Where the Souls Go

by Ann Hite

At the age of ten, Annie Todd finds not only is her mother quite mad but that Annie has inherited an unusual legacy. The ghost of a young girl visits Annie in her new home deep in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where Annie’s mother, Grace Jean, has hidden them away from the life they used to know. Annie finds an unlikely ally in Pearl, a young woman who keeps house in Annie’s new home. The secrets that surround Pearl take Annie’s mind off her loneliness and soon her family history is revealed to her. “Instead of wind, I heard my name being called. The whispery voice came from the woods. ‘Annie Todd’. My sixth sense had not yet kicked in and didn’t warn me I was standing on the backbone of my history.” WHERE THE SOULS GO is Ann Hite’s third novel set in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Readers who loved GHOST ON BLACK MOUNTAIN, Hite’s first novel, will find many of the characters familiar. This book follows three generations of the Pritchard family, not only telling the story of how Hobbs Pritchard became the villain of Black Mountain, but highlighting women’s struggles in Appalachia, beginning in the Depression Era and ending in the mid-sixties.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Southern, Paranormal

407 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2015

About the author

Ann Hite’s debut novel, Ghost On Black Mountain, not only became a Townsend Prize Finalist but won Georgia Author of the Year in 2012. Her personal essays and short stories have been published in numerous national anthologies. The Storycatcher, her second Black Mountain novel, will be released by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster on September 10th. Lowcountry Spirit, an eBook novella, is available from Pocket Star, also an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Ann is an admitted book junkie with a library of over a thousand books. She lives in Smyrna, Georgia with her husband and daughter, where she allows her Appalachian characters to dictate their stories.

Reviews

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

People here believe the mountain collects the souls of people who have a special gift, the folks who hear the mountain's voice.

3.5 stars. I really love this author. I love that her southern books are filled with seers, healers, haints, spells and witches, but also with strong but broken women. Ann Hite also never shares this story in a linear way, instead she starts at the end and we the stories interweave with each other. The only reason it rates lower than her other books, is that I read the last two to close together, and the ending did not pack the same punch as Ghost on Black Mountain. If you enjoy southern books, please do yourself a favor and try one of this authors books.

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ann Hite expertly weaves the stories of three generations of Appalachian women using a common thread of supernatural senses and experiences, dashed hopes and dreams, and ultimately, goodness and healing. While the characters' lives are intermingled, and sometimes complexly so, each narrative stands strong on its own. Hite makes it is easy to immerse oneself into the lives of the characters, and somewhere in the midst of that magic, the details fall beautifully into place.

I highly recommend reading Ann Hite's Ghost On Black Mountain first, to better acquaint yourself with the Pritchard family. You need to know Hobbs; you need to hate him and all that he stands for to get the full, concentrated effect of Hite's Black Mountain experience.

Truly, Ann Hite rolls out the red carpet for the imagination and the result is stunning.

[Myra · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of the beautiful mountain language, wrapped up in prose that reads like pure poetry at times, telling a tale straight out of the hills, with as many twists and turns as a rocky mountain trail. You'll want to climb it for sure, for the views are all breathtaking. And like a mountain, you never know what is around the next corner. Ann keeps us in suspense while painting a canvas of the magnificent place that is Black Mountain.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magical! Another great read by Ann Hite !

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you finish a book that takes you with it and leaves you sad to be moving on. Where the Souls Go is one of those books. Even though the Pritchard women's stories are horrifying, I felt immersed in their worlds and will be thinking about them long after I have turned that last page. Another fantastic Black Mountain novel. Thank you, Ann Hite!

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third novel set in Ann Hite's Black Mountain. Multiple viewpoints allow you inside all the characters' thoughts, and you understand why they act the way they do. I liked this, but didn't love it as much as I did her earlier two books. Still a good read, though.

[Sabrina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book follows the lives of several women from the same family over almost a century. However, it is told completely out of order and context in several points of view. All these women are idiots who put themselves in crapy places in life and don't do anything about it but hope that it will compel their children to have a better life but don't do anything to help them and often are the cause their daughters make the same or worse choices than they do. They are all spineless doormats who keep secrets about their past and expect that will keep their children safe, then chastise them for making the same mistakes they did. There is no real plot to these tidbits of all these women's lives, there is no moral and no real conflict to resolve since they do nothing about the mess they are in. None of the characters are fully formed and I couldn't connect with any of them. The dialogue is simple and there aren't a lot of details or descriptions. There are 3 books in this grouping about these women and the area they live in and I don't think I'll be reading the last as it appears to be just like this one which was just like the first one only with different women of the same family. All of them are the same just married to different men. All the stories are the same just at different time periods. Lather, rinse, repeat is the subject of these stories and these books and I am done thank you.

