My Lips, Her Voice
Small-town mysteries, generational trauma, and the supernatural collide in L. L. Madrid’s haunting novel My Lips, Her Voice.
Copper City is one of the most haunted cities in the US. Still, when Audrey’s cousin Mara is found dead in the local mine, the town scrambles to find the killer. While Audrey grapples with her cousin’s death and the cryptic warnings from her late grandmother, Mara’s spirit returns, possessing Audrey’s body. Audrey and Mara fight for control even while working with Mara’s ex-girlfriend, Zadie, to uncover Mara’s memories from the night she was killed. When another teenager disappears, their search intensifies, drawing them deeper into a chilling ghost story, desperate for answers and survival.
The story is told through the intertwined perspectives of Audrey, Zadie, and Shirley, Audrey and Mara’s clairvoyant grandmother. Audrey and Mara’s battles over screen time are humorous, marked by rivalry. And romantic tension builds within Zadie as she realizes Mara’s presence within Audrey; she has already grieved her ex-girlfriend’s death, but Mara’s unexpected arrival stirs complex emotions that she struggles to resolve. Shirley, meanwhile, fills in the missing pieces: her spiritual powers and premonitions are revealed, spanning from fifty years prior to the present.
Themes of grief, trauma, and healing sit within the paranormal atmosphere. Zadie is given another chance to process the death of her partner while experiencing the guilt of developing a new romantic interest. Audrey and Zadie connect with other spirits akin to their grandmother and deal with the consequences of their inherited gift too. While these women try to move on, they continue to be haunted by the past.
My Lips, Her Voice is a chilling, resonant novel in which three women are bound by blood, love, and a town riddled with secrets.
Reviewed by
Allison Janicki
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
