The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree was a heavy read! Loved the 60s Southern vibes, but the story did drag on at times. While it may have been too slow moving for me, I liken it to The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. This will be an impactful read for some, but it just felt middle of the road for me. Thank you, NetGalley!

This is a complex and detailed story set in the south in the 60s. It was a little slow for me but it was ok otherwise.

"Blue Bottle Tree" is a captivating Southern tale steeped in eerie charm but heavy with relentless trauma and abuse. While Genevieve's resilience and the vivid setting shine, the darkness can be overwhelming. Ultimately, it's a powerful exploration of exploitation with a hopeful glimmer, but be prepared for a difficult read.

Genevieve Charbonneau has wandered throughout the South, escaping a mental hospital in Alabama, working for a Louisiana circus, and dancing at a hoochy-kootch in Texas. Now she is visiting the site of her grandmother’s Arkansas farmhouse. She runs into a haunted young Vietnam vet and reconnects her with the remnants of a family. However, she soon discovers she may have to make a decision to run or fight!

Y’all, this story made me mad, sad, and yes, murderous! Trust me when I say I wanted to kill the father/preacher/abuser! The control this man had on his family…

To say this story is going to stay with me for a while is an understatement. And the way the author weaves in ghosts is brilliant. And yes there are snakes…not my favorite. But in true southern, religious fashion, this is a brilliant addition as well. Just makes the story more creepy, compelling and authentic!

There are quite a few characters, each with their own issue, and the narrators, Zura Johnson, Matt Godfrey, and Laura Jennings, are OUTSTANDING!

Need a haunting story which will have you gasping for air…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

What a lovely surprise to find a book destined to be one of my favorites, written by a new author in language so beautiful and poetically descriptive that I was engaged in the plot and characters immediately.

Poor Genevieve Charbonneau, born in rural Arkansas is destined to have a difficult but fulfilling life. Her mother died when she was a young girl, leaving her to be raised by grandparents who then also died. Her next of kin were strangers, and after facing emotional and physical abuse in their care, Genevieve ran for her life when she was able. In a traveling circus she found herself in a caring environment where she learned to use her sharp mind and young body to earn her keep. Being no ordinary young lady , she was able communicate with the dead, relate to dangerous snakes , and do exotic dancing like nobody else. .

When life brings Genevieve back home to her grandmother’s farmhouse she meets a Vietnam veteran suffering from PSTD , who is haunted by the ghost of his dearest buddy, whose life he could not save in the jungles of Nam. What transpires is a very dark and often gut wrenching story which tackles difficult topics such as death, abandonment , rape and other sexual abuse, and the evil that lurks in the hearts of those we trust the most. Despite the darkness the author depicts other characters with an abundance of strength, courage and kindness who shine a light in the great abyss of life and bring justice, redemption and hope to themselves and others.

The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree is a noteworthy piece of historical fiction designed to be thought provoking, heartbreaking and eventually uplifting. I highly recommend it for readers not daunted by difficult subject matter. Five glorious stars for a book that I loved. My thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishers for an advance readers copy in exchange for my honest review. It was published on March 25, 2025 and is available now.
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✨ ARC Review✨

I used to moderate a Southern fiction book club. We called it Searching for the South and it was wonderful. Michael Lee West baked us a turtle cheesecake for one of our meetings.

My point is I love reading Southern fiction to the depths of my soul- the beauty, the vile ugliness, the charm, the grit of its cities. There’s so much to love in the roots of the South and of course, so much to regret and hate.

This novel is set in 1967, southwestern Arkansas, and feels so real even as it has that magical realism I love so much. Genevieve has a new name ever since she left the halfway house where she’d spent time after her abusive guardian was killed.

Genevieve is sleeping rough in a graveyard when she meets Mercer, a recently returned Vietnam veteran. He’s haunted by the soldiers he couldn’t save as a medic and Genevieve has always been haunted by ghosts. They strike up a bone-deep friendship and he takes her to his family. His family which is lorded over by the horribly abusive (wrapped in religion) John Luther Ives.

As Genevieve becomes close to the family, she recognizes what’s happening and tries to figure out how to put a stop to it.

