Kirkus Reviews QR Code
GHOST WOOD SONG by Erica Waters

GHOST WOOD SONG

by Erica Waters

Pub Date: July 14th, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-289422-9
Publisher: HarperTeen

A fiddler with a magical instrument and a haunted family history unleashes her music to solve a mystery and free her brother from jail.

Sixteen-year-old Shady Grove grieves for the sound of her dead father’s fiddle, a family heirloom with the power to raise ghosts. She yearns to play bluegrass with the same darkness and emotion. However, Sarah, Shady’s best friend, crush, and band mate, only wants to play new music, folk-rock songs that Shady doesn’t feel a connection to. When Shady’s stepdad gets murdered and her brother is arrested for the crime, she digs up her father’s old instrument and uncovers the secrets of her family’s past. Debut author Waters weaves an intense and spectral atmosphere with vivid prose. A love triangle complicates bisexual Shady’s feelings as mutual attraction and interests draw her to mandolin-playing cowboy Cedar. The romantic conflict heightens the suspense while also exploring relationship compatibility. The high stakes of an impending trial and a looming supernatural threat drive a sense of urgency into the narrative. The resolution of this stand-alone thriller ties up loose ends in both Shady’s past and present, offering healing for her family and ending on a positive, hopeful note. Apart from Shady’s friend and band mate Orlando, a Cuban American boy who loves guajira music and is a budding entomologist, the cast is predominantly white.

Haunting and alluring.

(Paranormal mystery. 14-18)