Finalist for the Believer Book Award for FictionNamed a Best Book of Fall by Vulture, New York Magazine, and more

"A ravishing novel charged with the idea of the incommunicable." -The New Yorker

Eleven-year-old Jane Grandison, tormented by her stutter, sits in the back seat of a car, letter in hand inviting her to live and study at the Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing-Mouth Children. Founded in 1890 by Headmistress Sybil Joines, the school-at first glance-is a sanctuary for children seeking to cure their speech impediments. Inspired by her haunted and tragic childhood, the Headmistress has other ideas.
Pioneering the field of necrophysics, the Headmistress harnesses the "gift" she and her students possess. Through their stutters, together they have the ability to channel ghostly voices communicating from the land of the dead, a realm the Headmistress herself visits at will. Things change for the school and the Headmistress when a student disappears, attracting attention from parents and police alike.
Set in the overlapping worlds of the living and the dead, Shelley Jackson's Riddance is an illuminated novel told through theoretical writings in necrophysics, the Headmistress's dispatches from the land of the dead, and Jane's evolving life as Joines's new stenographer and central figure in the Vocational School's mysterious present, as well as its future.

Editor's Introduction

1
Final Dispatch: "Borne on racing white-streaked black . . ."
The Stenographer's Story: "The Headmistress's tiny, tinny voice has fallen silent."
Readings: My Childhood
Letters to Dead Authors, #1: Melville: "You will not have heard of me . . ."

2
Final Dispatch: "Someone is missing, a child is missing, calamity . . ."
The Stenographer's Story: "Another pause. The room is quiet, though today's events have left their spoor . . ."
Readings: from a Visitor's Observations: How I Conceived the Plan to Visit the Vocational School; On the Architecture of the Vocational School
Letters to Dead Authors, #2: Melville: "It has come to my attention that you are dead."

3
Final Dispatch: "[Extended static, several words indistinct] . . . someone is missing . . ."
The Stenographer's Story: "'Wake up!' The Intake Coordinator, if that was what she was . . ."
Readings: from Principles of Necrophysics: The Mechanics of Channeling the Dead
Letters to Dead Authors, #3: Brontë (Charlotte): "I am-but I shall not introduce myself."

4
Final Dispatch: "It is easy to forget what you are about, in the land of the dead . . ."
The Stenographer's Story: "I traipsed dumbly around behind Florence . . ."
Readings: from a Visitor's Observations: On Eating and Other Oral Activities; On Methods of Listening
Letters to Dead Authors, #4: Charlotte: "I have seized my Eve, my 'v'!"

5
Final Dispatch: "But if we are all dead, then there is certainly no rush . . ."
The Stenographer's Story: "Mother Other was waiting in the hall when I emerged . . ." Readings: from a Visitor's Observations: On Methods of Listening
Readings: The Analphabetical Choir
Letters to Dead Authors, #5: Hawthorne: "I stop by the dormitory at night to imagine the ghosts rushing in and out . . ."

6
Final Dispatch: "The road, the ravine, the fields, the . . ."
The Stenographer's Story: "No, no, no, no, no! I said, listen with your mouth." Readings: from The Principles of Necrophysics: A Report on Certain Curious Objects . . .
Letters to Dead Authors, #6: E. A. Poe: "A faint hissing-snow . . ."

7
Final Dispatch: "I had never seen a person looking the way she looked . . ."
The Stenographer's Story: "She sweeps down the hall, her heavy skirts . . ."
Readings: from a Visitor's Observations: On Punishment; On Play
Letters to Dead Authors, #7: Brontë (Emily): "Doctor Beede tells me, one finger probing greedily . . ."

8
Final Dispatch: "I have just spent a summer in my mother's hand."
The Stenographer's Story: "I was lying in my bed, putting in a little extra practice."
Readings: from a Visitor's Observations: On Play
Readings: Consuetudinary of the Word Church
Letters to Dead Authors, #8: Mary Shelley: "Intermediate Death Studies. The students bend their heads . . ."

9
Final Dispatch: "So I am back at the beginning of the chase."
The Stenographer's Story: "I swim up from sleep, frowning . . ."
Readings: from a Visitor's Observations: On Certain Objects in the Collection; On Articles of Dress; A Secret
Letters to Dead Authors, #9: Stoker: "My voice weakens. It seems to sink back . . ."

10
Final Dispatch: "This is how it happened."
The Stenographer's Story: "It is customary in telling stories from school . . ."
Readings: from a Visitor's Observations: On Articles of Dress
Readings: Early Dispatches from the Land of the Dead
Letters to Dead Authors, #10: Mina Harker: "Now it is my mother whose voice I seemed to hear."

11
Final Dispatch: "[Crackling] Where am I?"
The Stenographer's Story: "I have told how I gained a reputation as a necronaut . . ."
Readings: from a Visitor's Observations: A Secret on the Patois of the Vocational School
Letters to Dead Authors, #11: Jephra: "I believe I addressed my last letter to a fictional character."

12
Final Dispatch: "[Static, three to four sentences indistinct] . . . thought it was a piano factory . . ."
The Stenographer's Story: "The months passed, the years."
Readings: Documentarian of the Dead
Letters to Dead Authors, #12: Herman: "Something is going on in my school that I don't understand."

13
Final Dispatch: "I am down at the swampy verge of our lawn . . ."
The Stenographer's Story: "The voice crackles, drops out, returns as pure sound . . ."
Readings: from a Visitor's Observations: On the Patois of the Vocational School
Readings: Report on a Cemetery
Letters to Dead Authors, #13: Ishmael: "I have grown gaunt-no one knows how gaunt . . ."

14
Final Dispatch: "Well, here we are again in my office. It looks real . . ."
The Stenographer's Story: "There is an excellent private sanatorium in Pittsfield . . ."
Readings: from The Principles of Necrophysics: The Structure of the Necrocosmos
Letters to Dead Authors, #14: Jane E.: "I have had a disappointment."

15
Final Dispatch: "Do you hear it too? That low, cool, reasonable voice . . ."
The Stenographer's Story: "The alarm, though we did not recognize it for what it was . . ."
Readings: from a Visitor's Observations: On the Difficulty of My Task
Readings: from Interviews with the Dead: Or, Luncheon with a Spirit Medium
Letters to Dead Authors, #15: Jane: "At first my Theatrical Spectacle bid fair to be another disappointment . . ."

16
Final Dispatch: "I flew like a phoenix out of the fire, and like a phoenix I was reborn . . ."
The Stenographer's Story: "The water went down, leaving the grass all slicked with mud."
Readings: from a Visitor's Observations: On the Difficulty of My Task; A Private Conversation
Letters to Dead Authors, #16: Bartleby: "The story may have already reached you . . ."

17
Final Dispatch: "The inspector set his hat on the spindly-legged occasional table . . ."
The Stenographer's Story: "Reader, she was dead."

Editor's Afterword

Appendix A: Last Will and Testament
Appendix B: Instructions for Saying a Sentence
Appendix C: Ectoplasmoglyphs #1-40