The Children on the Hill

More about the book

In 1978, Dr. Helen Hildreth, a compassionate psychiatrist at her Vermont treatment center, embraces her role as a loving grandmother to Vi and Eric. While teaching them to care for pets and preparing home-cooked meals, she unexpectedly brings home a troubled girl named Iris, who is silent and skittish. Excited to have a new friend, Vi and Eric invite Iris to join their Monster Club, where they catalog monsters and devise ways to defeat them. As they bond, Iris slowly emerges from her shell, and the trio embarks on adventures together, believing that monsters are everywhere. Fast forward to 2019, when Lizzy Shelley, host of the podcast Monsters Among Us, travels to Vermont following a young girl's abduction and a reported monster sighting that has the town in turmoil. Lizzy is determined to uncover the truth, driven by her knowledge that monsters exist—and one of them is her sister. This haunting, suspenseful tale takes readers on a gripping journey to confront the primal fears that lie within us all.