Azalea House

By: Clare Castleberry

Narrated by: Clare Castleberry

On her 16th birthday, Marianne’s world gets turned upside down. After her parents die suddenly in an accident, she and her brother, Marcus, must fend for themselves as they adjust to a new life with a dysfunctional extended family. Marianne begins to unravel one dark secret after another, revealing a sinister past and awakening the spirits who inhabit Azalea House, the Southern Louisiana estate owned by her family for generations. Among those spirits are her dead twin brothers, who drowned under mysterious circumstances before Marianne was born. A gardener at Azalea House was blamed for the murder and incarcerated, giving rise to family tensions upon his release. But as Marianne listens to the buried whispers of the past, she discovers the truth is much worse than she suspected—and much closer to home.

©2021 Winding Road Stories (P)2022 Winding Road Stories

Great cadence

Flow of the story was excellent.
Great ending. Performance of the narrarator matched the emotive restlessness of the main character.

Tragic and melancholy

Written in the key of D minor, this story gripped me from the beginning. The way the author describes the teenage roller-coaster of emotions of acceptance and rejection, felt real. the narration was spot on and added the finishing touches to an already great story.