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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who sold the Marsten House?

2. What does this visitor do to Dud after he falls into some sort of trance?

3. How does the person who Ben meets in the park recognize him?

4. Who dug the grave prior to the service?

5. Who tells her daughter she disapproves of Ben Mears?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is usual about the box that two movers are ordered to take to the Marsten House?

2. What is the book Ben is currently writing about?

3. What does the tall man drive more than forty miles to get every week?

4. Who does Matt run into at Dell's on Thursday night?

5. Who becomes convinced that Danny's eyes are open in his coffin? What does he do about it?

6. What takes place in Harmony Hill Cemetery at midnight on the day depicted in Chapter 3?

7. What do Ben and Matt discuss over dinner in Chapter 7?

8. Who is waiting for Ben the following evening when he leaves the boardinghouse to go to Spencer's?

9. Who sold the Marsten House to Straker and Barstow? Why?

10. What does Hank Peters see in the Marsten cellar that he discusses with Larry Crockett?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss one of the following aspects of the setting of this novel:

1) The time period. In what year is the novel set? What impact does this year have on the novel? How does this year compare to modern time?

2) The location. Why was Maine chosen? What is unique about this area, this town, that leaves it vulnerable to attack by vampires?

3) The setting as a whole. How does the setting influence the development of the plot? What about the setting makes the plot more believable? How would the novel be different if it had been set elsewhere or in a different time period?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss these themes, the characters they illustrate, and the author's intentions as regard to these themes:

1) Child abuse

2) Marital infidelity

3) Grief

Essay Topic 3

Discuss bullies. What is a bully? How do you define bully? Name several characters in this novel that are bullies. How many of them are adults? What is different between a child bully and an adult bully? What are the similarities? What is the essentially quality of all bullies demonstrated in this novel? How is this quality eventually illustrated?

(see the answer keys)

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