Welcome to Dark Rivers, a rustic northern town forgotten by most and beloved by few.

At its heart is Cannibal House, a crumbling Victorian mansion lorded over by Old Wick, a mysterious wanderer whose arrival in Dark Rivers signals a change—a strangeness that seeps into the bloodstream of the town.

For Nix, waging her own private war with multiple sclerosis, a haunted house and a cryptic drifter aren't the strangest things she's ever encountered. No, what unnerves Nix is the adolescent girl who has come into her house.

Her name is Daphne, and she is a vampire.

Daphne talks of Mister Brightbones, the one who gave her the vampire's kiss—that touch of immortality. A gift that could free Nix from from her chronic illness, giving her a second life, written in blood.

But every gift has a price. Every choice changes the world. And as Dark Rivers teeters on the edge of annihilation, Nix must decide whether eternity is worth damning herself,...]]> Fri, 12 Dec 2025 14:10:43 +0200 https://childrens.library.land/paul-jessup/666919-glass_house.html https://childrens.library.land/paul-jessup/666919-glass_house.html

Meet the family Glass. They just bought the home of their dreams, and are about to embark on a new stage in their life.

Meet Lucas Glass, their father. He's obsessed with the Sunshine Family—a psychedelic rock band from another era that famously devolved into a suicide cult. This is their house, complete with a family crypt.

Meet Dana Glass, their mother and Lucas's wife. She is fascinated with the house, in a way that is far more passionate—more intimate—than she's ever been, even with her husband.

Meet Rae and Lily, the daughters of the family Glass. When Rae makes friends with the Sisters of Sorrow, dark mothers who exist within the walls of the house, she starts a very dangerous game. Lily was buried alive as part of one of her father's documentaries, and while she was near death, she was touched by a ghostly presence.

Meet the Glass House, once the Gemini House, and before that the Coffin House,...]]> Tue, 14 Nov 2023 08:46:59 +0200 https://childrens.library.land/paul-jessup/706025-daughter_of_the_wormwood_star.html https://childrens.library.land/paul-jessup/706025-daughter_of_the_wormwood_star.html

After surviving a brutal and senseless attack on the grounds of her university, Clara finds herself bonded in an inexplicable way with other survivors. They call themselves the "Knot," and together they discover some doors should not be opened and some promises should never be made.

Ruthlessly pursued by a group of nihilistic devotees with keyhole tattoos on their palms, Clara and her sisters follow their wide-eyed gothic glamour queen, Angelique, the self-named Daughter of the Wormwood Star. Through a hospital filled with zombie cultists to a lighthouse overflowing with living shadows, they race to find the Jawbone Door, where they will discover the true horror of What Lies Beyond.

"I'm here to tell you that you are not crazy. Come. Follow me. I have someone I would like you to meet. Come and meet your new family. Hail Satan! Hail Angelique! Hail the Daughter of the Wormwood Star!"

"Daughter of the Wormwood Star is a book that grabs...]]> Fri, 06 Dec 2024 22:35:26 +0200 https://childrens.library.land/paul-jessup/684817-the_skinless_man_counts_to_five_and_other_tales_of_the_macabre.html https://childrens.library.land/paul-jessup/684817-the_skinless_man_counts_to_five_and_other_tales_of_the_macabre.html

For more than twenty years, Paul Jessup has been dreaming of people and places that shouldn't exist. From an infection that allows lost children to see beyond the pale in The Silence That Binds or the way the universe bends and gives birth when stars explode in Open Your Eyes or the tragic consequences of imbuing the inanimate with an all-too-human need to be loved in Glass House, his writing explodes with a surreal energy.

In his latest collection, The Skinless Man Counts to Five and Other Tales of the Macabre, there are ghosts and butterflies, serial killers and dying stars, mermaids and monsters. You will find death cults, sewer elves, the apocalypse of youthful fervor, card games that require blood sacrifices, and self-immolation as an expression of devotion. Paul Jessup's fiction eviscerates, shatters, and slurps the marrow from the bones of the world.