The Girl in the Tile

After a heated argument with her father, 16-year-old Sarah Benson disappears from home. There is no evidence of her "escape" or an abduction. Despite a frantic search by her parents, Cart and Annie, nothing reveals where she went. A few days later, her image appears in one of the 400-year-old Dutch delft tiles installed around the fireplace in the master bedroom.

When Sarah wakes, she is trapped in a strange world of windmills, tulips, no mountains, running water, electricity, or phones, with a family that speaks no English and treats her like their child.

"She would never leave this place or see her parents or Maddy again. She would be here for a hundred million years, maybe until the sun burned out and withered. There was no escape and no hope. Sarah wondered if they remembered her back at home. When Father took her, did she cease to exist there? Was the memory of her erased from their minds and thoughts? Did anyone care or miss her? Or was it like she had never been there? She walked slowly back to the house, her heart heavy like a stone in her chest, pausing to place her wooden shoes on the flat rock next to the door before entering the cool shadows of the house and closing the door on the bright, sun-lit day."

'The Girl in the Tile' is engaging, heartfelt, and highly entertaining—not to mention very well-written. Some wonderful turns of phrase throughout. Hard to go wrong with this one.

Brett A Savory
World of Fantasy Award ( 2015 )
British Fantasy Award ( 2013 )
Bram Stoker Award ( 2000 )