Set in East Appalachia during the 1920's Prohibition era, this is coming of age story is set around Sallie Kincaid, the second daughter of Hank Kincaid (aka The Duke), a powerful and complicated man who controls their small county. Readers witness Sallie's struggle to find her own power and place in her family as she weathers loss, new roles, and expectations.

The story starts out strong and the writing is simple as Walls details a story that is filled with grit, strong female characters, tragedy, and feuding. There's a lot going on in terms of plot and its many characters. At one point I couldn't help but feel it was a Hilly Billy version of Dallas (remember that prime time soap opera?) - the many marriages and divorces within a powerful family, the backstabbing, power struggles, business deals gone wrong and complicated family lineage. The focus of this story is on bootlegged alcohol instead of oil.

I liked Sallie's strength, but the story felt overly convoluted, and I didn't enjoy when the story focused more on bootlegging and small town politics than on Sallie's development. Walls sets her story in an interesting era and introduces several topics that would make great fodder for book club discussion but didn't dive too deeply into the issues raised.

Walls creates an interesting backdrop for her story of a smart and scrappy young woman and her resiliency as she figures out her agency and legacy, despite the restrictions that aim to keep her and other women of the era down. But the book's melodramatic tone and change of focus resulted in me not feeling as engaged as I had hoped.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Scribner Books (Simon & Schuster Canada) for my advanced copy of this book which was provided in exchange for my honest review.

Jeannette Walls is an excellent writer (loved the Glass Castle) and this story reflects that. The writing is easy to read and the main character, Sally, is a very likeable heroine. The story is told from her point of view.

I found the Prohibition time setting interesting - the author did a lot of research on this, and notes that some characters and scenes were inspired by real people and events. I also found revealing the depiction of how men dominated society and women’s lives, as exemplified particularly by Sally’s misogynistic father, Duke. Sally, however, decided that that was not the life for her and, through a string of events, ended up heading her family’s bootleg operation in rural Virginia. Her father was a huge presence in her life - as a girl, she thought he hung the moon, and her actions were shaped by trying to win his love and approval. The novel shows her journey to self-discovery.

Overall, the plot was good but I thought the novel could have been shorter as the middle part dragged a bit. The pacing was also weighted to the back half of the book and perhaps some of the later events could have been more evenly dispersed. However, overall, I did find this a worthwhile read and recommend it to historical fiction fans and those who like well-written fiction.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada and Netgalley for this complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I have always been a fan of Jeannette Walls and have read and loved all of her books. So when the opportunity to read and review an e-arc came my way, I did a little happy dance and dove right in! While Hang The Moon is not her typical memoir, it is considered historical fiction as it is loosely based on individuals and events that took place during prohibition in the 1920’s.

Meet Sallie Kincaid, the protagonist and daughter of the legendary Duke Kincaid. The unofficial ruler and wealthiest man of a small town in Virginia. Sallie adores her father so much that she believes he “hung the moon and scattered the stars” in the sky. When Sallie is younger, she seems oblivious and blind to her to fathers lawless and ruthless ways. However her eyes are opened after her father dies in a tragic accident, and Sallie must step up to the plate and run his empire. What transpires is the story of a strong and independent young woman learning her way through prohibition, gender inequality and tragedy upon tragedy.

While I thought Hang the Moon was entertaining, action packed and riveting, I was a bit disappointed. My expectations were set very high after reading Ms Walls previous books, and I just felt that Hang the Moon didn’t quite measure up. While some aspects of the book resonated with me like Sallies resilience, her strong work ethic and her love of family, other parts of the story seems a bit over the top. But all in all, Hang the Moon was an entertaining and interesting read.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for my arc of Hang the Moon by Jeanette Walls in exchange for my honest review.

