Meghan Kenny has produced a quiet, powerful novella about loss in the heartland of America. Sixteen year old Cielle finds her father hanging from the rafters of their barn. - but why. Set in the 1940s with war in the background, The Driest Season instead focuses on Cielle's loss, confusion, and eventually, hope. It's a short, beautifully crafted read.

1940s Wisconsin, and young Cielle finds her father has hung himself in their barn. Cielle's journey to find why he did this, and what it will do to her very existence, makes up this very sensitive and touching novel.

This is such an emotional story and journey. I've rarely had a story make me feel as though I were truly aching but this one gets into your bones and makes you feel that way. The writing is so well done that as you read you feel like you are taking a master class first in sentence construction, then in paragraph, and finally in novel writing. This is what every novelist hopes to achieve from a literary perspective.

I received this from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

Fifteen year old Cielle struggles to make sense of her father’s time on earth, and of her own. A war rages elsewhere, while in the deceptive calm of the American heartland, Cielle’s family contends with a new reality and fights not to be undone.

This was an enjoyable quick read and appropriate for young teen and adults.

3.25☆

I received this book from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
The Driest Season centers around the death of a Wisconsin farmer, and his 15 year old daughter's grief experience. If that wasn't a heavy enough topic, it also includes the topics of land ownership, drought, first loves, World War II, alcoholism...the list goes on. In other words, life on life's terms, and during an often difficult time in the life of a young person. Once I could suspend my disbelief that the daughter, Cielle, could be such a deep thinker at 15, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. In fact, Meghan Kenny has somehow turned all of these upheavals into an easily read story that is actually soothing.

3.5 STARS..........The Driest Season is a short story that gabs you from the first paragraph and you just have to keep reading to find out what happened to Cielle's dad who she discovers on her way home one day hanging in their barn..

Cielle struggles to understand why her dad would take his life and why all the adults around her are lying about it. She becomes investigative, but this really goes no where. At 15 she is trying to make sense of this huge loss in her life. Her sister goes off to college and Bodie goes off to war, more loss..

The story was a nice light overview about grief, loss and change. It didn't have the teeth you would expect for a subject matter of this magnitude. Other than Cielle, I couldn't get invested in any other character, more details and development were needed to connect with them.

I really enjoyed the story, a quick read I finished in two days.

Just finished The Driest Season – AWESOME, BEAUTIFUL BOOK!!!! This is a lovely short gem of a book. Ended too early, so much more to tell. This is one of those books that catches you in the first few paragraphs and you don’t want to stop reading, it is a short powerful story condensed to about 200 pages.
The story is told by Cielle, a fifteen year girl that finds her father in the barn who had hung himself as she comes home from school. It is a gut wrenching story of how she tries to find why he would have done this and how she deals with the loss and so many other changes taking place in her life. The book revolves around her family and the consequences of suicide or an accidental death and the ramifications of ownership of their land. I love the way the story really wrapped everything up in a nice neat package in the last few chapters.
I so enjoyed this book, the author has a way of describing the scenery and the locations so well that you can picture the farm, the barn, Ginger, her bicycle, and the neighbor’s houses. I felt so many emotions during the entire read, and related to every character. I could even picture the train station scenes with Brodie and then with Helen in her white dress as they pulled away. I was raised on a farm and this book took me back many many years where I could picture my 15th summer, she nailed it..... the feelings and emotions were spot on.
I highly recommend this read, several hours well spent. This book will stick with me for a long, long time.
I thank Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book for my unbiased review.