This story has my heart for so many reasons. The writing is beautiful and the Southern turns of phrase are exactly what I wanted. I absolutely love the ghostly aspect and Genevieve and Mercer. Their friendship is real from the get-go. Ahhh! Just. I love it. @indiahayford has written something special here. ❤️

I received an eARC via #netgalley and @kensingtonbooks. All thoughts are mine alone.

#booksbooksbooks #historicalfiction #southernfiction #southerngothic #bookrecs #bookreview #thesongofthebluebottletree #indiahayford

It's an impossible novel to put on your bedside table. From the start, it's clear that this book has what it takes to be a great read. The author's got a way with words, painting a vivid picture with her writing. She's got these intricate settings and plots that'll keep you hooked from the start, like the rural Arkansas atmosphere.

The main character is a woman with a troubled past who can communicate with ghosts. The story is set in the 1970s, during the Vietnam War, and the author does a great job depicting the era's complexities.
The abuses and traumas of war, along with the author's vivid writing, are what make this text stand out. The characters are so relatable because they're human, passionate, caring, and well-rounded.
The topics are all over the place, some harder than others, from family to religion to wars and abuses.

It's a Southern Gothic with all the makings of a beloved book.

Please, please, please check your TW. With that being said, I went into this book unsure of how it would make me feel. Raised in Arkansas……transplanted to Louisiana, the places and superstitions were real enough to transport me back to places I grew up.
This story is historical fiction. It’s a story of heartbreak, horrific abuse, war, mental illness, and yet at its core is this gentle ribbon that runs through with found family, magic, superstition and revenge.
Reading the last four chapters brought tears to my eyes. And I hope if you are able to read this book despite some of the horrible things it portrays that it can make you feel the warmth inside its pages.
I received an ARC of this title, all opinions are my own.

DNF@ 25%

This book needs a trigger warning for rape and abuse.inbolving a religeous cult. I don't feel like reading this type of content at the moment, probably not ever to be honest.

This book was really engaging and had me hooked from the very start. Set in the era following the Vietnam War, the tale is told by multiple narrators through the story, which was a goog way to write this book. The book tells the tale of Mercer, a Navy Corpsman who has recently returned from Vietnam with the ghosts of several of his comrades tagging along. There are also some chapters from his mother Wreath and his sister Deliliah's point of view. The other main character is Genevieve Charbonneau, a woman who sees and talks to ghosts. She also was a snake handler in the circus during her life and ends up meeting Mercer and his family.

I loved the southern charm of the book, although several characters aren't very charming at all. The incorporation of ghosts in the story seemed very natural to me and it fit the story well. I enjoyed the telling of this story so much, it had the feel of a Southern elder telling the tale, which also seemed on point with the premise of the story.

I thought this book was a good read and would highly recommend this book to others. My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinon.

This book was well written with engaging characters and beautiful evocations of life. But it was really too hard for me to read. I just can't read that kind of depressing, horrifying, abuse though i understand that it is important, especially in showing how resilience can get a person through awful times.

This was such a hard hard read (check the trigger warnings). Overall I thought it was a beaitful story about human resilence and justice.

The story follows the life of a little girl who after her mother passes when she is young is sent away to be cared for by a reverend who abuses her. She escapes and changes her identity over the next several years, joining a circus and eventually ending up back in her home town where she meets a returned Vietnam veteran. The story switches POVs to the veteran and his mother as they seek to escape from their tyrant of a father. This book has similar themes of justice as Where the Crawdads Sing and A Thousand Splendid Suns. It is riddled with religious trauma and assault though, so keep that in mind!

Overall a beautiful story. My favorite part really was the ties with magical realism and the ghosts and connections Genevieve (main protagonist) and Mercer (vet) have with each other. The ending is SO satisfying and while this will break your heart it is a good one to add to your list.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for this ARC!

Published 3.25!

4.5 stars! I was nervous for this one because it’s not a book I typically gravitate towards with the ghosts and snakes. I actually ending up loving how the ghosts were intertwined in the story, and Bigger was one of my favourite characters! Who knew a ghost could make me on the verge of tears? Reading about the power dynamic between men and women made me think about how far our society has come with gender roles, but also how there’s still room to grow. Genevieve shattered the female expectations in this book and I loved her for it. A phenomenal debut.

