Jaye Wells
February 13th, 2018
Horror writer Peter West is watching his life go off the rails. He hasn’t written a new book in too long, and his ex-wife is now writing an expose book about their life together. He’s depressed, but random inspiration found in a book about ghostly mining towns gives him the kick in the butt he needs.
He needs a new book, and he needs it now.
Peter rents a house in the remote mining town of Moon Hollow, figuring the isolation and colorful characters that live there will prove inspiring enough to get his story off the ground. He has no idea how much inspiration he’s just stumbled into.
The town sits above a mine that’s claimed lives, and has a past that intends to claim souls.
Deacon Fry holds sway over the town, and he doesn’t believe in the old stories of mountain magic and the real reason they hold a day of respect for the dead every year.
A young woman named Ruby, however, grows up with that magic–and not only hear’s the mountain’s song, but can raise the dead.
Both need to come to peace with their pasts, as both secrets and the dead don’t want to stay buried.
High Lonesome Sound has all the hallmarks of classic southern gothic horror. Wells’ characters weave a colorful picture of stereotypical small town isolation, and while the time period isn’t explicitly spelled out it has an almost timeless quality that many stories of it’s type display. It’s more about the quirky, weird people you get within truly isolated communities. In such communities, you don’t need the internet to know what your neighbors are up to–the local grapevine makes everyone’s life far more open than any social media users sharing everything with the public.
The story has a very classic feel to it, and it entertained well throughout. While it has a few characters that are hard to like, they were all interesting to follow. A fun read throughout, and a good choice for your buy list.
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JL Jamieson is a strange book nerd who writes technical documents by day, and book news, reviews, and other assorted opinions for you by night. She is working on her own fiction, and spends time making jewelry to sell at local conventions, as well as stalking the social media accounts of all your favorite writers.