Hidden Words
Christine Roy
Publication date: September 22nd 2026
Genres: Adult, Gothic, Mystery
A Novel by Award-Winning Author Christine Roy
Some secrets don’t stay buried. They wait for the right mind to hear them.
In 1994, on the rocky shores of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, Ben Barrows begins his senior year at Masters’ Preparatory like a dead man walking, half his friendships already over, just not yet buried. Then Dana Kirkland arrives: a new student, a rival dancer to his powerful ex-girlfriend, and the one person who might save him. Together, Ben and Dana try to hold on to love against a tidal wave of pain and treachery neither of them saw coming.
In the present, Joey Barrows is drowning in grief. As he crosses the graduation stage, a terrifying gift awakens, the unspoken words of everyone around him, pouring uninvited into his mind. When Joey discovers his distant, unstable father shares this same curse, the door to a devastating past swings open, releasing secrets, obsession, and ghosts that refuse to stay silent.
Told across two timelines, Hidden Words is a gothic, speculative mystery about the inheritance of trauma — and the terrible cost of truths left unspoken.
Perfect for fans of We Were Liars, Black Swan, and The Turnout.
Hidden Words deals with mature themes including trauma, family abuse, and sensitive interpersonal relationships. Recommended for mature young adult and adult readers.
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EXCERPT:
Raising his head, he approached the distinguished, black-gowned dean. The ringing in his ears pitched higher. With cold dread sluicing through his veins, he shook the dean’s hand. His mind crackling with a storm of energy, he looked the man straight in the eyes and took his diploma.
Guess scholarship kid didn’t waste our money.
“I’m sorry, Sir. What?” He squinted up at the unsmiling man. A distorted hum circled around him as the man’s words echoed in his head—clear, yet unspoken, not the shadowy wisps of noise he’d experienced before.
“Keep it moving, Barrows.”
“It’s just that I…” Joey stammered, his breath ragged. Shame bubbled up through the scars on his body like oil from the ground. He gaped at the dean’s stone face. “I heard you.” The words slipped from his lips.
“Christ, just move Barrows.”
I’ve had enough of your pathetic sad-boy act.
Joey nodded, stomach twisting. His thoughts raced and twisted in his head. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. He wasn’t psychic; nobody was. Withering beneath the dean’s glare, he flicked his tassel to the left and stumbled to the end of the stage. Desperate, he scanned the crowd, fairytale hope rising in his mind.
Maybe he was there.
Not likely.
Ben Barrows worked and hid. A son’s graduation didn’t fall into either of those categories, especially since these were the halls of Ben’s past. Traces of that Ben, shining and connected, existed in pictures behind glass cases like an extinct museum specimen.
They looked so similar, with their dark hair, wide-set green eyes, and lanky frames.
But that Ben was a ghost.
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