The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree was an engaging story with great scenery. The beginning of the book was a little confusing but it really pulled together part way through and became a page turner. Genevieve reminded me of characters from Kirstin Miller’s The Change. I really enjoyed Bigger’s character and appreciated his arc. One warning to readers is that sexual abuse occurs on page in this book to the point I skimmed some scenes because it was fairly detailed.

I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy Kirstin Miller and Barbara Kingsolver.

Trigger warning for: incest, rape, sexual asssault/drugged sexual assault, sexual and physical abuse, domestic abuse/domestic violence, child abuse, child marriages, religious indoctrination

This novel isn’t wholly explicit about the sexual abuses mentioned, but the physical abuse is described in detail, as well as the main core of this novel is about the physical and sexual abuse and this book cannot be read without encountering it. I think I might be missing some trigger warnings, but if it seems like it’d fit in with a sexually and physically abusive preacher convinced of his own holiness and the need to control every woman in his life, I’d apply it here as well.

‘She decided that the very best thing she could do for this beaten-down woman and her children was to kill the son of a bitch she was married to.’

This book, at its core, is one about family connections (not necessarily by birth) and the need to protect each other from dangerous men in powerful positions. Told through many different points of view, our main story follows Genevieve as she returns to her first home in Arkansas, before she was forced to run away and survive on her own. Through her journey she finds family and community, and must take on danger to save others from suffering her same fate.

The biggest plot thread of this novel was the correlation of men who are abusers, and men who are in power. Both of the biggest abusers in this novel are preachers of their church, and I do not find this to be a coincidence. Our main antagonist, the one we spend the great bulk of this novel wishing he was dead - is a well-respected preacher of his parish, and one who has a great deal of sway in the community. Careful to only hurt the women in his life in areas that are easily concealed, from the start we know how dangerous he is - and how difficult it will be to stop his abuse.

While I found the very start of this novel a bit confusing at first, once our title character has grown up and we meet the other main character - a traumatized Vietnam veteran named Mercer - the story really comes into its own and I was hooked on every line. Filled with Southern imagery, we can almost feel the humidity and the religious indoctrination in every line as we go through this journey. As Genevieve connects with this family and grows closer to them, she is able to help fill the cracks in their frayed relationship due to the abuse inflicted by the father of the family. Her presence, support, and strength is the reason the women she encounters in her life are able to find their own ways to break the chains of abuse holding them down.

This book isn’t a romance and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. The connections in this book are forged through family, through friendship, and through bonds that are stronger than both. While both Genevieve and Mercer are haunted by (literal) ghosts, the supernatural aspect of this story is almost in the background to the actual plot of this story. In many ways, even though both of our title characters can see these ghosts, the ability to physically see them is almost a metaphor for their being haunted by the things they’ve experienced.

While heavy and tragic at times, this book was a beautiful read and I was captivated until the end. Anyone who is a fan of historical fiction, literary fiction, and stories that focus on human experiences and connections would be amiss to not pick up this novel. This was a phenomenal read and one that I will be thinking about for a long while after I’ve finished it.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Kensington Publishing for providing this e-ARC.

Alabama in 1970 was an era of troubled tales. The rending of the old ways would cause so much violence in everyday lives that the young people ran as far as they could as fast as they could. Those who stayed either grew strong or cynical or both. Genevieve Charbonneau fled, then came back to make peace with herself. India Hayford introduces us to Gennie and her many challenges in a manner that lets the reader see just how much this young woman has to push back the lessons she learned in her grandmother's home. She will learn to not only help herself but others who would be ground down by their lives. The story touches your emotions in so many ways that you'll be happy, angry, sad and horrified in the span of a few chapters. This book could truthfully be called an experience.

