I am in awe...I just loved every single little thing about this book. What an awesome debut.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, this book was not interesting enough for me. Even though it was probably important to use, I did not like the language and it was hard to get into the flow of the story. Sorry.

It took a while to get into it, but it was a fascinating read once I did. Sadie's circumstances were real and heartbreaking, and all I wanted to do was pull that poor child out of the marriage. It was a stunning debut novel.

I liked this book. I 5 stars liked this book. However, it left me with the feeling that there was missing something. It starts with Sadie Blue, it ends with Sadie Blue, but between the first and the last page there is a host of other characters I was curious about. The writing is good, the information given about each character makes you interested in them, it makes you want to know more about them - but you don't. That's what left me with the feeling of something missing - what happens to the rest of the characters?

The language, more specifically the characters' dialect, gave a special flavor to the characters and the story. There were many things I didn't know about Appalachia of the 1970s that I discovered while reading. It did read in some parts like a "lesson" for the reader, but it's something I can overlook.

What made me furrow my brow was the way the speech seemed to transform towards the second part. The novel is told from different points of view, which I always like because it gives different perspectives on the same events. Most characters speaking are poor and uneducated, and you're made to believe, that they will speak like such people. And so is the language at first. In the second part, though, the speech becomes a bit more polished. I know it sounds as if poor and uneducated people can't be coherent and eloquent, and that's not my intention. However, while reading I sensed a gradual progress from simplistic language to well articulated thoughts.

As I said, I enjoyed this novel very much. It made me curious for more novels set in the South, be them classics or contemporary novels. I was impressed that this was the author's debut novel, and even more impressed that she was brave to go after her dream a bit later in life. I will read more from this author, and I hope there is a sequel to this novel. I do want to know more about the other characters!

Life is hard in Baines Creek, an impoverished town in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. For Sadie Blue, it’s made even harder by an unplanned pregnancy that led to her marriage to Roy Tupkin—a mean-spirited moonshiner who began beating her days after their marriage. Her story of hardship is just one of many in the small town that lost hope long ago. The arrival of the new school teacher, Kate Shaw, is met with suspicion and gossip from some, but is a source of inspiration and hope for others in the town.

We see the town and its people through the eyes of several characters in the book. They each offer a unique perspective on a handful of key events that take place in the story, and they all have secrets others know nothing about. It felt a bit like a collection of short stories, in a way. Don’t let that put you off, because it works extremely well and gave the story a steady, irresistible flow that kept me reading until dawn.

Weiss has written an emotional tale that doesn’t shy away from the stark realities of abject poverty. These oft-times grim details illustrate the toils of a hard-lived life, while also taking care not to portray the characters as one-dimensional objects of pity throughout. Some characters have no redeeming qualities, and yet, when you learn why they became the way they are, you can’t help but feel just a bit of sympathy for them… and that, to me, is the epitome of excellence in writing.

Without giving anything away, I have to mention the final two lines in the novel are OUTSTANDING. If I weren’t afraid of waking everyone in the house, I would have let out a LOUD cheer. It was sheer perfection.

If you love reading southern fiction, put this one on your to-read list!

Links will be posted on July 23, 2017..

I cannot believe this book is a debut for this author! It was rich and beautiful and heart-breaking. I did not want it to end. I found it unique the way each chapter is from the perspective of a different person in town. Initially I wanted more from certain characters and would be frustrated when their perspective ended with a chapter, but each addition was so well done and richly painted the picture of this Appalachian town so intriguingly, I quickly got over it.
At the start of the book I wondered if it would be too graphic to stomach (the abuse of Sadie was painful), but the first chapter is really the worst of the violence, I felt. I loved the character development and felt the novel was incredibly well done! I will be recommending it!

This story is set in 1970 in Baines Creek, a fictional mountain settlement in Appalachia. This is a place of “catastrophic poverty,” an isolated community, as newcomer Kate Shaw observes, “a parallel existence, backward from the civilized world that has morphed into the modern day, leaving these people behind.”

Kate has come at the request of Preacher Eli Perkins, who is seeking a teacher for Baines Creek. Many in the community (not just the children) cannot read or write. Kate leaves her relatively comfortable life in Asheville because she was “looking for a place to matter.” She finds it in this troubled community.

She is greeted upon arrival by two of the residents who typify those in Baines Creek. One is Sadie Blue, ignorant but good-hearted, and as the story begins, newly married to Roy Tupkin, who beats her almost every day, for no reason she can discern: “I figure Roy don’t need a reason no more.”

The other is Prudence Perkins, Preacher Eli’s sister, bitter and addled with hate, resentment, and jealousy. She tries to ruin the lives of those she thinks take what she deserves, which means just about anyone who has a chance at happiness.

