the house of dead maids by clare b dunkle

The author is a huge fan of Wuthering Heights and has based the character of Tabby on the real Tabitha Aykroyd, the housekeeper for the famous Brontë family. I suspect few will figure this one out, I'll simply say it isn't your usual good ghost/bad ghost theme. While it is obvious to the reader that something is going on, just what is happening isn't revealed until near the end of this teen novel. The House of Dead Maids is an eerie chiller, full of mystery and suspense. The two youngsters repeatedly come upon ghosts, or signs that a ghost has been/is nearby.

Tabby does her best to take care of Himself and together they go on many adventures in and around the house. She dubs Heathcliff 'Himself' and that is how he is refered to throughout the rest of the story. Never told his name, Tabby does her best to extract information from her charge but is unable. When the young master finally arrives, Tabby does her best to befriend the boy. (I did find it a bit of a stretch that an eleven-year-old would be so nonchallant about ghosts.) She tells the reader that 'The dead hold no terrors for me,' because a curate had once told her that the dead do no harm to the living. While Tabby is naturally frightened when she realizes that a dead girl is sharing her bed at night, she's not nearly as terrified as one might expect.

It doesn't take Tabby long to discover that the few household servants at the estate are rather tight-lipped and more importantly, that the house is haunted. Tabby arrives a few days before the young boy and has time to investigate the many hallways and dark rooms of the large house. Eleven-year-old Tabitha Aykroyd is an orphan who has been brought to Seldom House to act as nursemaid to the young master of the household, Heathcliff.

The house of dead maids by clare b dunkle