Never underestimate the power of words and storytelling from a debut author.
Waiting For The Night Song by Julie Carrick Dalton shattered those doubts about this coming of age novel.
“Truth hides in fissures and hollows, In broken places and empty parts. It can be buried,
…more crushed, or burnt, but the truth will always rise”. This opening line from this novel hooked me right in and did not let me go. By the end of chapter 1 that ended with: “ where they left him. Buried in the woods”. There was no turning back.
Told in alternating narratives between “that summer “ where the protagonist was a young girl and “ present day” where she has revisited her home town,
Marble Crest and as Cadie, the protagonist puts it: “the cracks and crevices”. So much has happened there: First love, friendship, oaths of bonds, lies, secrets, cover-ups and betrayals all makes for an edge of your seat heart shattering read that leaves you splattered in the most epic way.
The novel throws everything at you in a real way: climate change, anti-immigrants, foster systems, the abused and abuser , family bonds and the secrets within those bonds are all served up in this brilliant masterpiece of all the things one cherish.
One’s environment and caring for it and how we humans become the “canary In the coal mine“. The stigma applied to illegal immigrants not knowing about the
circumstances that led them to where they are. The question of family and if blood is really thicker than water? It is about what defines a person life - the present moment or their actions afterwards? And then there is the nostalgia of returning to ones childhood: “there had been so much magic in the forest of her childhood “. Cadie, the heroine of this story has deep roots in these forest (no pun intended), her research about the beetles destruction to the forest and hopes of saving it. Her story has echoes of “Where The Crawdads Sing” and of one’s connections to the land they grew up on and how it shapes them.
Most of all, at the core of this novel is the death of this town citizen and the accusations of who did it, who buried him, who is the accessory of the murder, who is covering up, and who really stands accused.
This is a soul provoking unstoppable tale of lies and deceit by all concerned and it will linger and etch in your memory. It truly will make you question the motives
of everyone around you. A superb engaging read. I cannot wait for Dalton's next book. (less)
