If you’re in the mood for a ghost story full of family secrets and friendship, then you would enjoy Ghost Wood Song. It’s a queer story about friendship, grief, and forgiveness. Keep reading this book review of Ghost Wood Song to see all the ghostly things!
Summary
If I could have a fiddle made of Daddy’s bones, I’d play it. I’d learn all the secrets he kept.
Shady Grove inherited her father’s ability to call ghosts from the grave with his fiddle, but she also knows the fiddle’s tunes bring nothing but trouble and darkness.
But when her brother is accused of murder, she can’t let the dead keep their secrets.
In order to clear his name, she’s going to have to make those ghosts sing.
Family secrets, a gorgeously resonant LGBTQ love triangle, and just the right amount of creepiness make this young adult debut a haunting and hopeful story about facing everything that haunts us in the dark.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from Edelweiss. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
If I could sum up what I enjoyed in Ghost Wood Song in two elements it’s got to be the spookiness and all the queerness. We love a bisexual MC with a love triangle that was crafted well. Shady begins the book griefstricken and wondering if she could change the chaos around her and get answers. But we all know sometimes answers don’t bring the closure we’re looking for and only more questions. Or worse. Disappointment, anger, and revenge.
This debut is haunting. (I know right, cue all the ghost puns now). The setting and the way Waters introduces these atmospheric elements were stunning. I had to stop reading this book before bed y’all. It was a mix of, “small town secrets and handshakes” meets “ghosts, hauntings, and power”. Not to mention that Waters was able to weave music into the eerieness in a fabulous way. I LOVED the writing style!
It was almost like supernatural with an edge. And Ghost Wood Song also asked readers what would we do if we could bring it all back. If we could do the impossible. Because that feeling that everyone else has moved on with their sadness and left us alone in the darkness turns us into shadows. What are we willing to do to cover up the truth? To uncover the secrets and ghosts?
Find Ghost Wood Song on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound, Bookshop.org & The Book Depository.