The good women of the town try to look after Sadie, knowing she is in danger by being with Roy. Sadie’s gran, Gladys, had a husband who beat her, and hates seeing a reminder of that with Sadie. Gran’s best friend Marris was lucky in her own marriage, but fears for Sadie too.

Sadie also has an occasional refuge at Kate’s cottage, where Kate, along with her neighbor Birdie, “midwife, medicine woman, and storywriter for these parts,” help to care for Sadie after she is beaten.

Tensions mount as the beatings increase in frequency, and as Prudence decides to get rid of Kate, who threatens to take attention away from her because Eli likes talking to Kate. There is also a girl missing from a neighboring area, who, it was rumored, was the latest obsession of Roy Tupkin.

After two and half months being legally wedded to Roy, Sadie vows that “Roy beat up on me for the last time and don’t even know it.” Roy and his best friend Billy go hunting, and while they are gone, Sadie spikes his private stash of moonshine with poison. She doesn’t like the idea of killing someone, and prays: “Sweet Jesus, help me. I promise to be good after this. All I want is to not get beat up. Find my special life. Life up to my potential. Ready by myself. Kill Roy Tupkin.” She tells her cat “We won’t live scared. Won’t watch for the kick of that man’s boot. . . . Oh, merciful Lord, please make my plan work.”

But events turned out much differently than Sadie anticipated. And now she has to make a choice.

Evaluation: A book about poverty, despair, and women stuck in marriages in which they get beaten regularly isn’t exactly a happy experience, but this is a good story, and the ending is quite rewarding. And because of the new visibility of the cultural divide we are now experiencing in this country, it is particularly interesting and important to be exposed to the vast difference in life for those who have been much less fortunate. Even readers who are not in “the one percent” need to know the stories of people in their own country who face deep anguish every day, and have to find ways to keep on going.

Refreshing and poignant this is a book about the trials of life amidst an impoverished, essentially forgotten/ ignored area in the Appalachian Mountains, Virginia. With few able to read or write, issues associated with interbreeding, grimy locals often only wearing sacks for clothes, these are very insulated people. Life is tough and so is their mind-set. They are suspicious of strangers, speak their own dialect and take a particular interest in digging ginseng and drinking moonshine.

The key characters in the book each convey their thoughts and life events through their own chapter, styled so that events in the book run concurrently. Each of the characters are bold and memorable so that as you learn about them and as you do their back story allows you to understand their outer exterior and behaviour.
Much centres on Sadie Blue, a young woman regularly beaten by her brute of a husband. Ending up pregnant she thinks she has done the right thing by marrying him to avoid deriding gossip about being a sinner, but really she has subjected herself to life of misery and bruises. Naturally bright, the local preacher sees potential in her, something mirrored by the misfit new teacher that moves into the area. They are great observations from the characters, from the teacher being described as book clever, mountain stupid, to a quiet underlying respect for each other’s choices and beliefs.

Undeniably harsh, graceful in depiction this is a vivid portrayal that is immersive and beguiling. The ending does seem to come about quite suddenly but nonetheless, it is a delight to read.

If The Creek Don’t Rise is one of those rare finds: a book that shows you nothing and everything, that answers no questions and yet tells all, that weaves its magic from the first word and just as suddenly, is gone. What begins as a tale of domestic abuse becomes something bigger, something so cleverly intertwined with the stories and sorrows of other Baines Creek residents that it never once feels staccato or strange. Yet each voice is distinctly different in its feeling and viewpoint in this insight into 1970s Appalachian life.
The biggest themes here are inequality and prejudice: gender, (perceived) sexuality, faith, age, economic status and social standing are all issues faced by individual characters and the area as a whole. Poverty has befallen Baines Creek, and crime has become a way for some to survive; young women are beaten and abused with no hope of being saved; those perceived as outsiders are shunned or driven away, their transgressions held as evidence against their humanity. Men like Roy Tupkin – arrogant, violent, unstable – act as they wish with no repercussions. Or do they?
The book both starts and ends with the voice of Sadie Blue, newly-wed to Roy whilst carrying his child. Her story is one of finding her strength and independence, of finally finding herself worthy, helped along by preacher Eli Perkins, teacher Katharine Shaw and the mysterious, shaman-esque Birdie, amongst others. Not all voices are positive in this novel, however; some, in fact, are detestable, yet a prompt for understanding is laced throughout each tale. Leah Weiss achieves this with accomplished subtlety. By the end of the novel, even Sadie Blue’s actions may be questionable, but perhaps we support her all the same; and so we have the underlying themes of justice, of right and wrong, of nothing being black and white. Mystery and magic drift across each page, adding weight to the story rather than diminishing it. Weiss’s magic, too, extends beyond the uncertain ending, wending its way through the constellation of questions left to the reader to answer. If The Creek Don’t Rise is a real reading pleasure filled with real reading magic. Will shift your soul.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me with an advanced reading copy of The Creek Don't Rise by Leah Weiss.

