Is My Lips, Her Voice by L.L. Madrid Worth Reading?

My latest read this summer was My Lips, Her Voice, the debut 2025 novel from local AZ author L.L. Madrid. If you’re into books about grief, paranormal murder mysteries where the victim helps solve her own murder, a family of generational witches, or desert lesbians, then I think this book might be perfect for you.

What Worked:

• The paranormal mystery. Nearly all of it, especially the final showdown
• Mara, the 17-year-old who comes back to solve her own murder. She is both unlikeable and incredibly sympathetic in a way that can be very hard to achieve
• The overall pacing and layout of the book, especially the flashback sequences
• Shirley. You’ll get it. Gods, I love you, Shirley
• The generations of witches with varying abilities (and willingness to believe in them)

What Didn’t:

• The baddie reveal, which felt just a little too obvious
• The prose regarding relationship (or at least the beginning of it) between Zadie and Rhea; it felt a bit too clunky
• Audrey’s baking hobby (and, in some parts, even Zadie’s references to music); it just didn’t mesh well with the rest of the story

Trigger Warnings for My Lips, Her Voice:

• Child Death
• Stalking
• Imprisonment
• Abuse
• CSA
• Grief
• Car Accident
• Mental Illness
• Possession-Related Boundary Violation

What is My Lips, Her Voice About?

My Review of My Lips, Her Voice (Spoilers Ahead):

My initial read of the title alone as a sapphic Gothic horror novel really wasn’t too far off; the romance elements just didn’t play out as I expected (probably because I almost never read plot summaries). My Lips, Her Voice is both atmospheric and realistic in its world-building in the ways that matter. The haunted town and its witchy inhabitants feel grounded in real witch culture with added paranormal flair. The town’s proximity to Vegas also made the town of Copper City feel more realistic (though as a born and bred Las Vegan, I might just be biased).

The characters are interesting and well-written, too, though occasionally attempts to make them seem more well-rounded feel stale (no pun intended). I think it would have been reasonable for two grieving teens to not focus so much on their hobbies, in the midst of all that was happening, though special care is taking to approach those hobbies as coping mechanisms.

Audrey is a people-pleaser through and through, which makes her cousin Mara an excellent foil. Throughout the course of the book, Audrey grows in a marked, practical way: She learns to fight back against possessions both otherworldly and mundane, vowing not to keep quiet for the sake of others’ feelings any longer. Though her side forays into baking feel less like attempts to cope with stress and more like a shoe-horned path to her happy ending, Audrey is still a well-rounded, interesting character.

Mara’s slow descent as she possesses Audrey is wonderfully paced, especially with Mara’s initial characterization. She is a phenomenal character, both unlikeable and incredibly sympathetic in a way that can be very hard to achieve. My heart lay with Mara through the majority of the book; by resurrecting its victim, the novel more thoroughly explores the pain of a life cut short and the unfairness that accompanies the senseless murder of young girls. Above all, I’m just glad that she finally got her happy ending.

Zadie, meanwhile, represents the mundane side of Copper City, investigating Mara’s death and coping with the grief of her loss. Her healing is hindered by Mara’s presence, especially with the addition of Mara’s possession of Audrey’s body, which leads to direct violation of Audrey’s boundaries. The early instances of Zadie’s interaction with her new (living) love interest, Rhea, are clunky in ways that can’t be explained by teenage nerves (and personally, I think a month isn’t long enough to grieve a dead girlfriend, especially when your last conversation was an argument about that exact person, but I’m not gonna judge). Still, Zadie is the strength of the trio, a calming presence who soothes Audrey and Mara alike. Without her, they truly wouldn’t have made it through the book, and I’m happy that she, too, gets her happy ending in the form of lots of money and the chance to reconnect with her dad.

The mystery itself was very easy to unravel, in no small part due to the fact that the central identifying feature Mara knows about her killer is used word for word in the murderer’s very first introduction in the book. It’s a shame because there are so many other excellent small hints sprinkled throughout (especially where Julie, another dead girl’s ghost, is concerned) that the bread crumb trail was already laid; mention of his hairy hands, unfortunately, felt like dropping full slices of bread along the path.

All that said, this paranormal murder mystery is cool. VERY cool. I’m obsessed with the way the whole thing plays out, especially the final reveal as Mr. Orlich burns away to reveal the ghost of Bloody Jasper hiding within. Everything truly is connected in a well-grounded, well-thought-out way; the through line from incident to incident makes perfect sense and is easy to follow without being obvious or boring. I especially loved the lead up through Shirley’s life as a tool to uncover the modern day secrets plaguing her granddaughters. (Her sudden reappearance during Jasper’s defeat, though, is just a little bit cheesy, but the satisfying irony of his defeat with the very shard that killed Shirley is excellent. Besides, who doesn’t love a family reunion?)

Overall, My Lips, Her Voice is an excellent thriller, fantastically paranormal, and gives what it can in terms of secondary sapphic romance without overshadowing the rest of the novel. I highly recommend this novel.

Rating: 4/5 Stars ★★★★

Want to know about all of my five-star reads from 2025? Check them out here.

If you’d prefer a complicated but beautiful movie about sapphic relationships, I have you covered on that, too.