The Stone House (novel)

The Stone House
Main character(s):	Tanya, Miss Quill, Charlie, Matteusz, April, Ram
Main enemy:	Constantine Oliver
Main setting:	Damascus, 2010s Kahramanmaras, end of winter 2016 Mediterranean Sea, July 2016 Calais, 2016 London, 20th century, July 2015, November 2016
Key crew
Writer:	A.K. Benedict
Cover by:	Head Design
Release details
Release number:	2
Release date:	27 October 2016
Format:	Paperback, Epub, 304 pages
ISBN:	ISBN 1785941879 (paperback) ISBN 9781785941870 (Epub)
BBC Class novels
← Previous	Joyride
Next →	What She Does Next Will Astound You

The Stone House was the second of the three originally planned Class novels, tied to the first series. It was written by A.K. Benedict.

Publisher's summary

"If you get out, you'd think you'd be one of the lucky ones. But you're not. The house infects you."

There's an old stone house near Coal Hill School. Most people hurry past it. They've heard the stories. But, if you stop, and look up, you'll see the face of a girl, pressed up against a window. Screaming.

Tanya finds herself drawn to the stone house. There's a mystery there, and she's going to solve it. But the more she investigates, the more she realises that there's a presence in the house. One that wants her.

Something is waiting for Tanya in the stone house. Something that has been trapping others in its web over the years. Something that is far worse than any ghosts.

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Tanya Adeola
• Andrea Quill
• Charlie Smith
• Matteusz Andrzejewski
• April MacLean
• Ram Singh
• Vivian Adeola
• Tanya Adeola's aunt
• The Queen
• Alice Parsons
• Amira
• Yana
• Baba
• Ummi
• Zainer
• Alan Turnpike
• Constantine Oliver
• Rajesh
• Danny
• Doug
• DC Carpenter
• DC Turner
• Female bone spider
• Baby bone spider

References

Individuals

• Tanya Adeola has a neighbour named Mrs Cartwright.
• Of all ghostbusters, Matteusz wants to be Kate McKinnon as the one with the best hair.

Alien species

• Miss Quill mentions Daleks.
• Miss Quill mentions fire stallions.
• There are aardvarks on the planet Rhodia.

Locations

London locations

• The old stone house is at the end of an East End street in Shoreditch.
• Tanya has been to Spitalfields market.
• Tanya's aunt met the queen at Buckingham Palace.
• Miss Quill, Ram, April and Tanya meet at Elephant and Castle tube station to visit Alan Turnpike who lives on Meadow Row.
• Offices of Reyland Developers are in Highgate.

Other Earth locations

• Amira with her father, mother and sister Yana lived in Damascus in Syria until the war started.
• Amira, Ummi and Yana crossed the border from Syria to Kahramanmaras on the Turkish side.
• Ummi drowned in the Mediterranean Sea on their way from Turkey to Greece.
• Tanya's aunt went for a holiday in Spain.
• Among national dolls in the house there is a Spanish and Iranian dolls.
• The last refugee camp Amira stayed in before England was in Calais. There she shared a tent with a family from Homs.

Extraterrestrial locations

• Miss Quill mentions the flame lake of Kabal.
• Miss Quill mentions Eckbear system.

Plants

• Dandelions and overgrown roses grow in the garden of the old stone house.
• Tanya sees geraniums.
• The windows of the house are covered with ivy.
• The back garden of the house is overgrown with nettle and dock leaf, which looks like nettle.

Animals

• Trochulus hispidus is a species of snails with hairy shells.
• Mrs Cartwright has a Collie.
• Charlie draws ants.
• A cat pisses on dandelions.
• Tanya notices a pile of earth scurried up by a badger.
• The hedges in the back garden of the old stone house have the shape similar to a squirrel or a woolly mammoth.
• Tanya sees a dead wasp.

Human biology

• Tanya read that even having not slept the night, a human still catches bits of non-REM sleep.

