The perfect last-minute gift Shop credit bundles

The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon

Send as gift Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

The Children on the Hill

by Jennifer McMahon

Narrator Erin Moon

This audiobook uses AI narration.

We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more

Length 10 hours 43 minutes

Language English

Send as gift Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

Bookseller recommendation

“Lizzy Shelley is a monster-hunter. It began when she and her sister and brother were children and formed a monster club and wrote a Book of Monsters. Now Lizzy is chasing a monster she thinks she knows, one involved in the disappearances of teenage girls across the country. As she tracks this monster, she is taken back to childhood memories and once-buried secrets. Suspenseful and disturbing, this novel brings us monsters both real and imagined and explores the harms done by those purporting to do good. Because as Lizzy and her siblings know, monsters are everywhere.”
— Nancy • Raven Book Store

Bookseller recommendation

“This Frankenstein-inspired thriller really worked! The audiobook narration was creepily fantastic. Told from a few different perspectives and jumping back and forth in timelines, the format compelled me to keep listening. This terrifying and entertaining tale brings up some big questions: What responsibilities do we take on when we are caring for children, when we give them life? What are the moral limits in scientific research? Should limits even exist, or is the end result worth any sacrifice? ”
— Colleen • Read Between The Lynes

Bookseller recommendation

“Jennifer McMahon knows how to write a ghost story! Her books consistently have a riveting amount of suspense, combined with a narrator who knows how to deliver it. The Children on the Hill is perfect for anyone who wants to lose themselves in a scary story.”
— Mary • Skylark Bookshop

Summary
About the author

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Drowning Kind comes a genre-defying novel, inspired by Mary Shelley’s masterpiece Frankenstein, that brilliantly explores the eerie mysteries of childhood and the evils perpetrated by the monsters among us.

1978: At her renowned treatment center in picturesque Vermont, the brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Hildreth, is acclaimed for her compassionate work with the mentally ill. But when she’s home with her cherished grandchildren, Vi and Eric, she’s just Gran—teaching them how to take care of their pets, preparing them home-cooked meals, providing them with care and attention and love.

Then one day Gran brings home a child to stay with the family. Iris—silent, hollow-eyed, skittish, and feral—does not behave like a normal girl.

Still, Violet is thrilled to have a new playmate. She and Eric invite Iris to join their Monster Club, where they dream up ways to defeat all manner of monsters. Before long, Iris begins to come out of her shell. She and Vi and Eric do everything together: ride their bicycles, go to the drive-in, meet at their clubhouse in secret to hunt monsters. Because, as Vi explains, monsters are everywhere.

2019: Lizzy Shelley, the host of the popular podcast Monsters Among Us, is traveling to Vermont, where a young girl has been abducted, and a monster sighting has the town in an uproar. She’s determined to hunt it down, because Lizzy knows better than anyone that monsters are real—and one of them is her very own sister.

“A must for psychological thriller fans” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), The Children on the Hill takes us on a breathless journey to face the primal fears that lurk within us all.

Fiction Mystery & Thriller Horror

Jennifer McMahon is the author of twelve novels, including the New York Times bestsellers The Children on the Hill, Promise Not to Tell, and The Winter People. She lives in Florida with her partner, Drea. Visit her at Jennifer-McMahon.com or connect with her on Instagram @JenniferMcMahonWrites and Facebook @JenniferMcMahonBooks.