Saoirse Keane

Some songs are only graves with music over them. In the west of Ireland, the village of Carrigmore has survived for generations beneath the shadow of an ancient hill. Its fields endure. Its families endure. Its secrets endure. When Nessa returns after her grandmother's funeral, she expects grief, damp rooms, and the slow work of clearing an old cottage. Instead, she hears singing beneath the floorboards.
The song leads her to hidden names, vanished girls, a child's shoe, a holy well, and a bargain older than anyone in the village dares to remember. Her sister Maeve disappeared three years ago, and everyone said she ran away. Nessa always knew that was a lie. Now the hill is singing again. As Nessa follows the trail through parish records, blackthorn groves, graveyards, and whispered village histories, she discovers that Carrigmore has paid for its survival with daughters.
Each generation gives one girl to the power beneath the hill. Each girl is named in the ballad before she is taken. And the next name may already be forming in the song. The Ballad of the Buried Girls is an atmospheric Irish folk horror novel of vanished women, ancestral guilt, fairy hills, sacred wells, old songs, and the terrible cost of silence. Perfect for readers who love: Irish and Celtic folk horror Gothic village mysteries Dark folklore and ancient bargains Haunted songs, holy wells, and fairy hills Atmospheric supernatural suspense Stories about women reclaiming buried names The dead have been singing for a long time.
This time, someone is listening.