The Young Adult / Young Reader novella edition of the full length historical novel Wizard Clip Haunting, but with only 8% of the original novel's length, a lower reading level, and a single POV, that of Adam Livingston's young, 12-year old daughter. In the dark wilderness of early America, an ancient evil has followed settlers to their new homeland. When a malevolent Babylonian spirit begins terrorizing her father's farm, 12-year-old Eve Livingston watches helplessly as supernatural forces tear her family apart. Strange symbols are clipped from linen, hot coals fly at visitors from the fireplace, unseen hands wield scissors in the night, and blood-curdling screams echo across her father's farm. Her father's only hope to defeat the haunting spirit lies in an unlikely alliance with Father Denis Cahill, a rogue Irish priest whose own demons have followed him across the Atlantic. But Eve has a secret weapon that brings her and her whole family hope.
Based on the infamous true events known as the Wizard Clip, this tale of supernatural horror chronicles the real-life terror that descended upon the isolated community of Smithfield, Virginia. The haunting was so severe that Bishop John Carroll dispatched Rev. Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin-who would later become known as the Apostle of the Alleghenies-to investigate. After three months of witnessing inexplicable phenomena, Gallitzin wrote: "No lawyer in a court of justice did more than I, nor procured more than your unworthy servant, that soon I was converted to a full belief of them."
Two centuries later, the village-now known as Clip Town and Middleway, West Virginia-still bears the scars of its haunted history. Wooden emblems featuring a crescent moon and scissors mark the buildings, silent testaments to the darkness that once held this frontier settlement in its grip. The Livingston farm's terrifying legacy lives on, a chilling reminder that some evils are older than America itself.
