Wait Till Helen Comes is a ghost story and falls into the supernatural fiction genre. Several literary devices play an important part in making the novel spooky. First among them is the story’s atmosphere, which is the feeling the readers get from a story. Hahn creates an atmosphere of horror. Throughout the novel Hahn’s readers experience feelings of fear, suspense, dread, and anxiety. Elements such as setting and mood, as well as Hahn’s use of foreshadowing and allusions, all help build the scary feeling that readers experience during the novel.

The novel’s setting contributes significantly to its frightening atmosphere. Setting is a novel’s sense of time and place—its “world.” Setting can influence the plot and how the characters act. In an interview with Tattle, Hahn explains that most of her story ideas stem from physical locations, saying, “I go somewhere and I see something and it starts me thinking. And an idea gradually grows out of the setting” (Cosyn, Erin. “Author Interview: Mary Downing Hahn, Part 2.” Tattle, 7 October 2014).