Jack teams up with the evil King Wretch in order to convince his friends to stay with him instead of going in search of others who may have survived the monster apocalypse.

It's bad enough Ian Barker has to spend his twelfth birthday with his sister and their two annoying cousins. The four of them can't ever hang out without getting into trouble. Vinnie and Jonny always want to play with Ian's stuff. They take extra turns and break everything they touch. Even Ian's new birthday presents are up for grabs. But when Ian gets a Slappy dummy from his dad, things go from bad to worse.

Nellie Gardner is looking for a way out of an abusive marriage when she learns that her long-lost grandfather, August Redfern, has willed her his turpentine estate. It turns out that the "estate" is a decrepit farmhouse on a thousand acres of old pine forest, but Nellie is so thrilled about the chance for a fresh start for her and her son, that she doesn't notice that there's something wrong with Redfern Hill. Something lurks beneath the soil, ancient...

"Haunted by their tragic pasts, Nate and Maddie Graves move back to their hometown with their son, Oliver, who becomes involved with a strange boy who has a taste for dark magic that puts them at the heart of a battle of good vs evil"--