Prelude for Lost Souls

Gr 9 Up–A town full of honest-to-goodness spiritualists is noteworthy to the tourists who flock to St. Hilaire every summer. But living behind the locked gate of the town can be stifling, and dark-haired Dec wants out. He dreams of being out from under the Guild, St. Hilaire’s town council, and away from the place that holds a prescribed future and bad memories of his past. His best friend, pale-skinned Russ, on the other hand, would do anything to impress the Guild for a chance to be in the youth corps and, eventually, join their ranks. When a famous piano prodigy, Annie, finds herself stranded in St. Hilaire, Dec, Russ, and Annie’s destinies intertwine as they work together to undo a musical curse of the distant past. Told in alternating first-person narration, readers get to know St. Hilaire from the perspective of insiders—one who wants to leave and one who wants to be in power—and outsiders—a living pianist and a long-dead composer. The main characters find first love and independence alongside ghosts, mediums, supernatural romance, tarot, and runes.