James, TaniaFritz, Tara2021-09-15https://hdl.handle.net/1920/12018This thesis has been embargoed for 10 years. It will not be available until May 2030 at the earliest.Prospect Street (working title) tells the story of a girl named Mabel. At seven years old, she is abandoned by her mother on her grandparents’ doorstep. Failing to adjust to her new living situation, Mabel runs away into the woods behind their house. There, she dreams of a place where she and her mother can reunite. Even after going back to her grandparents, Mabel’s frequent dreams generate the power to create a monster in the woods, which then begins to lure in the neighbors and swallow them up. When three neighbors disappear mysteriously, at the end of an unsuccessful search, the woods are cordoned off. Seven years later, when Mabel is on the cusp of her thirteenth birthday, a man connected with the first disappearances moves back to Prospect Street, searching for answers. Mabel must come to terms with what her dreams might have created, what it means to grow up, and who she believes her family really is. The novel is intended to be a coming-of-age story with a surrealist element, and it seeks to examine the meaning of family, the spirit of community, and the power and imagination of young girlhoodenNovelFictionSpeculativeComing of ageThesis