Down a Dark Hall

Down a Dark Hall (1974), a young adult gothic novel by Lois Duncan, follows Kit Gordy, whose parents send her away to a boarding school. Upon arriving, Gordy finds that she is part of a class of only four students. The school, quiet enough at first, soon begins to manifest supernatural features. Gordy and her peers must fight to stay alive as the school threatens to entrap their souls.

The novel begins as Gordy leaves her town with her newlywed mother and stepfather, who have decided to drop her off before leaving for their honeymoon. When they reach the boarding school, a place called Blackwood, they are struck by how much more foreboding it seems than the pictures they saw in its prestigious promotional materials. Nevertheless, Gordy’s parents say farewell, departing for their vacation. Gordy meets the three other girls who make up her class. They learn that, inexplicably, no one else has been admitted.

In the ensuing nights, the girls experience strange dreams, which seem to bestow them with new abilities and quirks. Lynda, who never before produced art or aspired to be an artist, suddenly becomes a prodigious landscape painter. She signs her works “T.C.,” but is unable to explain why. Sandy, who becomes Gordy’s best friend at Blackwood, claims to be visited by a spiritual muse named Ellis, who helps her produce beautiful sonnets. Another girl, Ruth, becomes a mathematical genius.



At first, the girls are dumbfounded as to the origin of their powers. However, late one night, Gordy wakes up to find that she has sleepwalked to a piano. She plays a song that she has no recollection of learning. A school employee, Jules, makes a recording of her performance. Gordy interrogates Jules, who admits that Blackwood selects young women who demonstrate the ability to connect with the dead. Blackwood’s headmaster, Madame Duret, chose the four girls in the hope that they would open channels of communication with the school’s dead founders, each of whom possessed great artistic and intellectual abilities, but were unable to finish their life’s work. Gordy asks Jules to let her and the other three girls escape, fearing that the connections are dangerous. Jule refuses to let them go.

Gordy tells Sandy and Ruth about her discovery, while Lynda seals herself off in a room to paint. Based on the inscription she uses for her paintings, they postulate that she is possessed by a famous American landscape painter named Thomas Cole. Additionally, they believe that the writer Emily Brontë has been possessing Sandy. As they continue to research the school, they learn that Professor Farley has been intercepting all mail that leaves the school, hiding it in his office. Finally, they have the horrifying revelation that if they do not leave the school before Christmas, the psychic channels they maintain with the school will remain open forever, binding them to the former owners. Hoping to escape, Gordy gives a letter to a cook who used to work at Blackwood, addressing it to someone named Tracy Rosenblum.

Late one evening, Gordy breaks into Madame Duret’s house to use her phone to get help. Jules catches her in the act; after a brief argument, they stumble upon a terrifying painting made by Lynda. Jules rifles through Madame Duret’s paperwork and learns that all former students at Blackwood either became insane or perished. He has a change of heart and vows to help them escape. Gordy and Jules go to Madame Duret with the proof about her intentions and are joined by Ruth and Sandy. Ruth and Sandy burn their writings and works of art, enraging the spirits, who start a fire in the school. They run outside and realize that Lynda remains locked in her room. Gordy returns to rescue her, while Sandy and Ruth hurl rocks at her window to alert her. Speaking through the locked door, Gordy convinces Lynda to jump out the window. The spirit of her dead father appears, guiding her through the fire to safety. There, Tracy awaits the girls, revealing that she received Gordy’s letter. Down a Dark Hall’s protagonists, having thwarted the malicious intentions of their boarding school, are ultimately able to reclaim their identities, closing their predatory psychic channels.