MOUNTAIN SOUNDS by grace smith

a bittersweet YA speculative Southern Gothic thriller

If you’ve made it to this page, welcome! I keep my fiction writing + info largely offline and available over email for now. (IP and all, y’all.)
If you’re an agent, editor, or other publishing professional, feel free to reach out to inquire via email or socials: grace@wordslikesilver.com.
If you’re just a curious party, this project will become visible to you soon enough.

THE PLAYLIST | THE MOOD VIDEO | THE IMAGERY

“A scrappy foster kid counselor with a secret must fight to stay at her beloved sleepaway camp after aging out or risk losing the only home she’s ever been able to return to, except when the seasons change just for her, she discovers an ancient evil awakened in the mountains instead.”

FOR FANS OF

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me, Bittersweet in the Hollow, The Raven Boys, The Accident Season, The Wicker King, Sawkill Girls, Tiger Lily, The Wren Hunt, Jellicoe Road, Yellowjackets (Lottie), A Study in Charlotte, The Bad Ones…

SOME TROPES & QUALITIES YOU’LL FIND

A love letter to the Carolinas
SUMMER CAMP
Lush, woodsy, eerie atmosphere
Folksy stomp-and-holler like The Lumineers, Hozier, Noah Kahan, Caamp…
Setting-as-character/strong sense of place
Closed community
Literary-leaning prose
Unreliable narration
Teens who don’t go to college
Thematic horror based on repressed emotion like The Haunting of Hill House
Southern Gothic elements
Bittersweet themes
Questions of home, memory, identity, nostalgia
Vivid, witty banter and history from an ensemble cast (like The Raven Boys or Gallagher Girls)
Precise human details and complex soulmates reminiscent of A Study in Charlotte
The devastating romantic angst of The Vampire Diaries
Ride-or-die female friendships + found family
Ace rep
Giddy summer camp adventures
Slow burn friends-to-lovers/second chance romance
Complex untraditional family dynamics — foster care system
Authentic mental health rep backed by extensive research, interviews, sensitivity reads, and more
(with info on my background and ability available upon request)