Ghost Wood Song

I received an ARC from Edelweiss
TW: sexual assault mention
4.5

Shady Grove's life changed forever when her daddy died in a car accident four years ago, and it seems unwilling to stop changing, as her relationship with her best friend wanders into uncharted territory. But suddenly a crush that may be something more isn't the biggest thing on Shady's mind- because her brother is arrested for murder. A murder she knows he couldn't have committed, but seems to be the only one who does. The only answer to their problems lies with her daddy's fiddle, that used to raise the dead, even though they say it went down with him. She has to find it. No matter the cost.

Wow! Folk music, folk magic, a bisexual main character, ghosts, and a murder mystery??? I swear I wanted this book before it existed, and Erica Waters just plucked it from my brain. This book is so lush, and vibrant, even (and perhaps especially) in its darkest areas.

Shady is a tough character, because so much of her story is wrapped around other peoples', and so much of her personality is directed towards determination and hard-headedness. It makes you kind of wish you could see her before all this started, all the weights on her shoulders, or at least it made me curious. But she is shaped by what she has been through and continues to go through, and from the way she was raised. And she's likeable! Not always relateable per se, but definitely a character I felt I understood the mind of, and one I was happy to support.

The magic itself was something I really enjoyed. The way the fiddle calls to Shady is both eerie and exciting, the sort of thing you find yourself longing for, that brush against the fantastic, even as it shows itself to be darker and darker. In fact, that's a lot of this book. The spirits, the fiddle, they're enticing and they're scary, and it is impossible to separate the two. I also think that Shady is a great lens to really experience that through, and the way she is tugged, led with a rope made of her own pain and obsession, it's hard to watch and it's hard not to want to go with her.

The romance isn't super pivotal to the plot of this book, but it did lend itself to some softer moments. Folk is the big "comfortable space" in this book, and the usage of it lets Shady feel safe and alive, and connected to her father, but because of that last bit, and because of the fiddle's magic, its always tinged with some sort of sadness. The romance, instead, is tinged with some frustration, and having both helped keep it light without making it feel like two distinct stories or like the lightness was overwhelming the overall dark themes of the book.
The "love triangle" aspect is always annoying to me, and though it wasn't done quite as aggressively or over-dramatically as we often see it, I didn't feel compelled by it for the most part. That isn't to say I wasn't interested in the romance, I just had no real interest in Shady's feelings for Sarah, because Sarah was a fairly flat character. To be fair, Cedar isn't the most dynamic either, but he's easy to root for. Cedar's ties to folk are clear, and he's pretty sweet with her. Sarah signifies the past, and doesn't do much beyond that.

"I can't go with her, I can't lead her back to us. Even if I could, I don't have a map to her grief. That's the thing about losing someone. It's a landscape no one's familiar with, and it's never the same for two people."

The big themes of this book are 1) family 2) grief & guilt, and this book is really good at delivering both of them. The trauma of family is not something I expected to be brought up in a YA, and truly not brought up in a way that's this well done, but somehow Waters does it! There is so much loss, and so much history, and this book is about validating them, looking at them in the light of day where nothing can hide, and then moving forward anyway. You cannot erase history, but you also can't live in it, and that balance can be so difficult. That's a lesson that isn't taught enough, outside of the grand, bruising obstacles of real life.

The things that hold this book back from being a 5 for me, are mainly based in characters. Other than Shady, and her father, they're all fairly flat. Her mother needed so much more space on the page, and she never got it. Aunt Ena had a lot of promise, but I never quite got to know her. And, again, I felt no connection to Sarah, especially in a romantic way.
The ending was surprising, though the twist wasn't. It felt like a mixed bag in the way of uniqueness.
And, finally, I fear there's a strange message being sent about abuse. The idea, at the end, that someone was doing something to be punished, applied in the way it was, felt very close to victim blaming. Now that alone is a theme, but the reference to the abuser's own justification of the abuse being put out like he was right? Definitely doesn't sit right with me.

Over all, this is a wonderful book. I wish it were longer so there would be more room for characters and relationships to grow, but it's definitely fun and folky.

Original thoughts below
Review to come, but I'm also going to drop this playlist of the music in this book because you need it in your life if you're interested in this story!