Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

This is an important book. It tells the story of white poverty in eastern Texas shortly after Jim Crow laws were put in place. While there is blatant discrimination against non whites in a class riven society, there is grating poverty with all the attendant social problems this may cause. Martin Luther king among others stated that Jim Crow laws were established to keep poor whites in their place as much as to disenfranchise black people. There is a happy ending, but only after awful tragedy as well. Thoroughly recommended

This was a good book, but I kept waiting for something big to happen. It was too slow of a read for my preference, but there wasn't anything wrong with the book.

Thoroughly enjoyed this read. We follow the life of Leola and her siblings as she remembers through her blurred memory.

Life is good until her papa loses his arm in a saw mill accident. He eventually heads to Houston to find work, never again returning to the land they rented from his less than friendly father in law.

Once Leola loses her mother to the flu epidemic, she now becomes head of the house. But not for long as her grandfather sends her and her sisters off to an orphanage. There, she finds herself in an uncomfortable situation, uncovering an even worse situation.

I read this book in a few sittings as it kept my interest peaked. Late to review due to lack of internet service.