The book has been out a couple of weeks now and most people like it (a few aren’t done yet because it’s obscenely long). Here’s the soundtrack finally.

Kat Leon – “Silent All These Years“ (cover)
I love Tori too but this version was on heavy rotation for this book–it’s eerie and I can see the forest of the provincial park, see the bay with a storm coming in, hear the wind making the wood groan in the old boathouse at the end. You’ve got a book about someone whose victimization has been repeatedly minimized and denied by others, about the past rising up like a scream felt in the present, about secrets coming to the surface, about complicity and reckonings. So yeah, this was my big trailer theme song.

Poets of the Fall – “War” (acoustic)
More about that one here and why it was a key to unlocking another character’s POV. I like both versions, including the original, but the acoustic is specifically my favourite.
“If I can let the memory heal / I will remember you with me on that field” and “When I thought that I fought this war alone / We were one with our destinies entwined”

Tusks – “Demon“
“Lay me down / Hold my flaws / Oh my love / I’ll be yours”

Le Bon – “The Darkest Places“
Waverly Investigates Stuff song.
“Feel the twists and turns / Tangled in your web” and “The darkest places are calling / Nothing around to keep me from falling / Every night you haunt me”

Seven of Cups – “Strange Unknown“
Another Waverly Investigates Stuff song, whole lyrics really.
“Do you want this? / Do you really want to know? / The secrets in your bones / When you open the door / To a strange unknown”

Jack Carty – “A Case of You” (cover)
Okay I listened to this one and the Sierra Eagleson version from the last book too, and there’s a chapter titled after it. Just quiet downtime with lots of YEARNING for the reader to take a breath and absorb everything so far.
“She knew your life / She knew your devils and your deeds / And she said, ‘“‘Go to him, stay with him if you can / But be prepared to bleed‘”

Angelo Badalamenti – “Questions in a World of Blue” (demo)
The chapter “Stepping into the Past”, attempting to revisit what happened when Det. Kyle disappeared twelve years earlier, was written after I actually DID write what happened from his point of view. This is the demo and it wasn’t meant for Badalamenti to sing, but something about this version playing low in the background while I was writing completely gutted me. I have no plans to share that POV, it spoils a lot of stuff, but even without it, just the scene in this book with the grim rain and the weight and pain of the past, trying to figure out what happened the day everything changed, still is so sad.
“Why did you go? / Why did you turn / away from me?” and “When did the day / with all its light / turn into night?”

NerdOut feat Ben Schuller – “Running Up that Hill” (cover)
Usually I link to YouTube but the version there has the voice overs from Stranger Things–on Apple Music (which I have) or Spotify (linked to there), you can hear just the song itself. This was on repeat for the scene of Waverly’s big confession of what she’s been lying about for a few books.
“You don’t wanna hurt me / But see how deep the bullet lies / Unaware I’m tearin’ you asunder / Oh, there is thunder in our hearts”

Poets of the Fall – “Late Goodbye” (unplugged)
Lots of awkward tension at the B&B and driving around looking for Waverly’s car.
“And we keep driving into the night / It’s a late goodbye, such a late goodbye”

Spelles – “Dead in the Water“
Some of the final boathouse scenes, and the final conversation with Lashbrook later where Waverly knows something is very wrong here.

Band of Horses – “I Go to the Barn Because I Like“
I tend to have multiple songs for certain scenes depending on POVs, so while “White Flag” (below) is the primary one, this was the other one–something in the tone change midway through feels like a goodbye and a bittersweet embrace.

Kina Grannis – “White Flag” (cover)
Ending theme (goodbye and the cemetery). If ever there was a Waverly song, right?
“I promise I’m not trying to make your life harder / Or return to where we were / But I will go down with this ship / And I won’t put my hands up and surrender / There will be no white flag above my door / I’m in love and always will be / I know I left too much mess and destruction / To come back again / And I caused nothing but trouble / I understand if you can’t talk to me again”

Bonus from the hardcover:

Otis Redding – “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long“

As usual, because this series is one big story to me, a lot of the same songs are on repeat and you’ll find the other playlists on the soundtrack overview page.

If you’re ready for the fifth book, ADaDH is up for preorder at Kobo and iBooks, or there’s still one eARC available in the contest at waverlyjones.ca

The deeper first person that I’m writing, the more I have to actively work at following the other points of view in a story–usually that ends up in the later revision passes, particularly with Waverly’s books. She’s so entirely focused not only on her own perspective but on the way she characterizes others (which may or may not always be accurate) that usually the first draft is all her, and subsequent drafts involves fleshing out everything else and understanding other perspectives.

