Bellweather Rhapsody Review

If you’ve had a shortage of madness and being stuck inside this year, do I have the novel for you!

Kate Racculia’s Bellweather Rhapsody is a YA novel that borrows heavily from the atmosphere and cultural memory of The Shining to write a solidly unnerving novel about twins Alice and Rabbit, who are on a renowned band/chorus exhibition in a hotel overshadowed by its history of a murder-suicide fifteen years before.

SpoOOoooOOOkiness ensues.

And the spookiness is pretty good. There’s some solid scares in this novel, and more importantly, and undertone of uneasiness that mostly holds together. In fact, it’s rather impressive that the stakes feel like solid horror, despite the confines of the genre (you’re probably not going to find eviscerations on a YA shelf.)

But horror works best when it has a heart, and the heart of this novel is a group of characters struggling to be their authentic selves while trying to live up to the chance to become great musicians. Rabbit, in particular, has a strong character arc and is easy to root for in the midst of intrigue and snobbishness.

While I enjoyed the premise and atmosphere, I wasn’t completely sold on the ending, which is sensible but left me feeling a little unfulfilled on the scares and consequences. That said, the novel did pull the ACTUAL MAGIC TRICK of making me wish I had been a band kid, which I never expected.

A solid, claustrophobic scare. 3.8 creepy hallways out of 5.