Whoa! If you think you can handle it, you NEED to read this book! I started it and could not stop until I finished reading it!
The characters are so real! Preacher Eli Perkins with his caring and kind ways acts just as I think a man of the cloth would in similar circumstances. Birdie Rocas and Kathleen (Kate) Shaw certainly stimulate my curiosity.

Samuel was amazing! I know crows are intelligent, but Samuel 'takes the cake'.

Secrets! It seems that everyone is hiding something and keeping secrets. Some secrets are not as secret as the person thinks.

There's a lot of hurt!
My heart went out to dear sweet Sadie Blue!

5 shining stars

Baines Creek, high up in the Appalachian mountain, a poor place filled with impoverished people, a place where moonshine is king. A different style for the story telling in this as we hear from many of the people in this town and Sadie Blues own story is woven through the fabric of theirs. A very young, newly married pregnant woman, she vows her no good moonshining husband has beaten her for the last time. A preacher who hires a very different kind of woman than is usually found in these parts. A sister who is afraid of losing her brother and Sadie's grandmother and aunt, all tell their stories adding to Sadie's own. A young woman goes missing and has the town both fearful and wondering.

Gritty, southern story telling, these are tough people leading hard scrabbled lives. It is hard not to hope that Sadie will manage to overcome her misfortune and find some hope and success in creating a new and better life. She is the character we come to know the best, though just enough of the other characters stories are revealed to give us a glimpse of how and why they are living as they do now.

A first novel from a promising and insightful new author. Her writing reminds me of the author [author:Amy Greene|1256071].

ARC from Netgalley.
Publishes August 8th by Sourcebooks Landmark.

I liked this book a lot. The characters were realistic and it actually made me feel like I was in those mountains. I would love to know more about Kate and see what the future holds for Miss Sadie Blue.

I tried but did not finish this book. I just couldn't get interested in the story.

What an absolute gem of a book. It is impossible for me not to give it 5 stars.

When starting this I had braised myself for a dark read. This is not something I normally get drawn too, as Im quite sensitive of sensitive topics so to say. But the blurb and the cover on NetGalley.. I just couldn't let it go. I am so glad I got approved for this as it is now firmly in place on my favorites and 5 star shelf.

It is about all these sensitive topics such as abuse and meanness, but it is also equal amounts of hope and love. The beautifully written text manages to cast light on everything, and I couldn't put it down.

The book has a few heroes who's life we are following for a short time, as they come together in the middle of nowhere in rural America. I especially love the young pregnant Sadie Blue and Birdie the medicine woman in the woods. Beautiful women.

I enjoyed most of this story. The description implies that the story will be about Sadie Blue. We get three chapters from Sadie and nine chapters from other characters. Most of the other characters are interesting, but some of it just didn't seem to move the story along. I think my favorite was granny Gladys. Kinda reminded of the novel These Is My Words.
Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark

I just can't resist sharing some of my favorite passages, minus quotation marks since they are from a pre-publication copy I obtained from the publisher via NetGalley.

~ I don't smile. No sir. Life's too shitty. For a old woman, it's more shit than I can shovel. I can't remember if I ever had a choice but to put one foot in front of the other and walk the line on a rocky road to nowhere. ~

The first thing that struck me about this debut, aside from writing that is an absolute delight, was that this Appalachian tale tells mostly of the resident women folk and the smattering of simply good people who live in Baines Creek, a remote mountain community. It seems most stories that are set in Appalachia have mean, nasty, law-breaking men as the main characters. Here Sadie stands out among the crowd of narrators, beaten beyond recognition and redemption; beaten down but stronger and wiser for it, as was her grandmother before her. These women aren't perfect by any means, but the mood of the story is such that we forgive them and understand. Even the three darkest characters have their backgrounds revealed so that we understand them too. Don't like them, but understand them, to an extent.

It is 1970 on the mountain, and the entire gamut of emotions is felt both there and in your heart as you read about this small town.
~ Sometimes I feel this old mountain breathing weary. The high thin air gets sucked deep into her lungs, all the way back to the start of time. I know her secrets and sins. This high place is hard on folks who give in or give up. For those who stay, Baines Creek is enough. ~

It really was enough for me these past few days to take a short trip there and spend time getting to know everyone. A real treat.

Thank you so much for being willing to grant me access to this book. Unfortunately, life obligations have prevented me from doing so. If my schedule clears, I plan on reviewing this in the future and will post the review on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you.

I must have clicked on this one by mistake. I'm not a fan of southern fiction. I won't review it since I barely got into it. thanks for the opportunity :)