Downtown Charleston resident Jim D’Andrea has published his first novel, a young adult horror story titled The Haunting of Ashley Hall School.
Released in October 2025, the book debuted at No. 1 on Amazon’s young adult ghost stories list. The novel blends gothic horror with coming-of-age themes and is set at a fictionalized version of the historic Charleston boarding school.
According to the book’s synopsis, the story follows Emily, a student sent to Ashley Hall School by her mother in hopes of discipline and structure. Instead, she befriends Gia, a classmate fascinated by voodoo, Ouija boards and the supernatural. On a reckless dare, the girls break into a condemned building on campus, where they discover a hidden video cassette revealing that a group of students deliberately cursed the school 40 years earlier.
What begins as curiosity soon escalates into terror as a séance awakens a spirit tied to Emily’s own buried past. The novel explores themes of memory, secrecy and the consequences of tampering with forces beyond understanding.
Blending the atmosphere of classic gothic ghost stories with elements inspired by Frankenstein, The Haunting of Ashley Hall School is positioned as a dark academia tale aimed at readers who enjoy haunted school settings and psychological horror.
The book is available for purchase online.