Dead Voices

The second installment in Katherine Arden's middle-grade horror series, Dead Voices follows three sixth-grade best friends as they face a supernatural threat at a snowed-in ski lodge that was once an orphanage. Olivia "Ollie" Adler, Coco Zintner, and Brian Battersby, along with Ollie's dad Roger and Coco's mom Zelda, drive through a heavy snowstorm to Mount Hemlock, Vermont's newest ski resort. The previous October, the three children disappeared for two days into a supernatural world behind the mist, where they encountered living scarecrows and a being called the smiling man, who grants desires at a terrible price. They escaped using a book called Small Spaces that existed in both worlds, serving as a key between them. They have told no one the truth and still have nightmares.

During the drive, Coco dreams of a gray-faced girl in a white nightgown who asks Coco to help find her bones. After waking, Coco spots a tall figure in a ragged blue ski jacket standing in the road with one hand raised in warning, but no one else sees it. They arrive at the lodge to find the power out and the building running on generators. The lobby is filled with taxidermy, and the friendly owners, Sue and Sam Wilson, explain the storm has left them as the only guests. That night, Ollie dreams of a dormitory full of girls with eyes frozen shut. The same nightgowned girl warns Ollie not to listen to the dead voices, to stay out of closets, and not to look in mirrors. A tall woman in a black dress bursts in and tries to force Ollie back to bed.

The next morning, a stranger arrives: Don Voland, who claims to be a reporter for a ghost-hunting magazine. He has mismatched eyes and tells the group that the lodge was once Sacred Heart Orphanage. Its most famous ghost story involves Gretel, a curious orphan, and a strict teacher called Mother Hemlock. Mother Hemlock locked Gretel in a closet as punishment, and Gretel died of fright in the dark. Both are said to haunt the building. Ollie is alarmed by how closely the story matches her nightmare.

Ollie is eager to explore with Mr. Voland because her deceased mother's digital watch, which communicated warnings during their October ordeal, went blank that morning after flashing the word BEWARE. She hopes to find another way to reach her mother. Upstairs, Brian and Coco hear a voice begging to be let out of a closet, but the closet is empty. A tall woman in black with a vast, bony smile appears at the end of the hallway and vanishes. Meanwhile, Coco discovers online that a teenager named Gabriel Bouvier disappeared on the mountain five years ago wearing a blue ski jacket, matching the figure she saw on the road. Soon all communication and heating systems fail, leaving them completely cut off.

That night, after the adults fall into an unnaturally deep sleep, Mr. Voland wakes the children and produces a Ouija board. Ollie contacts what she believes is her mother's spirit, which warns her to BEWARE and says the ANSWER is in the MIRROR. At the dining room mirror, Ollie sees a woman tapping the glass and places her hand against it. The firelight reveals the face of Mother Hemlock: blue-lipped and sharp-toothed. The ghost's fingers curl through the glass and yank Ollie through. She lands in a ruined, decayed version of the dining room, alone on the wrong side.

Mr. Voland then reveals himself as Seth, the smiling man from the corn maze, wearing a different face. He holds up Ollie's watch, pickpocketed during the Ouija session. Seth explains the rules: Ollie has until dawn to find her way back through the mirror. If her friends help and she fails, all three will be trapped. If they go to sleep, they will wake with no memory of Ollie, and Mr. Adler will believe his daughter died in the plane crash with his wife. Seth gives Ollie one minute to speak to her friends, but both Brian and Coco refuse to abandon her.

Coco challenges Seth to a chess game for the watch, with Brian offering himself as the forfeit if she loses. In the endgame, Coco sacrifices her queen to deliver a checkmate. Seth, furious but bound by his word, surrenders the watch. Coco also snatches the Ouija board, having noticed it reflected on Ollie's side of the mirror, and flees upstairs with Brian as Seth sends the animated taxidermy coyotes after them.

Seth separates the two friends. Every closet door rattles with Brian's voice begging for help, but Coco recognizes the trick. The watch begins beeping, and she devises a yes-or-no communication system, verifying responses with questions only Ollie's mother would know. The watch guides her to a silent door that opens onto a staircase to the basement. On the mirror side, Ollie fights Mother Hemlock with hot coals and escapes to the basement with help from Gretel's ghost and the ghost of Gabriel Bouvier, whom she calls Gabe. Through the Ouija board, which passes between both sides of the mirror, Gabe tells them to find Gretel's bones in a second-floor closet and reflect the ghost and bones in the bunk room mirror simultaneously. Seth interrupts, seizing the board.

This proves to be a trap. After Ollie, Gabe, and Gretel flee to a dormitory full of sleeping ghost girls, Gabe blocks their escape. Seth reveals he promised Gabe freedom in exchange for feeding the children false information. The instructions about the bones were a deliberate distraction designed to waste Coco's time until dawn. Mother Hemlock enters, touches Ollie's face, and frost seals her eyes shut. Ollie sinks into enchanted sleep.

Coco emerges into the bunk room and sees Ollie's fate through the mirror. She realizes the bones were a feint and reasons that what truly opens a doorway is anything that exists on both sides simultaneously, just as Small Spaces once served as a key. She notices the oil lamp and fire are visible on both sides. The watch tells her she must call Ollie by name from the mirror side to wake her, and it confirms that the watch, as a link to Ollie's mother, is always part of Ollie.

Coco pretends to surrender, luring Seth into bringing Brian so he can gloat. She slips Brian the watch and whispers instructions. When Seth opens the mirror, Coco steps through, throws a blanket over Mother Hemlock, and screams Ollie's name. Ollie wakes and lights a match by touch. Coco relights the oil lamp, which kindles its counterpart on Brian's side. Brian sets the bunk room curtains ablaze to keep Seth from smothering the flame, and the curtains on the ghost side catch fire too. With fire blazing on both sides and the watch in Brian's hands in the real world, the doorway opens. Coco grabs Ollie, and they crash through the mirror together.

Coco tells Seth "Checkmate." He bows, promises they will meet again, and vanishes. In the mirror, the ghost children dissolve into smoke and light, Gretel mouthing her thanks before she fades. The fire alarm brings the adults upstairs, and the children claim innocence. They leave Hemlock Lodge that morning.

Back at the Egg, Ollie's farmhouse, the friends piece together what happened over apple pie. Brian dubs Coco "BK," the Black Knight, honoring her chess victory and bravery. He apologizes for calling her "Tiny" and promises to stop. Before falling asleep, Ollie asks if the smiling man will return. Coco says probably, but next time they will be ready. Ollie pulls out her watch, which now displays the word LOVE, holds it to her cheek, and whispers thanks to her mom.