[Jessica Oravec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where the Souls Go is a tale of secrets and tragedy within a family. It seems that each generation of this family has a secret to keep, from AzLeigh to Grace Jean and Pearl, and finally Annie Todd, who tries to figure out why her family is touched by tragedy and who the ghost girl is who seems to be attached to them. Through the stories of these characters, we slowly discover why each woman is the way that she is, what tragedy has molded and shaped her, and what difficult choices she made to survive. In this book, good and evil were not always black and white, and good people sometimes did bad things for good reasons. As you learn more about this seemingly cursed family, you come to realize that each of us carries of load that nobody else sees, and that perhaps the way to lighten the load is to tell others about it. This was a well written story of a family with many ghosts and perhaps a touch of magic.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's the deal with this book. The story was fine, but it took so long to figure out how these characters were related to characters in Hite's previous book that it near about drove me crazy. I really did worry about the state of my memory, because I couldn't remember any of the names. Then I spent half the time wishing there was a family tree in the beginning of the book so I could figure out who these people were. At around 80% in, it hit me that I wasn't supposed to know until the end who they were, but I still didn't like that. I think it would have been easier to be empathic towards these ladies if we knew who they were. Or maybe that's the point is to view our judgements of others? The end made up for the beginning.

[Libby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read all of Ann Hite's books and one e-novella published before this one and I think this is the best so far. All her books take place primarily in the Black Mountain, Swannoa Gap area and many of the same characters are in different books. Where the Souls Go concerns three generations of girls/women. Their stories are told in reverse chronological order. We experience them as grandmother, mother, and child and the ghost girl that all of them are able to talk to. Ann Hite has created a Faulkner type of intersecting novels that someday I will reread one after the other to keep all the characters in my head.

[Launa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was another great read. You are drawn into these women's lives and suffer their pain.
Destiny is carried down through generations with no cure coming.
Secrets, revenge, cultural misfortune, death, and repeating the mistakes for generations
I love the mysteries and heritage told of mountain living.
It may be fiction....but it is also true for some.

[Sandra Savell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Black Mountain books are scary... They are books one does not want to put down...and gives insight into the culture of this area in many respects. I look forward to my next Ann Hite read.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great addition to the series - you can read it before or after Ghost on Black Mountain, either way, you will want to read more!

[Hollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just ok

Maybe I took too long reading it, but this book wasn’t a winner for me. I struggled to keep up with characters, especially towards the last part of the book.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Annie Todd was visited by a Ghost Girl when she was 10 years old. Her family legacy is a long chain of secrets which began when the ghost girl disappeared in the Black Mountain area of Western North Carolina. The girl was never asked about and never found. Annie's mother Grace Jean and her mother AzLeigh hold the pain of the past close to their hearts and desire nothing more than to keep Annie away from the truth about her family's past. When Annie and Grace Jean come stay with AzLeigh after Grace Jean leaves Annie's father she reunites with her half sister Pearl. The reader is then taken back decade by decade uncovering the tangled web of events that describe not only a family's turmoil but the culture of Appalachia and the troubles that beset the women of those times. The effectiveness of this story lies in both the texture of the language, the characterizations, the details about sewing that begin each decade chapter and the journey the reader takes with the characters as each piece of truth is uncovered. An absorbing read filled with real flawed characters and a satisfying ending.

[Odessa Blaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is as steeped in generational trauma as it is mountain lore. It's heartbreaking to see each of these women lose the battle against what life has stacked up against them, hiding in cycles that buried the ones that came before them.
This story is told in a winding, round about way. As twisting and hidden as any path in the mountains, easy to lose your way or forget where you were headed. Keep putting one foot in front of the other, keep turning the page. You won't end where you thought you would, but you'll end up where you need to be.
This was the first Black Mountain book I had a chance to read. Looking forward to visiting Ann Hite's Black Mountain again soon.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

With more people, I really needed an up to date family tree.
Kind of sad now because I have read ( I think ) all of the books in order. It is like saying good by to a group of old acquaintances.
Thank you Ann for many hours of interesting reading.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A full-bodied write! Explores relationships between husbands and wives, sisters and brothers and especially mothers and daughters. And it is a ghost story! Recommend! I was blessed to buy this book straight from the author!

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story, with family members threaded in from other novels. Beautifully written & engaging.

[Debra Reedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope Ann Hite never stops writing these wonderful stories.

[Gaea · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was thrilling, but i do feel some answers still missing.. (spoiler alert here) like why wasn't it made clear that the mother knew her long time boyfriend had raped her daughter/ which her daughter got over with the friends help but then became twice the bitch of the mother.. it jumped back and forth a little much and i think when I re-read it, which it will happen because I dont feel I captured its essence .. i will read the last chapters first to give me clarity about the beginning.
it also gave me some insite as to why some mothers are so harsh, tho stating their love, it is noncommittal and said with little enthusiasm. While some women endure such hardship and learn from it to be better human. Also it is puzzling how the women felt themselves to blame for circumstances beyond their control.. illogical !
thx Ann Hite !

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.6. I went back and forth in my mind about my opinions of this book. It's told mostly in reverse and lots of cultural odysseys of living in No Ga and NC mountains during the 1920' s..50's Spirits speak to folks and folklore runs rampant. Women were definitely second class citizens, and seemed everyone was stuck in this life cycle. Women passed their pain down from one generation to the next. If hope was lost, and God didn't seem to answer their plea, people turned to spirits, ghost, and ancestry to justify their situation or to find comfort. Azleigh was a central focus and the real matriarch, of the list of characters.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunting--but not because of its ghosts--Where the Souls Go is as beautifully rendered as the handiwork Hite uses as metaphor for her women. A strong story about strong women and the power of redemption to overcome the evil that comes when truths are hidden instead of set free.

[Danielle B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flashbacks could be confusing with the time periods and view points constantly changing.