THE DRIEST SEASON by Meghan Kenny is the story of a fifteen year old girl, Cielle, who is coping with her father's death and with her own maturity and self-discovery. Cielle walks in on her father's suicidial hanging, then his death is pronounced to the world as an accidental demise. In Cielle's search for the truth and why it was hidden, she learns about hope, love, and survival.
Setting the story in the 1940's in Wisconsin provides a melancholy backdrop to a melancholy story that in the end, provides hope that Cielle and her family will move on and grow from this ordeal. The author, Kenny, writes the book through the eyes of Cielle, which for the reader is enjoyable and challenging at the same time. While the innermost thoughts and feelings of Cielle are clear at all times, everyone around's motives are vague and hard to figure out, which is true when a fifteen year old young woman is trying to figure those intentions, but as a reader it left me missing something. Maybe Kenny is trying to consider that people can be vague and unclear and having the book mimic that struggle of understanding is what the author is trying to accomplish. Challenging a reader can be good, but sometimes clarity and straightforwardness is a good thing too.

I so enjoyed this book set in Wisconsin during World War II. Fifteen year old Cielle is wise beyond her years and the death of her father has her questioning the secrets that are being kept, and her own place in the world. With wonderful character development, I was instantly a party to Cielle's thoughts and feelings. This is Meghan Kenny's debut, and what a wonderful debut it is. This book will be available in mid February. My thanks to Netgalley and W.W. Norton and Company for access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

Cielle Jacobson, sixteen years old, lived on a one hundred acre farm in Boaz, Wisconsin. The farm, owned and settled in 1863 by her Norwegian great-grandfather, was no longer Jacobson land. During the depression, old Mr. Olsen bought land from struggling farmers and leased it back to them. In summer 1943, Cielle came home from school to find her father hanging from a beam in the barn, an apparent suicide. If she were to tell anyone, her life would instantly change. She went to a neighboring farm but told no one about her discovery.

The discovery of Lee Jacobson's body and "tractor accident" as his cause of death was a crafted cover up of lies and deception. If Mr. Olsen knew that the death wasn't accidental, it would contractually void any buy-back agreement for the farm.

Many Boaz residents were unable or unwilling to address their personal issues and created smoke screens and omissions. Cielle, however, wanted to understand why her father left. She wasn't ready for this sudden change. What do you do when loved ones leave?

Cielle experienced tumultuous change in 1943, uncertainty for sure, but her strength of character was slowly developing. Life as she knew it no longer existed. Did life cycles create positive experiences as well? "The Driest Season" by Meghan Kenny is a heartfelt, coming of age novel I highly recommend.

Thank you W.W. Norton & Company and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Driest Season".

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC. Oh this was a beautiful read. A coming of age story set in Wisconsin’s farmland during WW2. The author is a visual story teller bringing the outdoors to life in color, sounds and texture. The characters were wonderful. A story about grief, beautiful family relationships and moving on and forward. I just loved it.

A short but realistic read about the pain of loss and coming of age. To understand dying is difficult and more so if you are fifteen and find your much loved father hanging from the barn rafters. This book deals with loss, depression , first loves, war , the casualties of war, grief , friendships and communities. The author’s descriptions of characters, their feelings and the landscape is well done.

Reminded me of Elizabeth Stroud writing. . Beautifully written, enjoyed the relationships between the family members. Will recommend

I started this book with open feelings that it would be a great read. I did not like the way and style that the book was wrote and could not get into it at all. After giving it a good try 75 pages I had to put it down. This read was not for me. Sorry but thank you Net Galley for the copy.

This lovely coming-of-age story is set during WWII but the writing is so fresh and real that I frequently forgot that it wasn't set current day. Cielle and her family are struggling in the aftermath of her father's suicide and their farm and family unity are in jeopardy. The story was engaging and honest and just a delight to read. I look forward to reading more of Kenny's work.

The main character in the book "The Driest Season", Cielle, finds her Dad's body in the barn after he commits suicide. The family is then faced with having to keep the secret of his passing to hold onto the farm.
I was a little disappointed with this book, honestly. I felt that there should be more to the dark secret that the Dad was keeping from his family. I felt I had more questions than answers after finishing the book. And this book just felt a little meandering to me.
I'm going with the fact that this book maybe wasn't what I thought it was and therefore disappointed me that way.