“I Hate It Here” by Taylor Swift
This song is like a thesis statement for WHISPERS OF INK AND STARLIGHT. Swift describes a narrator who feels trapped in real life, forcing them to retreat to a secret garden in their mind. This is a perfect description for where Nelle and James are at the beginning of the novel. The line “I’ll get lost on purpose / This place made me feel worthless” especially rings true for Nelle and the environment she endures with Quill. “No mid-sized city hopes and small-town fears” is more in line with James and his dream of having of a life beyond rural Lincoln, Georgia.
“Fourth of July” by Sufjan Stevens
If WHISPERS OF INK AND STARLIGHT had an introduction theme, it would be this song. The eerie production mixed with Stevens’s soft vocals portrays the tone of the novel, while the lyrics themselves are uncannily applicable to the plot itself. There is a lingering sadness to this song, an undercurrent of dark emotion that is mirrored in James and Nelle’s story.
“A Burning Hill” by Mitski
I won’t give away spoilers, but this song is the background music to a scene that takes place near the end of WHISPERS OF INK AND STARLIGHT. I hear this song through Nelle’s voice, as she is facing the undeniable destruction of her existence. “And I am the fire, and I am the forest / And I am a witness watching it.” It is heartbreaking, but also empowering, as the narrator of the song embraces their reality, accepting that the things they love have been ruined by their own hand.
“Ticket to Ride” by Carpenters
This song inspired one specific scene, at the end of the novel, where James and Nelle ride in the car together. I’ve always loved Karen Carpenter’s voice on this track, and I’ve always imagined that, if there were an adaptation of WHISPERS OF INK AND STARLIGHT, this would be in it.
“Sun Bleached Flies” by Ethel Cain
Hands-down one of the best songs of all time, and a song that eerily fits with Nelle’s journey as a character. In my playlist for this book, I have “Sun Bleached Flies” at the very end, not because it signifies the end of the book, per say, but because it captures the emotional themes of the novel. In this song, Ethel Cain is in the afterlife, wishing she could experience the joys of Earth one last time, realizing how unappreciative of the world she was when she was alive. While WHISPERS OF INK AND STARLIGHT is downright hopeful compared to Ethel Cain’s grim story, this song could easily be from Nelle’s perspective, too.
WHISPERS OF INK AND STARLIGHT by Garrett Curbow
A Novel
A spellbinding tale of forbidden love and the power of words, where a girl must choose between the life written for her and the future she dares to imagine.
In a small Georgia town, Nelle’s life has been carefully scripted by her creator and captor, the reclusive author Wallace Quill. Born from ink and imagination, every breath she takes is dictated by his pen. But on a star-studded Fourth of July night, she meets James—a young man with dreams as vivid as the fireworks above them—and suddenly, the unwritten becomes possible.
As Nelle and James fall deeply in love, they embark on a breathtaking journey across Europe, each new experience a defiant stroke against the words that bind her. But freedom has a price. With every mile they travel, the ink in Nelle’s veins threatens to rewrite their story. In a world where every moment could be her last, Nelle and James must fight to write their own happily ever after—before the final page turns.
Fantasy | Coming of Age [ Lake Union Publishing, On Sale: April 1, 2026, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781662530081 / eISBN: 9781662530098 ]
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About Garrett Curbow
Garrett Curbow is the author of the Daughter of Light trilogy, which was short-listed for the Publishers Weekly Selfies Award. He lives in Savannah, Georgia.
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