11 must-read SFF book releases that will kick your July into high gear
By Lacy Baugher
Ghost Wood Song – Erica Waters
An atmospheric, creepy story about ghosts, family, and haunted musical instruments, Ghost Wood Song is thoroughly unlike any other entry on this list.
Erica Waters’ debut novel follows the story of a girl named Shady Grove, whose father’s fiddle could summon the dead and came complete with a dark and haunted legacy of its own. But she must seek it out after her brother is arrested for murder, in the hopes that the ghosts can be convinced to tell the truth to the living.
The thriller-esque central story alone s enough to make Ghost Wood Song interesting, but Waters’s novel also fully embraces its rural, Southern setting, and the tale is drenched in traditional Southern Gothic tropes. And though it may be a ghost story, it’s also a story about family, and the lengths we’re willing to go for the people we love.
The official synopsis describes the story as follows.
"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."
Ghost Wood Song is available on July 14.