Pub Date: March 28 2023

3.5 Stars

This novel is set in the 1920s, the Prohibition Era, in East Appalachia, Virginia. The protagonist is Sallie Kincaid who is born into a life of privilege as the daughter of Duke Kincaid, the wealthiest and most powerful man in Claiborne County. After the death of Sallie’s mother, Duke remarries and they have a son Eddie. After Sallie endangers Eddie in one of her escapades, she is sent to live with an aunt for nine years. When she is allowed to return to the Big House, she insists on becoming involved in the Duke’s enterprises, the most profitable of which is bootlegging. She also discovers many family secrets and scandals.

Readers who like strong female characters will like Sallie. She is intelligent, resourceful, and determined. She is also feisty and fearless, always pushing back on the limitations set because she is a woman. She is not interested in marriage because she thinks it would restrict her. What she does want is the approval of her father; she believes “Duke hung the moon and scattered the stars” and knows her father is impressed by “people who are fastest, strongest, first – and that’s what I’m going to be.” Sallie has some of the Duke’s traits; a friend tells her that sometimes she is exactly like her father but adds, “’It’s not a compliment.’”

Duke is the most influential character in Sallie’s life, but it’s obvious that she ignores or is willfully blind to his faults. She sees a charismatic man who rules the county’s economy and politics. Duke warns his daughter that his position requires him to be “’calculating, devious, treacherous, cruel, a real hard-ass, and, when it’s necessary, truly cold-blooded,’” yet it takes a while for Sallie to see her father for the man he really is. In this way, the novel is really Sallie’s coming-of-age story.

Men do not fare well in the book. Except for a father and his son, men prove to be untrustworthy and undependable. Since Duke is modeled on King Henry VIII, though with fewer wives, some of his behaviour is expected, but it seems that almost every woman is wronged by a man. Even the most religious man proves faithless. There are several illegitimate, unacknowledged children.

The book examines the concept of family. The Kincaids emphasize who does and does not belong, based on whether a person carries Kincaid blood. There’s a family home, a family business, and family jewels. Sallie, however, gradually realizes that her family has secrets which cannot be discussed. For instance, she is told by her father, “’If you want to be a part of this family, you will never again mention your mother.’” There are also people who have Kincaid genes but are not accepted for some reason. She concludes, “There are two kinds of family, those you’re born into and those you put together from pieces that don’t go anywhere else.”

The novel’s examination of Prohibition is interesting. Sallie understands that she is engaging in illegal activity: “I don’t for one second forget that what we are doing is illegal, but legal and illegal and right and wrong don’t always line up. Ask a former slave. . . . Sometimes the so-called law is nothing but the haves telling the have-nots to stay in their place.” For the most part, lawmakers are described as “boneheads in Washington” and a “bunch of numbskulls in Richmond and Washington” who don’t understand rural poverty. Sallie sees people struggling to survive and she believes she is helping people “who through no fault of their own are in an awful bind. Obey the law and starve. Or break the law and eat.”

At times the book reads like a soap opera. There’s a large cast of characters who appear and then disappear in some dramatic way. The disagreements between family factions, a long-standing feud with another family, and sexual dalliances are often elements in soap operas. Some of the events feel over-the-top, though in the Acknowledgements, the author states that they are inspired by actual incidents.

The book is entertaining, and I definitely enjoyed noting all the parallels with the Tudor dynasty. However, it just didn’t engage me the same way that the author’s previous books did. Parts of it border on melodrama.

This is a story about a family’s drama, their struggles and secrets. The story spans over many years and is focused on Sallie and her father the Duke. There is lots of loss and pain in this book. The book is set around prohibition and the rum running business.

Sallie is a very strong willed character and gets what she wants in an age when women are more quiet and submissive. She is very likeable. Her family is very important to the small town where they live and her father the Duke runs the show. Sallie makes her own way in a man's world and gets into the family business.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it but found it slow in a couple of places. Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for an advance copy of this book.

The review below was posted on March 21, 2021, at my book blog https://www.thecuecard.com

3.5 stars.

I was expecting a lot after loving the author’s 2005 memoir The Glass Castle and I liked the main character Sally Kincaid quite a bit — along with the the plot’s historical bootlegging aspects, though the storyline got a bit over-the-top for me in places.

