Rules for Vanishing

Do you want to play the game?

Once a year, a road appears in the woods at midnight and the ghost of Lucy Gallows beckons, inviting those who are brave enough to play her game. If you win, you escape with your life. But if you lose...

It’s almost a year since Becca went missing. Everyone else has given up searching for her, but her sister, Sara, knows she disappeared while looking for Lucy Gallows. Determined to find her, Sara and her closest friends enter the woods. But something more sinister than ghosts lurks on the road, and not everyone will survive.

Stranger Things meets The Blair Witch Project in this gripping ghost thriller, perfect for fans of Michelle Harrison, Lauren James and Frances Hardinge.


Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel.

"Unsettling, pitch-dark, imaginative fantasy." Metro, Best Children’s Books of the Year

"An exquisitely unsettling dark fantasy." Publisher's Weekly Starred Review

"Delightfully chilling! Marshall delivers riveting twists, gasp-out-loud surprises, and haunting revelations right up to the final page in this irresistible mystery." Natalie C. Parker, author of Seafire

"The horror-fantasy mash-up I didn't know I was waiting for – and an unreliable narrator like no other." Kesia Lupo, author of We Are Blood And Thunder

“Rules for Vanishing has all the prerequisites of a horror classic – stunningly original, delightfully dark, and simply terrifying. A tense and exhilarating read for those with or without a pulse.” Dana Mele, author of People Like Us

“This frightening and unsettling story, full of plot twists and psychological games, is told in an effective faux documentary style and will grip YA fans of the supernatural horror genre.” Carousel

"Rules for Vanishing will make you question what is real and what is illusion, and which option is more terrifying." Caitlin Starling, author of The Luminous Dead