A Drop of Night

Modern-day teenagers meet a palace of terrors locked up since the French Revolution in this surprising and haunting thriller from Stefan Bachmann, the internationally bestselling author of The Peculiar and The Whatnot. A Drop of Night will thrill fans of Neal Shusterman and Jessica Khoury.

Seventeen-year-old Anouk has finally caught the break she’s been looking for—she’s been chosen to participate in an exclusive program that includes an all-expense-paid trip to France and a chance to explore the hidden underground Palais des Papillons, or Palace of Butterflies. Along with four other gifted teenagers, Anouk will be one of the first people to set foot in the palace in more than two hundred years. Bachmann’s masterful scene-building alternates between Anouk’s flight through the palace and the struggles of Aurelie, who escaped the French Revolution by fleeing into the Palais des Papillons in 1792.

But the palace is not a prize—it’s a prison. What terrors have been waiting for two centuries in the dark?

• Historical Conspiracy: An ancient family’s horrifying secret connects the bloody French Revolution to a modern-day massacre.
• Gothic Suspense: What begins as a dream trip to France descends into a nightmare as Anouk and four other teens discover the Palace of Butterflies is a gilded cage.
• Science Fiction Horror: Trapped far beneath the earth, the teens are hunted through high-tech corridors and ancient halls by an enemy that defies death itself.
• Found Family: Five strangers must learn to trust one another to escape a deadly game where they are the pawns.