Birdenwheel by Lindsay Rice

First published 2025 Miracle Ticket Press

The Heads around her were moving like one—a breathing, peaceful animal, or an angel of some sorts. The high notes of the song lifted her, made her want to reach her hands above her head, and sway. She felt free.

Lindsay Rice’s debut novel Birdenwheel is a braided narrative of characters attempting to outrun inner demons. Set in the Vince-era Grateful Dead scene of the 1990s, its universe rings true, especially for readers who traveled “on tour.” But, Rice is after more than capturing the familiar icons of lot life. Her characters navigate complex family dynamics, broken promises, grief, regret, the slow erosion of failed relationships and the weight of consequences that do not evaporate simply because the show moves to the next town. Each walks a tightrope between self-loathing and hope and we are never entirely sure which side will win.

If Rice simply traced damaged souls reaching for redemption, Birdenwheel would already be a satisfying read. She goes further by introducing a fantastical thread that widens the novel’s emotional range. The character Devon’s connection to a raven hovers between spirit animal and delusion, and the transformation never seems to arrive on his terms. Percy, a ghostly ancestor from the 1890s who seems like he could be digging coal at the Cumberland Mine, visits his great-granddaughter across time. The presence never feels like a gimmick. Instead, it becomes a way of exploring memory and unfinished business, forcing present-day characters to face what they have buried and what they seem fated to repeat. Here’s our introduction to Percy, the character from the past.

“He sat on the edge of her bed and could feel the metal frame press in behind his legs. The bedcovers, old and threadbare, were pulled up to her neck. He watched as sweat bubbles gather on her forehead. He held her hand in his, and the limpness of her fingers turned his stomach like a butter churn, smashing something good down, make it greasy but unrecognizable. He would offer her butter, it they had any. He would offer her new air to wipe away the sickness in her lungs. The chickens squawked, squawked in their pen 200 feet from the house. He sure as hell hoped nothing was going after them.”

Birdenwheel was my first foray into fiction set in the Grateful Dead’s universe. A novel with time-bending fantasy set in the band’s orbit may sound improbable, but fiction has long used music as a vessel for identity, desire, delusion and moral reckoning. From Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus to Dorothy Baker’s portrait of Bix Beiderbecke in Young Man with a Horn, to Nick Hornby’s record-store world in High Fidelity, novels have shown how song and sound can become a lens through which people make sense of themselves. Birdenwheel belongs in that lineage.

Rice’s speculative elements also invite another comparison: Theodore Sturgeon’s 1953 science fiction novel More Than Human. Frequently associated with the Grateful Dead, Sturgeon’s story centers on six psychically gifted individuals who, together, form a single symbiotic entity, a next-step evolution known as homo gestalt.

As a self-published first novel, Rice brings a lot to the plate. One element I wish received more careful attention was her use of fictious lyrics at the start of a chapter, passages which echo the cadences of Robert Hunter or John Barlow. For a stretch, I even wondered if they were actual unrecorded Grateful Dead verses I wasn’t familiar with. They add color to her literary universe and I wanted more. But, the device seems to have been quietly abandoned halfway through the book.

That author choice aside, Rice serves notice that there is room for fiction on the Grateful Dead bookshelf. Birdenwheel will resonate with readers who welcome a slow burn, patient character development and questions that remain deliberately unresolved. It’s also a good fit for anyone who believes in the rare alchemical moment when musicians, audience and room fall into lockstep and it feels like magic begins to flicker.

	Check Prices
Amazon	Buy from Author	Bookshop.org

* This review contains affiliate links which means we may receive a commission if you make a purchase through an affiliate link. Writing and publishing a book is exceptionally difficult. To support the author, we encourage you to purchase directly from their website or from your local bookshop. 

---

COMING SOON