Idgie Says:I sat down to start reading this novel and within 20 minutes was completely engrossed in the story. It was nearly impossible to tear myself away from what was happening on the pages of Ann's latest book.
This story involves two empathetic young girls surrounded by callous, cold-hearted men and stone-hearted, soulless women....several of them just "thisside" of crazy. The girls are of the same age and appear to be from the same family line. The main difference is that one of them just happens to be a ghost. Both girls deeply lack love and affection in their lives - past and present.
As the novel changes first person narration throughout, to give all the women involved a chance to tell their story, it becomes filled with twisty turns as you learn who did what to whom. The entire book is surrounded by death. There is barely a likable person in the story, but regardless, you are hooked until the very end.
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Mercer University Press
September, 2015
At the age of ten, Annie Todd finds not only is her mother quite mad but that Annie has inherited an unusual legacy. The ghost of a young girl visits Annie in her new home deep in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where Annie’s mother, Grace Jean, has hidden them away from the life they used to know. Annie finds an unlikely ally in Pearl, a young woman who keeps house in Annie’s new home. The secrets that surround Pearl take Annie’s mind off her loneliness and soon her family history is revealed to her. “Instead of wind, I heard my name being called. The whispery voice came from the woods. ‘Annie Todd’. My sixth sense had not yet kicked in and didn’t warn me I was standing on the backbone of my history.”
WHERE THE SOULS GO is Ann Hite’s third novel set in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Readers who loved GHOST ON BLACK MOUNTAIN, Hite’s first novel, will find many of the characters familiar. This book follows three generations of the Pritchard family, not only telling the story of how Hobbs Pritchard became the villain of Black Mountain, but highlighting women’s struggles in Appalachia, beginning in the Depression Era and ending in the mid-sixties.
WHERE THE SOULS GO is Ann Hite’s third novel set in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Readers who loved GHOST ON BLACK MOUNTAIN, Hite’s first novel, will find many of the characters familiar. This book follows three generations of the Pritchard family, not only telling the story of how Hobbs Pritchard became the villain of Black Mountain, but highlighting women’s struggles in Appalachia, beginning in the Depression Era and ending in the mid-sixties.