WHIPPOORWILL SING

In Lute’s novel, a young woman returns to her hometown for work and uncovers secrets about her family.

Atlas Whitaker was a baby when she was left on the porch of a farmhouse in Willow Creek, West Virginia. She never knew her mother and was raised instead by Zola Whitaker and Celia Jones, two compassionate and strong women who took her in as their own. In 1995, Atlas is now a college dropout plagued by aimlessness and an empty checking account; Zola has died, and the elderly Celia is at risk of losing the farmhouse. Guilt-ridden and wanting to help, Atlas takes a job at an asylum-turned-museum, where she assists an uppity curator with an exhibit showcasing Appalachian art. The job posting neglected to mention that Atlas would see ghosts in the hallway or get trapped in the creepy basement. The narrative jumps back to 1970, when 17-year-old Garnet Whitaker is desperate to get away from her abusive father. After Zola and Celia rescue her, she’s hired as the phone operator at the asylum, where she befriends a Deaf patient named Esther and develops a crush on one of the doctors, Eddie James. Garnet settles into her new routine and is excited for her future: “All Garnet could think of was a life of beauty, away from work and toil and dirt.” But things are not perfect—Eddie wants to keep their relationship secret, and Esther is afraid of one of the doctors. Garnet is thrown into the middle of unexpected horrors; decades later, Atlas contends with the institution’s hauntings and her family’s connection to the misdeeds that took place there 25 years earlier. Lute’s story starts strong and remains riveting throughout. The book has a few minor flaws, like the minor subplot of the curator’s possible sabotage, which frustratingly remains a loose thread. Still, the blending of Appalachian heritage and culture with genuine, edge-of-your-seat thrills is thoroughly engaging. Lute doesn’t rely solely on dramatic, spooky gimmicks—the heart of the novel is the celebration of found family and the astounding resilience of women, a story worth telling and a story definitely worth reading.

A compelling and refreshing premise delivers emotionally layered thrills.