Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly

An utterly propulsive and unpredictable psychological thriller from stunning new talent T. Marie Vandelly

For the lucky among us, life is what you make of it, but for Dixie Wheeler, the theme music for her story was chosen by another long ago, on the day her father butchered her mother and brothers and then slashed a knife across his own throat. Only one-year-old Dixie was left alive, infamously known as Baby Blue for the song left playing in the aftermath of the slaughter.

Twenty-five years later, Dixie is still desperate for a connection to the family she can’t remember, so when her childhood home goes up for sale, Dixie sets aside all reason and moves in, re-creating a macabre decor with her family’s salvaged furniture. But as the ghosts of her family seemingly begin to take up residence in the home that was once theirs, Dixie starts to question her own sanity and wonders if the evil force menacing her is that of her father, or a demon of her own making.

In order to make sense of her present, Dixie becomes determined to unravel the truth of her past and seeks out the detective who originally investigated the murders. But the more she learns, the more she opens up the uncomfortable possibility that the sins of her father may belong to another, and, perhaps most tragically, to Dixie herself. As bodies begin to pile up around her, Dixie must find a way to expose the lunacy behind her family’s massacre and redeem what little remains of her soul.

Overall Rating

4/5

Spooky Rating

4/5

Quick Take

Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly is one of those books that takes you by the throat and refuses to let go. At no point did I fully understand what was going on, but that increased the horror and mystery of the entire story. It truly is a bloody good time!

Tell Me More

I am often on the lookout for horror that focuses on hauntings, because that tends to be the type of horror that really gets under my skin. Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly was recommended to me by a friend, and I have to admit that I went into reading the book from a blind perspective. Little did I know that I was in for the ride of my life.

The book follows Dixie, a woman whose family was murdered by her father when she was just a baby. As an adult, she makes the decision to rent the home where her family was murdered, and things spin out of control from there.

Dixie is an insanely unreliable narrator. At no point did I know what was real or not. The story kept changing and growing in ridiculous directions, but I couldn’t put the book down. There is a heavy haunting element to the story, which I loved because of the spookiness of it. But it was also gory and filled with elements of body horror.

For a novel so filled with horror and grotesque imagery, it did have a lot of heart. I liked how the story wrapped up, and I have a feeling that this book will stick with me for a long time.

The one issue I do have with this book is that it is clear that Dixie has a mental health disorder, but it didn’t seem like it was handled with care. As a mental health specialist and an individual with multiple mental illnesses, I am frequently on alert when it comes to mental illness being used in horror. This is because it is so often poorly done. Unfortunately, this was the case with Theme Music. Dixie had what we can assume are hallucinations, and they were used to amp up the scare factor of the novel. But other than that, I found the novel highly enjoyable.

If you are a fan of haunting horror paired with some body horror and murder, then you are absolutely going to love Theme Music! It is scary, thrilling, and you will feel like you’ve lost your mind by the end of it. Oh, what fun!