I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
My Review: I don’t think I’m the only one who finds the people of the Appalachians really interesting. First off, they’re really isolated. Those steep mountains not only create a natural geographic barrier, but families and clans stick together there in order to survive and thrive. They live with generations of family, passing down their culture and cultural stories. It’s just fascinating. As with lots of books I read, especially if they’re really interesting, I do a little research during and after reading the book. The research I did for this book mentioned that the communities in Appalachia have been lost and found several times, one of the notable times they were found was before the Civil War, and then after the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination, they were forgotten again. This book takes place right in that timeframe, so it was especially pertinent when I read this. Also, I looked up lots of pictures. Google Images is awesome for this kind of thing. As with many places of isolated cultures (and not just isolated cultures, actually) the land plays a huge role in the culture. I mean, how could it not? It affects what people eat, what sort of shelters they have, what industry the local community has, and in this case, how isolated they are geographically. It’s beautiful in the Appalachians, ya’ll. I would love to hike the Appalachian Trail someday. But I digress…
There’s no use beating around the bush, this book is a
fictional and re-named account of the longstanding feud of the Hatfields and
McCoys. Wasn’t there even a reality show about them recently? Apparently feuds
are not easily forgotten. Cook has obviously done his research. You can see
from his author’s biography and tell from his deft use of conversation that he
is very familiar with the Appalachian people and the Hatfields and McCoys. I
don’t think that this is based on actual stories or history within the Hatfield/McCoy
feuds, but certainly some of the history of the land and cameos of historical
figures was real.
As far as this story goes, it was interesting. And sad.
There was a period of time in the book where people were just killing people
from the opposing family for revenge, and then the other family would kill
those people’s family for revenge for the revenge, lather, rinse, repeat. It’s
rough. No one was safe—children, women, old people, etc. It was tragic. Although
I was fairly aware of what was going on for most of the time, I was very
confused at the beginning. The story skips from place to place and in some
instances goes back in time, so it is confusing. This isn’t super well marked
in the reading, so sometimes you’re just reading along and then in the next
paragraph you’ve skipped a generation. Since the back story was covered mostly
at the beginning of the book it got less confusing as the story went on. I
think this is basically due to inexperience on the author’s part. Once the feud
is resolved the book ends quickly, although it is a peaceful ending and wraps everything
up nicely.
My Rating: 3
stars
For the sensitive
reader: There is violence in this book. Some of this violence happens to
children, women, and older people who are defenseless. There is some language
as well. I would say this book would be rated PG-13.
No comments:
Post a Comment