Will o' the Wisp

Following the tragic death of her parents, Maleah is sent to live with her reclusive uncle, whose run-down mansion—an old plantation manor—lies deep within the swamps of Louisiana. She quickly learns that the bayou is full of secrets, from the will o’ the wisps that beckon to her at dusk to the strange moans and cries she hears coming from the manor’s attic.

It’s not until she discovers her late aunt’s secret garden hidden in the swamps that she starts to feel a sense of home and belonging. This magical world of flowers and light connects her with a boy from a family hers has been feuding with for generations, who helps her rebuild the garden’s unfinished boathouse.

But the will o’ the wisps have another plan for Maleah, one that reveals the property’s dark history as the site of a slave uprising. It all erupts in a violent showdown that will either right injustices that have simmered for centuries . . . or destroy everyone and everything she has grown to love. 

“Imagine if Stephen King rewrote The Secret Garden with a Romeo and Juliet twist . . . and set it in today’s Louisiana bayous.”