Curses and Other Buried Things

Blood holds all kinds of curses.

Seven generations of women in Susana Prather’s family have been lost to the Georgia swamp behind her house. The morning after her eighteenth birthday, she awakens soaked with water, with no memory of sleepwalking. No matter how she tries to stop it, she’s pulled from her safe bed night after night, haunted by her own family history and legacy. Now, the truth feels unavoidable: it’s only a matter of time before she loses her mind and the swamp becomes her grave.

Unless she can figure out how to break the curse.

When she isn’t sleepwalking, she’s dreaming of her great-great-great-great-grandmother, Suzanna Yawn, who set the curse in motion in 1855. Her ancestor’s life bears such similarity to her own that it might hold the key she seeks. Or it might only foretell tragedy.

As Susana seeks solutions in the past and the present, family members hold secrets tighter to their chests, friends grow distant, and old flames threaten to sputter and die. But Susana has something no one else has been able to seize: the unflagging belief that all curses can be broken and that love can help a new future begin.

Based on her own family history, award-winning novelist Caroline George’s latest novel is a staggeringly beautiful work of hope.

• Stand-alone young adult contemporary Southern gothic
• Perfect for fans of Wilder Girls, Dark and Shallow Lies, and Swamplandia!
• Book length: 97,000 words
• Includes discussion questions for book clubs

Caroline George is the multi-award-winning author of Dearest Josephine, The Summer We Forgot, and other YA novels. She graduated from Belmont University with a degree in publishing and public relations and now dedicates her time to storytelling in its many forms.

From a small town in Georgia, Caroline now resides in an even smaller town in Wyoming, where she works for a ranch. When she’s not glued to her laptop or filming cowboys, she can be found hiking, sipping a lavender latte, or practicing her horsemanship. Find her on Instagram: @authorcarolinegeorge; Twitter: @CarolineGeorge_; TikTok: @authorcarolinegeorge.