Synopsis: Sally grows up in a powerful and well-to-do family at the turn of the century with her father, the Duke, who’s running the Emporium store and the town in rural Claiborne County, Virginia. Her mother has died and her stepmother doesn’t like her and thinks she’s too adventurous and dangerous for their young son Eddie. So young Sally is cast out early on to live with an aunt in the mountains for nine years. When she finally returns, Sally goes through a tumultuous period with various family deaths and those power-hungry in charge running the town into the ground.

Then her pious half-sister Mary and brother-in-law try to rid the town of its whiskey-making in adherence to Prohibition, but that only makes matters worse. Violence breaks out and people and the town hit hard times. Finally through happenstance, Sally becomes in charge of the family empire and starts to lead the town back through bootlegging. She becomes “the Queen of the Rumrunners” with a posse by her side, but she must battle the rival Bond Brothers who are at odds with her family over long-ago lost land.

My Thoughts: I liked how in the Acknowledgments author Jeannette Walls mentions that the novel was inspired by a female bootlegger in Virginia who piloted liquor caravans down from the mountains. It’s a fascinating, fractious era, which the novel bears out and evokes in good measure. And Sally Kincaid is a strong, independent likable character in the novel — who tries to right wrongs within her family and the town and find romantic love with the good-looking Lieutenant Rawley, but all her family relations almost derail her. Her father’s marriages include four wives and secret liaisons and kids. And it seems there’s enough cheating, inbreeding, and secrets to go around in the family to last a lifetime. It’s a bit of a soap opera that would make J.R. Ewing of the show Dallas proud. This plot distills whiskey and a whole lot more.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Scribner for giving me an advance copy to read and review.

Big fan of Jeanette Walls! Love the way she paints a picture and connects the reader in her approach to historical fiction. I really enjoyed the main character Sallie - her spunk, ability to love and reflect have her depth and created a character worth rooting for. The storyline was well paced and kept the interest of the reader throughout. Sadly, I was disappointed in the ending. Wish it had been less "Hollywood" and a bit more Sallie! Thank you for the great read. Looking forward to the next book by Jeanette Walls already!

Hang The Moon will capture your attention and keep you hooked as the story unfolds of the Kincaid family.

The story spans over many years and at the center of it is Duke Kincaid and his daughter Sallie.

Duncan rules the county and believes he is untouchable.

How things change.

Sallie returns home after being banished for years and steps up into the family business.

I loved Sallie, she became a strong woman, knew her own mind and her own beliefs of right and wrong.

The dynamics of the Kincaid family come out during Hang The Moon and they tell a fascinating story.

Prohibition is present along with family secrets, power struggles and so much more keep those pages turning well into the night.

Highly recommend you settle in with Hang the Moon for a read that will capture your attention and at times your heart.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Scribner for a fascinating read.

I really enjoy these type of historical fiction novels. A little romance, a little action, and they tug on your heartstrings.

I was not expecting there to be as many deaths as there were though.

It was packed with suspense and twists I didn’t see coming.

Sallie Kincaid is feisty, fearless, terrified and damaged. She is the daughter of the biggest man in a small town, Duke Kincaid.

When Sallie was young, she looses her mother to a violent argument with the Duke, he remarries and has a son, Eddie. When Sallies tries to teach Eddie how to be more daring, she is quickly outcasted after an terrifying accident with Eddie.

Years later, Sallie returns, but things get a lot more complicated than she anticipated.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for a DRC

💫 Hang The Moon 💫
By Jeannette Walls
Publisher: Scribner (March 28.2023)
Genre: Historical Fiction

So much loss… so much pain.
Sallie the second daughter of the Duke who was both charming and sensitive but also weak and misogynist. The father who sent her away but still tried to build her up as the strong young woman she knew she always was. Their relationship was complicated until it was gone.

Enter part II where there’s a new story or new chapter as a young stepmother tries to fix a broken family with a new husband. Life is still complicated and filled with local politics and sneaky moves.

