Member Reviews
The compelling story of of a few weeks--with glimpses of a long history-- in a small community in rural Appalachia. The story is told in first person narration by many, rotating characters, a narrative device that usually annoys me, but here it works well to give different perspectives on current and past events. The characters are all complex and it was interesting how diverse people's views were of the same events. There is an interesting interplay between violent conflict and selfless giving, beliefs and fears, traditions and change. This book asks some hard questions-- Can life change in a place that has not changed for generations? Is your life path determined by the choices your parents and grandparents made? --and leaves the answers undetermined.
This was interesting in the way that each chapter was a different characters chapter written in the first person. At first I didn't think I was going to like it very much but soon changed my mind and it kept me totally entertained. My favourite part would have to be the ending.......gave me a good chuckle.
If The Creek Don't Rise by Leah Weiss is a story set in a mountain community called Baines Creek (Appalachia) North Carolina during the 70's.
Baines Creek is a backwoods community that civilization has not completely caught up with and tells of the hard life during this time period. Each chapter has different characters and tells their stories. The book for me was hard to read because of the dialect given each of the characters which were many. I would not read another book by this author since I am not into reading this type of book. The book was quite different than I thought it would be by its discription. Readers who like reading about the Appalachia valley I'm sure will enjoy this book. Thanks Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book.
If the Creek Don't Rise is a heartbreaking novel about the life of 17 year-old Sadie Blue. Her momma ran off and her daddy did his best to raise her in poor North Carolina Appalachia. Life doesn't come easy in this region and when Sadie's daddy dies she becomes pregnant and marries no-good abusive moonshiner Roy.
Sadie is a sweet and innocent girl who you just can't help but feel for. Her story and the story of Bains Creek is told by several interesting characters who inhabit the region- including Sadie's grandmother. If the Creek Don't Rise is a tale of hardship, love, hatred and murder- with a little redemption thrown in. The ending of this story threw me for a bit of a loop and that doesn't happen very often. All in all, a wonderful debut title that I had a hard time putting down.
Thank you Netgalley for this advance copy in return for an honest review. If the Creek Don't Rise is the best book I have read this year. Leah Weiss has created memorable characters whose voices ring sad and true as they relate the struggles to survive the poverty and hardships of life in Appalachia. The storyline is that of Sadie Blue a victim of brutal beatings by her boyfriend. It is about the unlikely people who help her and the unexpected results. These are beautifully written characters that I will not soon forget. "We all deserve hope and possibility." I highly recommend this book and my fingers are crossed for much more from Ms. Weiss.
This is one of those books that will stay in your memory for a long time. It was written in first-person, but each chapter was a different "first person". I wasn't sure where the plot was going and midway through I was beginning to think it was getting a bit tedious. But when things came together.... WOW!
The story starts out with Sadie Blue and the hardships endured in the Appalachian mountain rural community of Baines Creek in the early 1970's. Sadie hears the voice of her daddy's spirit as he offers encouraging words for her to get out of the clutches of her abusive husband. As she recalls how she got into this situation, I just wanted to pull her into my heart. When you hear the thoughts of Gladys Hicks, Sadie's grandmother, in the next chapter, you get even more insight into the lives of the people in this community. This goes on for awhile with various situations being presented from the perspective of different people within the community. It is deeply southern and as a reader, I was soon pulled into the desperation of a poor, illiterate society and I also felt the compassion many of these people felt for one another.
I was a bit surprised when I learned that this is a debut novel by this author. Leah Weiss writes like a seasoned author with fabulous world-building and the ability to make her characters come to life. It is heart-warming and heart-wrenching at the same time.
I loved this book and would heartily recommend it as a Book Club pick because there is so much that could be discussed with this one!
Thank you to Netgalley and Sourebooks Landmark for an ARC of this beautiful novel.
This was simply stunning.
Although the blurb talks mostly about Sadie Blue, the novel does not just focus on her. Rather, the novel is a collection of voices and stories of people living in a small mountain community in North Carolina. These voices weave together to form a rich tapestry of the harsh life in this 1970s community.
Each chapter is narrated by one of 10 main characters present in the novel. Each character has a unique method of speech, so detailed that it was easy for me (an English woman with little knowledge of US regional accents) to imagine them talking to me in my head. The chapters do overlap with their accounts of certain stories at times, but I feel that is a positive thing as we get to see other points of view on the same situation.
What I thought was really clever was the portrayal of each character. Prudence Perkins, for example, thinks herself as higher and more important that any other person in that community. She speaks down to others and seeks to destroy them. However, when Kate Shaw, an outsider, describes her first meeting with Prudence she describes a bedraggled woman with a shoe held together with a piece of cloth tied around it.
A definite 5 star book.
Thanks to Sourcebook and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC copy.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this debut novel by Leah Weiss.
