House of Stairs

This chilling, suspenseful indictment of mind control is a classic of science fiction and will haunt readers long after the last page is turned.

One by one, five sixteen-year-old orphans are brought to a strange building. It is not a prison, not a hospital; it has no walls, no ceiling, no floor. Nothing but endless flights of stairs leading nowhere--except back to a strange red machine. The five must learn to love the machine and let it rule their lives. But will they let it kill their souls?  

"An intensely suspenseful page-turner." --School Library Journal

"A riveting suspense novel with an anti-behaviorist message that works . . . because it emerges only slowly from the chilling events." --Kirkus Reviews

"When people talk about classic dystopian novels for young readers, the same titles come up again and again: The Giver. City of Ember. A few others. But one classic book in that subgenre deserves a lot more love: House of Stairs by William Sleator." --io9.comWilliam Sleator (1945-2011) is the author of numerous science fiction books for children and young adults, including Interstellar Pig, House of Stairs, and Blackbriar.