As Part III and IV carry on, what emerges felt like a little bit of the wild Wild West of bootlegging and the heartbreak and loss of racist minds

What remains as I closed the book was that the core of it was all about Sallie Kincaid… second daughter of the Duke... a woman with the strength and heart… and the fierce defiance against what ger world told her was normal or just.

If you read the Glass Castle (memoir) by the author then you’ll know that the authors writing is beautiful if not harsh to the world that is lived in. This HF is a true Historical Fiction novel… it felt dry, slow, hopeful, heartbreaking and raw in all equal measures.

⚠️ death of a parent, misogyny, sexism, cancer, gun violence, suicide, racism, death of a child

3.5 stars
This is a family drama full of action, struggles and secrets.

What I liked:
Strong female lead character. She is full of spirit and very likeable.

What I didn't care for:
Storyline got convoluted and I felt it was weighed down by so changes in direction.

Than you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to review this galley.

I didn’t make it very far into this one before I put it down. Unfortunately, this just wasn’t for me.

Jeannette Walls is one of my favourite authors, my daughter-in-law introduced me to her in 2007 when she gave me The Glass Castle and I have read everything she has written since. Hang the Moon takes place in the prohibition era of East Appalachia Virgina. I love southern historical fiction and Walls does not disappoint. I liked how the author was inspired by the history of Henry VIII and his many wives and children. I had that figured out long before I read the acknowledgements. You can tell the book was well-researched.

I can’t remember being drawn into such a sad, desperate atmosphere of a book as I have with this one. It’s a heartbreaking storyline. Also, I can’t remember wanting so much for there to be some happiness for the characters and I don’t mean fairytale endings.

Beautiful, literate writing, well-drawn, believable characters. Just a touch of black humour and a book that haunts the thoughts, long after reading. The setting was easy to imagine, Walls's writing was very atmospheric, and the characters, especially Sallie, will be hard to forget. In fact, the writing, characters and plot were all top-notch. All. The. Stars.

Walls has an incredible ability to tell a gorgeous story.

I love a strong willed female protagonist who doesn’t take guff from anyone. Sallie comes of age and is a character who is easy to root for.

I’m not overly interested in reading about Prohibition, so the setting of this story did not really work for me (but I will say it is extensively researched and the detail in the language, fashion, decor, cars, etc. feels spot on!). Really what I enjoyed most was the ways in which the notion of family was stretched, shaped, and reshaped over the course of Sallie’s life.

The cast of characters will make you laugh while also frustrating you, and maybe even breaking your heart.

In some ways this book reminded me of Outlawed by Anna North, so if you are a fan of that book, or a fan of family sagas, you’re going to want to keep this one on your radar come pub day (March 28).

Many thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for a gifted ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Sallie Kincaid grew up in a life of privilege in 1920s Virginia during Prohibition. Her father was the "emperor" of the county and respected by most as he treated workers and residents comparatively well. As a child Sallie and her father Duke Kincaid had a close bond and they spent time indulging in pastimes which involved speed, much to her stepmother's chagrin. Sallie felt her father hung the moon and sprinkled the stars. But all was not as it seemed. Her mother had died in an argument with her father and Duke's remarriage produced a longed-for son, Eddie, who though clever was not physically strong. Sallie coached Eddie in physical activities and one nearly ended in tragedy. Sallie was sent to live with her aunt who who had a loose reputation but kind to her niece. Days turned to months and then years and when Sallie finally returned home nine years later as a teenager everything had changed. She took on a job which was very challenging but fulfilling. Tragedies struck and Sallie's perseverance and determination were tested over and over.

Historical Fiction fans ought to read this unique, fascinating and compelling book, especially if you enjoy slow burns as I do. Sallie's independence and progression were interesting to read as were the repercussions of family hardships, bootlegging, new life and joys. Characters were flawed and many of them likeable. The story itself took several captivating turns and kept me riveted. There is something special and appealing about Hang the Moon which is difficult to put into words, akin to a breath of fresh air.

My sincere thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with an early digital copy of this wondrous novel.

