num_pages: 0
description: The War That Saved My Life meets Coraline in this chilling middle grade historical novel from the author of the acclaimed The Story That Cannot Be Told following an anxious young girl learning to face her fearsand her ghostsagainst the backdrop of the typhoid epidemic.Essie ONeill is afraid of everything. Shes afraid of cats and electric lights. Shes afraid of the silver sick bell a family heirloom that brings up frightening memories. Most of all shes afraid of the red door in her nightmares.But soon Essie discovers so much more to fear. Her mother has remarried and they must move from their dilapidated tenement in the Bronx to North Brother Island a dreary place in the East River. Thats where Essies new stepfather runs a quarantine hospital for the incurable sick including the infamous Typhoid Mary. Essie knows the island is plagued with tragedy. Years ago she watched in horror as the ship General Slocum caught fire and sank near its shores plummeting one thousand women and children to their deaths.Now something on the island is haunting Essie. And the red door from her dreams has become a reality just down the hall from her bedroom in her terrifying new house. Convinced her stepfather is up to no good Essie investigates. Yet to uncover the truth she will have to face her own painful historyand what lies behind the red door.
language: English
title: The List of Unspeakable Fears
publisher: Atheneum