Food and drinks

• Tanya often eats Shreddies in the evening.
• Charlie and Matteusz Andrzejewski drink orange juice.
• Miss Quill really loves coffee.
• April MacLean gives Tanya and Ram Singh apples to eat.
• Vivian Adeola prepares lasagna for dinner.
• Miss Quill eats sausage and egg for breakfast.
• Ram eats waffles with bacon and maple syrup.
• Teachers at Coal Hill School eat a lot of jam doughnuts.
• Amira feeds off tomato soup, tinned pasta, beans and mandarin segments.
• Miss Quill can tell amontillado by the smell of an empty bottle.
• Amira uses alphabet spaghetti to spell a warning to the Coal Hill defenders.
• Tanya smells garlic, rosemary, cinnamon and batter.
• Charlie eats a burger.
• Tanya drinks hot chocolate.

Organisations

• Tanya often tries hacking the Pentagon.
• To gather information about the house, Tanya impersonates a representative of the Mass Observation Centre at the local library.
• Reyland Developers puts up an announcement for nightwatch staff in a local newspaper.
• Alan F. Turnpike runs the urban legends website "Myth City" featuring stories about the old stone house.

Science

• Miss Quill mentions underlying prames of the Renyalin series. April thinks that she means primes.
• Miss Quill is wondering if the Rift is causing an uplift in temperatures.
• Tanya studies three-dimensional trigonometry and Bragg scattering.

Technology

Earth technology

• April uses Nair tubes to remove hair.
• Tanya and Ram communicate via DM and FaceTime.
• During a heat wave, April uses a battery-operated fan.
• Amira communicated with Baba using Whatsapp before losing her phone in the sea.
• Tanya mentions Instagram.
• When Charlie says Miss Quill's pen might be a special device, Ram suggests it is a dildo.
• Miss Quill has EMF readers like on Most Haunted.

Alien technology

• Miss Quill mentions an authenticating gun capable.

Gardening

• Flowers such as roses are supposed to be deadheaded.

Culture

Earth culture

• The old stone house would have been too gothic for the Addams Family.
• Miss Quill warns the Coal Hill defenders that her relationship with them is not similar to the one depicted in Dead Poets Society.
• Tanya calls the bag packed for her and Ram by April "Mary Poppins handbag".
• Tanya thinks the overgrowth in the back garden of the old house looks like topiary.
• The inside of the conservatory reminds Tanya of a scene from Great Expectations if Miss Havisham were a keen gardener.
• Spain was famous for flamenco and castanets.
• Miss Quill enjoys Orange is the New Black.
• The Coal Hill defenders find old issues of Beano and Dandy comic books for children.
• Tanya's aunt does Zumba.
• Tanya mentions J-horror.
• Alan originally thought that Faceless Alice could have been Alice Parsons, dressed up Psycho-style.
• Alan broke into Alice Parsons' house during the night to make sure that Alice was really sleeping, that there was no bolster in the bed or pulley system like in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
• Tanya wears pyjamas with unicorns.
• Tanya has an idea to use EMF readers like on Most Haunted.
• Charlie compares them with ghost busters.

Rhodian culture

• Miss Quill mentions Parsela and Whitshade, mythical rebels from Rhodia.

Religion

• Amira often prays that, insha'Allah, she sees Baba searching for his family.

Minerals

• Miss Quill has a knife made from rare Kalthagon stone.

Notes

• Amira's arrival to Turkey is explicitly stated to happen at the end of winter. On the other hand, her last communication with Baba before she loses the phone in the Mediterranean Sea happens four months before the main events of the story, i.e., in July 2016. Thus, they must have stayed in a refugee camp in Turkey for several months.
• Matteusz's identification with Kate McKinnon makes even more sense given that she is openly gay.

Continuity

• Miss Quill asks if her students have been replaced again. (PROSE: Joyride)
• After their first kiss (TV: Nightvisiting), Ram and April started dating.
• Matteusz has moved in with Charlie. (TV: Nightvisiting)
• When Ram calls April Miss Quill Mark 2, Miss Quill says that it is an insult to the real Miss Quill Mark 2, who "did her best but war was not for her". It is not clear whether she is speaking about her sister. (TV: Nightvisiting)
• The main events of this story are set between Nightvisiting and Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart, placing it in November 2016.

Audio release

to be added

External links

to be added