Delighted to include this title in the March edition of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction, for the Books section of Zoomer magazine. (see column and mini-review at link

This was an interesting book, though I found it slow at times, and there was a lot of deaths, something I was surprised at. In Prohibition Virginia, Sallie Kincaid is the daughter of the Duke Kincaid, the wealthiest man in the county, he owns the Emporium, a store that sells literally anything and Duke accepts anything for payment on rent of his houses, or for any items people may need to buy, most of the residents are in hock to him for something and most are loyal to him. Sallie's mom was married to the Duke, but died mysteriously when Sallie was a toddler, the Duke quickly remarried and had the son he longed for. His new wife was not keen on Sallie and she's sent to live with an Aunt in another part of the state, for a while, which turned out to be nine years, she's brought back when her stepmom passes away. She's brought back to look after her brother and tutor him, Sallie's not a teacher but she tries. After the Duke marries again, the new wife takes over tutoring and Sallie worries she's going to be sent away again. Sallie gets involved in the rum running business, something that was a main money maker for the Duke and she proves to be very adept at it. I enjoyed this book and recommend especially if you like strong women in historical roles. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Scribner for the ARC.

Hang The Moon is based on real people and real events

This was a character driven story with Sallie Kincaid. Walls made me love Sallie's strong will and creativeness and I felt like I was right there in Virginia back in the 1920's during the Prohibition time.

thank Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read and review this novel by one of my favorite authors

All thoughts and opinions are my own and aren't influenced by anyone else

This story follows independent and feisty Sallie Kincaid from her banishment as a young child to her eventual running of her small town in Virginia. Sallie ends up taking over from her father, the Duke, and running a bootlegging operation that becomes the financial backbone of the town.

I was excited to see that Jeanette Walls had another book out, after loving her strong and independent heroines in her previous books. However, this one didn't do it for me. While the story is sold as a bootlegging story, that really only is the focus in the last third of the book. The rest of the book was filled with a very large cast of supporting characters that came and went with frequency and drama. While some moved the plot, it just seemed like a lot. It was very dramatic, from the dialogue to the action, but I would have rather seen fewer characters and events that were played out more fully. I never found myself fully invested in Sallie, like I did with her previous main characters.

If you enjoyed her others books, I'd still recommend checking this one out when it is published on March 23rd.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Canada and Jeanette Walls for this ARC.

Hang the Moon is totally different than most of the books I read. It's a Western (except the setting is Virginia), it's women's fiction, it's historical fiction, it's full of drama, it involves bootlegging and women carrying around rifles. I admit I did not know what I was getting into. I chose to read it because of the author. But, it turned out to be a good choice.

Our protagonist is Sallie Kincaid. She is the daughter of The Duke, the “emperor” of a town called Caywood, Virginia. She is a strong young lady, astute and does not want to sit around embroidering doilies. Circumstances force her to grow up in a hurry.

The remaining cast of characters is very diverse. There's a teetotaler reverend who wants to clean up the booze. It's Prohibition, you know. And an aunt who has been known to be a bit of a floozy, but sadly, she has been a victim of abuse. There is a housekeeper who is vocal about expressing her opinion. And a widow who remarries and is re-widowed and again remarries, and might be re-rewidowed. But, she is pregnant! Who's the father? To complicate matters even more, one of the dead husbands isn't dead but really prefers men over women. The town's people are an interesting bunch too.

This all sounds like over-the-top melodrama. But, seriously, it works! Most of the time. The underground bootlegging plays a large part in the town's economy but it does get quite violent.

This book was not what I expected. It was interesting. It detailed a way of life which was real in the 1920s but I knew very little about it. I always think that if can learn something from a book, it was worth reading it. I think that one of the things that was a big surprise was that people were prone to take the law into their own hands with very few repercussions. Or, they live by their own laws.

It was mostly a fun and interesting read. But as it got closer to the end of the book, some of the incidents were just over the top. Still entertaining but it could have come down a notch.

I appreciate that the author did a lot of research into the bootlegging days of prohibition. In the Acknowledgments, she explains how many of the characters were inspired by real people of the day, as were many of the incidents.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.