Do you believe in ghosts? Whether you do or not, Arthur Mills' traumatic true-life experience in The Empty Lot Next Door will make you question the nature of reality. Find out who Candle Face was, her taunting behavior, and how she turned a boy's childhood into a living nightmare.

First published in 2010, the memoir returns in a second edition that follows the true events more closely. The first edition was written for young readers. This one isn't. Mills cut the material aimed at a younger audience and put back what actually happened.

In an Austin neighborhood, Ray (Arthur's childhood name) and his family moved into a small house with a big green lawn. Next door sat a vacant lot where a house once stood, with a deep hole left in the back. To a boy with new friends, it looked like a playground, until he heard the story behind it. The house had burned years earlier, and a girl died in the fire. The neighborhood kids swore she would haunt anyone who jumped into the hole. Ray jumped in to prove them wrong, and he's regretted it ever since.

The girl came for him. He named her Candle Face for her charred face and body, and she began visiting his dreams and leaving handprints and other signs around the house, even in daylight while he was awake.

The Empty Lot Next Door is more than a ghost story. It's about the fear and helplessness of children left to fend for themselves while their parents work long hours away from home, facing dangers real and imagined. It's about sibling abuse and the marks it leaves on the abused and the abusers alike. And it's about a boy trying to make sense of all of it alone, keeping his fears to himself so he won't add to his family's troubles.

For anyone who likes a real scare, or wants to decide for themselves whether ghosts exist, this is the one to listen to with the lights on.