Thank you Netgalley & A John Scognamiglio Book for an eARC ♥️

Genevieve Charbonneau's return to her childhood home in rural Arkansas is like a punch to the gut. This mysterious young woman, with a name she found on a gravestone, has been running from her past for years.
But the ghosts of her childhood aren't so easy to shake. As Genevieve navigates the crumbling farmhouse and the memories that haunt it, she's forced to confront the trauma that's defined her life.
A chance encounter with a Vietnam veteran sets off a chain reaction of painful revelations, and Genevieve's world begins to unravel. Her story is a heart-wrenching exploration of the devastating consequences of secrets, shame, and silence.
This novel will rip your heart out, folks. It's a brutally honest portrayal of the darkest corners of human experience. But it's also a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and the power of forgiveness and healing.
Genevieve's journey is a tough one to watch, but it's also impossible to look away. Her story will haunt you long after you finish reading, and it'll leave you wondering about the secrets that we keep, and the lies that we tell ourselves.

Thank you Kensington for access to this arc.

I hesitated when I read the blurb for this book. I debated with myself. I reread the blurb and other reviews. I debated and hesitated some more and then decided to go for it. I’m very glad I did. I’ll go ahead and tell readers that this is not a romance, not one bit of one. It’s Southern Gothic and will take readers into very dark places. Why did I decide to try it? For the women.

Much of the story is told with gentle imagery telling of the horrors that happen. But some are laid flat out. At times it’s not easy to read. Later on, scenes that are initially sketched out or totally skipped are revisited, filling in what I guessed had happened. The language is often very Southern in flavor and, yippee, gets it right.

Many of the characters are not nice or kind people. It’s fairly obvious who needs to be booed at. Those who are nice mostly come with issues. Some are naïve and at times had me shaking my head but the main part of the book takes place in the 1960s and times were indeed different. Some characters are trapped due to poor judgement or because an evil person came into their lives. Mercer fled only to return with PTSD. Gen survived as best she could. But all of them, or most of them, are believable.

The things that Gen and Mercer’s mother and younger sisters are faced with are terrible. Gen has been forged through adversity and is young enough to fight back. Wreath has been beaten down since before her marriage, watched one daughter side with their oppressor, and worries about the two youngest. Yet when the need arises, Wreath has got more gumption that a lot of people give her credit for. Gen loathes Mercer’s father but she’s got enough street smarts to know how to fight back and becomes a role model for Jezzie and Leah.

Woven through the story are the spirits and ghosts who haunt both Gen and Mercer. Mercer’s are some of what he brought back with him from the jungles of Vietnam but many of Gen’s have been with her all her life. At times they will help her at other times chide her about little things, and twice they will save her life. Meanwhile Bigger, who doesn’t want to haunt his friend Mercer, became one of my favorite characters. The scene where Mercer finally lays his friend to rest had me in tears.

The grand finale when Good overcomes Evil is quite a scene. Little things that have been mentioned and then let rest come into play. The Archangel Michael is even there with his flaming sword. Or maybe not. The end isn’t pretty for Evil but he definitely had it coming.

The characters are complex and well rounded. The issues are all too real. The writing is fluid and engaging and I love how the reader is allowed to pick up on clues about what is to come without being hit over the head with them multiple times. The ending is happy but it’s an earned happy rather than a sudden and unearned smoothing over of the pain that came before. I’m delighted that I decided to try it. A-

Well, I absolutely loved this book. The characters are so beautifully developed. There are characters you will despise and characters you will want to embrace and who will stay with you long after you finish reading..

The book is set in Arkansas in the late 1960’s and follows the main character of Genevieve as she finds herself and her family. The narrative alternates between points of view but does so seamlessly once the story gets moving. The first couple of chapters took me a little to get into and then I was hooked.

This book is a Southern family drama with LOTS of trauma so be prepared if you pick it up. There is physical and sexual abuse interwoven throughout the story but there is also love and redemption. I couldn’t put it down!

TW:sexual abuse, abuse, violence & murder
this book is not something i would normally go for but, once i started this book i couldn't put it down. this book takes place in alabama in the 1970's following genevieve or "gennie". after losing her mother very young she is kind of left on her own and with no one and nowhere to go she joins a circus. after surviving for so long she decides to head back home to alabama and be with her extended family. her time back home she is a badass woman who doesn't stand for the abuse of men.