Alice’s Theme by Danny Elfman
No shocker here! With HOUSE OF HEARTS being so heavily inspired by Alice in Wonderland, it would be borderline illegal for me not to include at least one Alice song in my playlist! This song is truly perfect—it’s haunting and whimsical, and I love the way the intensity builds throughout the piece’s progression. Without getting into spoiler territory, I can tell you that it was heavy in my soundtrack rotation for Act Three!
Symphony No.6, op.74, TH 30, B minor (Pathétique)
Calvin actually plays this in the book! It’s one of the first instances where Violet glimpses the real him. In many ways, Calvin tries to control his “persona” and keep his more vulnerable self at bay, but he’s an open book when he’s behind the keys:
The overall composition has “Calvin” written all over it. Dramatic, consuming, maudlin. (…) His fingers fly across the keys in a Dionysian riot and the music produced is equal measures haunting and romantic. (…) Somewhere within the third movement the melody falls off. The piece collapses in on itself like a house of cards and Calvin pushes away from the keys with a snarl. “Pathetic is right,” he mutters beneath his breath before turning to look at me.
Burn it Down by Daughter
This is one of those songs that I heard the first time and then promptly replayed it fifteen times in a row like I was spellbound. I love it so much! I’m fairly certain Daughter didn’t write this song about a scholarship student out for revenge and a boarding school with a deadly generational curse, but with these lyrics, who knows?
Always said I was a good kid
Always said I had a way with words
Never knew I could be speechless
Don’t know how I’ll ever break this curse
Burn it down, burn it down, burn it down, burn it down
You’ll Be Mine by The Pierces
THIS! SONG! Excuse the screaming, but I’ve been listening to this group since I was a teen, so it’s a full circle moment for me to be here, writing a book for teens, with this playing in the background! Again, without going into spoilers, this song relates to the school curse and the heartbroken ghost at the center of it all…
The Ghost by Trevor Something
The vibes are off the charts with this track! I love a good synthpop song, so finding one that accurately pinned down the spooky atmosphere and literally sang about ghosts felt perfect for my haunted boarding school book! The “ghost” in this song might not be literal, but aren’t all ghosts a metaphor for something?
HOUSE OF HEARTS by Skyla Arndt
Solving her best friend’s murder means infiltrating a secret society, resisting a forbidden love, and running from a vengeful ghost in this sophomore novel by the author of Together We Rot.
Violet Harper knows her best friend was murdered. Even if everyone else has labeled her death a “freak accident,” Vi is sure she’d been trying to tell her something right before she died. Cryptic messages about her friend’s elite boarding school, her whirlwind romance, and the mysterious secret society she was entangled in all point to a more sinister fate.
So, Violet does what no one else seems willing to do: She transfers to the same fancy school to dig into the society’s murky history and find out what really happened to her friend. She knows the truth might not be pretty, but what she doesn’t bargain for is the handsome boy at the center of it all—Calvin Lockwell, the brother of her prime suspect and descendant of the school’s founder. He’s obnoxious and privileged, and Violet can’t deny their haunting attraction. It soon becomes clear his family is hiding a dark secret that may not be of this world, and suddenly Violet’s following her friend’s doomed footsteps down the rabbit hole. Even as details emerge of a deadly curse plaguing the school, she can’t escape her true feelings for Calvin. But loving him may be the last thing she ever does.
Romance Romantic | Mystery | Young Adult [Viking, On Sale: September 2, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593693193 / eISBN: 9780593693216]
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About Skyla Arndt
Skyla Arndt has always loved the creepy, crawly side of life. When she was younger, she thought that love might translate to hunting Bigfoot, but luckily for him, writing proved easier. Her debut novel, Together We Rot, is a YA horror about two estranged best friends who need to team up to confront an ancient evil in their neighboring woods.
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