A well done atmospheric with shades of harper lee ( )

Well, this kept me up way too late. And because I can hear the characters calling to me while I sleep, it woke me early, early so I could finish it. Good story. Not pleasant. But still a good story. ( )

Very good, particularly for a first novel. It didn't grab me at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it. ( )

In the last month I have picked up 3 books by first time authors, and this is by far the best of the three (I couldn’t even finish The Borrower by Rebecca Makki.). Lori Roy does an outstanding job of bringing American Gothic to life in this novel of secrets, lies and despair in the Heartland of America. Roy does a wonderful job of creating tension and dread throughout the novel. The landscape is desolate with tumbleweeds blowing up against fences making them look like monsters; the characters wary, unsure and troubled. Roy’s writing is taut but descriptive, smooth but suspenseful, all carrying the reader effortlessly on to the next page.

The story is about a family that moves from Detroit to get away from the race problems that are starting to flare up there in the 1960’s, back to Kansas where the father had moved 20 years prior after his sister’s death. Once they get back to Kansas things are not any better, and in fact much worse because the problems they face here are personal; family secrets, some that have been been buried for 20 years, others more recent.

While many of us romanticizes about small town living where everyone is neighborly, and it’s a safe place to raise your kids; Roy knows better and shows the dark underbelly of small town-small minded living.

This would be a good book club selection with lots of themes to explore and characters to dissect. Should be a good starting point for lots of discussion.

Lori Roy is a talented writer and I look forward to reading things by her in the future.
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Creepy, Southern Gothic—in rural Kansas. “Roy's exceptional first novel is full of tension, complex characters, and deftly applied gothic overtones.” ~ LJ