I had some trouble with the fourth book during the revision process–there were some early scenes not sitting right (that I still need to go back and work on) and I realized I was missing my understanding the POV of that crucial other lead series character. Music is often how I crack those kinds of problems (a big part of A Dark and Distant Home ended up hinging on me clicking with”I Don’t Want to Change You“) and for this book, I landed on “War” by Poets of the Fall–or more specifically, this acoustic version.

When I thought that I fought this war alone
You were there by my side on the frontline

I’ve long looked at his point of view as “Out of Sand” and use that as a guide. But by the time we’re here in the upcoming fourth book, he’s now seen the files Waverly has accumulated over the past decade. She has never let this go. She has never stopped seeking answers. And for someone who was in many ways forgotten, this was about realizing all that time without knowing it, there was someone else fighting the same “war”, so to speak.

When I thought that I fought this war alone
We were one with our destinies entwined
When I thought that I fought without a cause
You gave me the reason why

Whether it’s not letting the past itself go, or the case, or the people involved in it, she was also there on the front lines. (And maybe their destines, for whatever value of fate you want to apply here, are entwined.)

Visit the Soundtrack Sunday page for more songs

I completely forgot to do this in November with everything going on, and the soundtrack posts aren’t super popular anyway so I left this sitting as a draft for a while. And as I warned, there’s tremendous crossover with this series, as it’s like one long-running story to me rather than individual books; sometimes it gets tricky to pick ones specific to the story instead of just repeating myself, but I have attempted to do so.

Agnes Obel – “Fuel to Fire“
“I might be yours as sure as I can say“

Cat Power – “Troubled Waters“
“I must be / One of the devil’s daughters“

Ane Brun – “How to Disappear Completely“
The “Setback” chapter with the medical emergency, where Waverly starts to disassociate.
“I’m not here / This isn’t happening”

Alison Krauss & Union Station – “It Doesn’t Matter“
I kind of saw this as the post “Prepare Yourself” chapter, where Meadow is going on about Waverly being fatalistic.
“It doesn’t matter if I cry / Don’t matter if I bleed / You’ve been on a road / Don’t know where it goes or where it leads”

Mazzy Star – “Into Dust“
Waverly learns something new about her sister.
“I could feel myself growing colder / I could feel myself under your fate”

Shigeru Umebayashi – “Yumeji’s Theme“
In the Mood for Love gets a mention in the book (and a later one), and honestly it’s one of those things that amuses probably only me because although I summarize it in the book, in my head there’s this whole long conversation because he knows all the ins and outs of the film and he’s so passionate about it, and Waverly goes home and watches it and on a technical level, the film makes sense to her and it’s well done, but emotionally she doesn’t get it. (I think it’s a fantastic film, but I tend to see the darker aspects the way Waverly does; Leung is so handsome and disarming, so much would be creepier if someone less attractive was cast instead.)

Carrie Manolakos – “Creep“
This is, perhaps, my favourite cover of this song ever. When she hits the climax of the song at around 2:30? Chills, every time.
“What the hell am I doing here? / I don’t belong here”

Kina Grannis – “Iris“
“You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be / And I don’t want to go home right now”

Joy Williams – “Ordinary World“
Conclusion-to-the-main-mystery theme but also fits with rest of the book (including Waverly seeing the last wishes notebook).
“Still I can’t escape the ghost of you / What has happened to it all?” “Where is the life that I recognize? / It’s gone away”

Until the Ribbon Breaks – “One Way or Another (cover)“
Waverly finds the ring.
“One way or another I’m gonna find ya / I’m gonna get ya”

Sarah McLachlan – “I Love You“
Both a creepy obsessive love song and a good ending song for this book.

HARDCOVER EXTRAS:

The hardcover has an additional short stories–one was posted at Patreon, “Once Upon a Rainy Day”, but the other is an alternate POV scene from during A Wild Kind of Darkness, “Running Out of Sand”, and it’s only in the hardcover. That short had its own little playlist. The primary songs from it come up later in the series but:

Eddie Vedder – “Out of Sand“
The title reference comes from this song. This is a main series song and super important in the seventh book. But thematically it speaks to the short, of realizing your hourglass is already running out of sand, and your life has gone from the potential of what you’d thought it would be to a whole other path (I think this is probably very common in your forties but particularly when you have a gap of over ten years of memories).
“I stare at my reflection to the bone / Blurred eyes look back at me / Full of blame and sympathy / So, so close / Right roads not taken, the future’s forsaken / Dropped like a fossil or stone / Now it’s gone, gone / And I am who I am / Who I was I will never come again / Running out of sand”

SYML – “Fear of the Water“
Yes, this’ll come back as well.
“A knock at my door / I thought I was alone / Unaware of what I thought I needed / I dropped like a stone”

The complete list of Soundtrack Sunday posts are here.

A Wild Kind of Darkness is available everywhere (including signed paperback and hardcovers at Etsy).

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