It appears that Ms. Weiss has taken a short story, Crossing the Line, that she wrote years ago and developed it into a powerful and believable novel about a small pocket of Appalachia and its people. Ms. Weiss has clearly done her research. This story is told from various characters’ viewpoints, using realistic local dialect in a way that enhances the reader’s experience and is not demeaning to the culture it represents. The reader is pulled from page to page to piece together the plot and find out what will become of the main character, Sadie Blue. Sadie, who is presented in the beginning as a weak, silly, girl, matures throughout the story and will surprise you in the end. Moonshine, haints, murder, and secrets abound! This is a must read!
If the Creek Don't Rise by Leah Weiss takes place in 1970 in an isolated small town in North Carolina and is a sad story about a newly married 17 year old girl named Sadie Blue who has been abused her entire life in some form or another. Many people in Sadie's life are rooting for her and Sadie starts to wonder herself if there's more to life than being Roy Tupkin's wife and punching bag.
I love that each chapter is told from a different character's perspective leading up to the climax of the story. I also really like that the dialect of the homegrown characters, particularly Sadie's, which sounds exactly like a southern drawl and the language she uses or lack of vernacular vocabulary portrays her her lifestyle or a low economic status. Great debut novel. I was totally drawn into this story from beginning to end. For book club readers, there's a Q & A section at the end of the novel. I rate this 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review. https://moesbookblog.wordpress.com/
Reviewed: January 13, 2017. Novel Publish Date: August 8, 2017.
I enjoyed reading this story. It allowed the reader to step back in time to a place long forgotten by the rest of the “civilized” world. Many of the readers from other Countries, and even from other bigger cities across the US, will find the way of life depicted in this story shocking and possibly even disgusting. As a Southerner from a small, very rural town, I recognize that although this book is fiction, it is all too close to the truth for 1970's Appalachia.
The hill people of Baines Creek, NC in the Appalachian Mountains were very poorly educated, many of them had no education to speak of. They spoke a different dialect, lived in abject poverty, and their lives were surrounded by folklore and superstition. It was a place to tread cautiously if you were an outsider.
Some of the characters you will hate and despise, others you will want to pour out your heart (and purse) to. You will root for the “good” characters who keep the glimmer of hope alive in a place where little to no hope exists.
Given the hardships they endure, the strength of the community surprises you when they come together to help neighbors through hard times – despite the mostly seclusive life they usually live.
The story is told from the point of view of 10 different characters. The characters are very realistic and your minds eye can actually “see” the places and people described. You can feel the thin mountain air, so thin it hurts to breathe. You can feel the cold dampness of the homes, often little more than wooden structures that do little to hold out the weather. I could even see the purple, pink, or green smoke coming from Birdie Rocas' pipe. The color of the smoke changed depending on what herb she was smoking that day.
Sadie Blue is the main character of the story but Birdie Rocas is a very strong and powerful 2nd character. The crow that has spent 20 years nesting on top of her head, in her hair, gives credence to her character.
Everyone else doing review will write about Sadie Blue and her ill fated marriage to no-account, wife beater, Roy Tupkin. I feel sorry for Sadie. I root for Sadie because she's such a sweet young girl who has had such a hard life and she deserves so much more. My heart lifted at the end of the story because it shows Sadie has overcome a huge obstacle in her life and has chosen to change her life for the better.
I find myself drawn more to the character of Birdie Rocas. Perhaps because she is portrayed as a loner, feared by many, but she does have her place on this mountain, and in this story. She is a strong, independent woman of the hills. Through the eyes of the new teacher, Kate Shaw, the astute reader comes to realize that Birdie Rocas is a healer. She uses natural plants and herbs as taught to her in her childhood by an old Cherokee Indian. Her heeling is also steeped in mountain folklore, strange ancient practices, and superstition.
I would love to see these characters in future books by this author. Perhaps the author will create a a series of “Appalachian” hill people where the lives of these characters play out.
Awesome story and characters. Interesting information on Appalachia. A whkle undercurrent of social beings. Unfortunately it ended too abruptly..
This is a debut book that is an awesome read, I could not put it down! The story takes place in the backwoods of Appalachia country. Many characters enter throughout this storyline, some you will like and some you will not. With the introduction of each new person, you get the story from a different perspective and it all starts to fall into place very nicely. The main character, Sadie Blue, who is seventeen, has nowhere to turn. She is of little education, poor and has no one to take care of her. Sadie has made some bad decisions in her life and loses hope until a "stranger" moves into town. The story of hard times and the struggles of life can be a bit of a tear jerker but with people on your side and some inner strength there is always hope. This is definitely an endearing story that is well worth the read, I recommend!
Excellent writing!
The storyline rings true about Appalachiaica in North Carolina and how hard life is for everyone, but especially the women.
I hated when the book ended!