dead House
The Dead House is a 2015 young adult novel and the debut novel of Dawn Kurtagich. The book was published in paperback in the United Kingdom on 6 August and 15 September 2015 by Orion Publishing and in hardcover in the United States on 15 September 2015 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. It is told through a mixture of medias such as diary entries, news clippings, video footage, and various interviews. Synopsis At the beginning of the novel, the reader is made aware that the book's content was compiled from several sources, including a diary that was found in the remains of Elmbridge High School, a British high school that burned down 25 years prior. The material is a mixture of video clips, interviews, recovered diary entries, Post-it Notes, and other similar items, and will also occasionally have notations about missing content. Throughout the book, Kaitlyn repeatedly refers to her diary as "Dee" in her entries. Carly and Kaitlyn Johnson are two personalities that exist in the same body. They've been living in a mental hospital named Claydon Mental Hospital for an undisclosed amount of time. She works directly with a therapist named Dr. Annabeth Lansing, and it is established that Kaitlyn/Carly's parents died in a horrific accident that they cannot remember. They are aware of each other's existence, but they never directly interact as Carly is only active during the day and Kaitlyn at night, although they do communicate through various means, which they attempt to hide from others. In the mental hospital, Dr. Lansing diagnoses them as having dissociative identity disorder, an eating disorder (Carly), self-harming (Kaitlyn), and hearing voices (Kaitlyn, who hears the voice of a demonic entity known as Aka Manah). Dr. Lansing also believes that Kaitlyn is not the true personality and that Carly created her as a coping mechanism, although Kaitlyn insists that she is real and existed before their parents' deaths. Carly/Kaitlyn is sent to Elmbridge where Carly makes friends with a spiritual girl named Naida. Naida believes that both personalities are real and that they're two souls in one body. As the semester progresses, Kaitlyn uses an attic in an abandoned building as a refuge and meets Ari, with whom she reluctantly falls in love. Her peace is short-lived as Kaitlyn begins to see visions of a menacing dead girl and becomes stressed when she cannot see her little sister Jaimie, who was placed into foster care. Things come to a head when Carly stops emerging, provoking Kaitlyn into attempting suicide, which sends her back to the mental institution. Their therapist is surprised since she assumed that Carly was the dominant personality, but assumes that this is a sign of both personalities merging. During this time she comes back into contact with her friend John, who she hasn't seen since her parents' accident. Naida asks Kaitlyn to break herself out of the hospital, fearing that a Shyan, a dark magic user, is after Kaitlyn/Carly because of the power held by