This book!
This book is amazing. It's the kind of book that is going to stick with me long after I've turned the last page and returned it to the library. It's the kind of book I would read again and would want to own. I might just go out and buy it!
The author, Taylor M. Polites, grew up in Alabama. This is his first novel and he writes it in Gus's voice. It is brilliant!
It is historical fiction, set in the post-Civil War years, often called the Reconstruction. It is set in Albion, Alabama. The deep south. With all its prejudices and overwhelming heat.
STORY SUMMARY
Augusta (Gus) Belier Blackwood Sedlaw was born to a prominent Southern family who becomes destitute by the Civil War. She is forced by her family into a marriage with a wealthy upstart named Eli Branson. It is now 10 years into her marriage and after the Civil War and she watches her husband die from blood fever.
Eli's most trusted servant, a freed slave named Simon, questions Gus about a missing package that contains bribe money meant to sway politicians in the upcoming elections. Gus plans on leaving her Alabama town's poverty and social constraints, but Eli's fortune disappeared in the Panic of 1873. Gus and Simon need to find the missing money before her cousin Buck and his controlling father, Judge Heppert find it. If Gus and Simon find the money, she can take her young son Henry and escape almost certain death, and Simon can escape the racial injustices of the South. Gus will learn that nothing is as she believed and that everyone she trusts is hiding something from her.
Will she find the money Eli left behind? What will happen to her friends, the slaves named Rachel and Emma? Will the town survive the blood fever epidemic?
MY THOUGHTS
This book was excellent. It is probably one of the best books I have read so far this calendar year. I love how the author ties in real history with fictional events and characters. I could just "feel" the sweltering heat and humidity of the high temperatures and cloying scents of honeysuckle described in the book.
I was saddened to read of the behavior of so many of the towns people..the whites who abused the African Americans...I knew prejudice was bad in the south of course, but to read about it in a fictional setting just made it that much more real to me. It's as though the author really knew what life is like in the deep south. I was happy to find out the ending and I LOVE how the author incorporated a bit of mystery to the story with the missing money.
The story characters are so life-like that I had to keep reminding myself it is just fiction! I would love to see this story made into a movie IF the director/producer could keep the story-line the same as in the book.
This book discusses racism, the addiction of laudanum, the lines between love and hate, and the power of one heroine who dared to rebel.
It is not like any other book about the south that I've read before. There is nothing sappy about it nor is Gus the typical Southern belle. I LOVE that she is a spit-fire and brave.
I highly recommend this book if you like historical fiction. It is just excellent.
In my opinion this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10!
2 comments:
Well this has got to be good, I think it's the first time I've heard you say you might go out and purchase it. Onto my list it goes!
Susanne, I could NOT put it down...i finished it in 3 days!!
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