Turkeyfoot
by Rick Childers
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Pub Date Sep 10 2024 | Archive Date Sep 30 2024
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Description
Lucy Perley is nine-years-old and as far as she can tell her world is solid as packed dirt. She spends her summers jumping on the trampoline, visiting her Mamaw, and wading in the creek. Her mother and father aren’t perfect, but she loves them with all of her heart. Her family’s strange friends often visit, but one familiar face brings her candy and cream soda. The only problem is he’s also fueling her parents’ painkiller addiction.
The Eastern Kentucky community of Turkeyfoot is ravaged by the opioid epidemic and Sweetie Goodins has played no small part in feeding his neighbors’ bad habits. Having spent his life peddling painkillers, Sweetie struggles between accepting responsibility for his actions versus blaming the will of the addicts around him.
As his pill-pushing partner begins selling fentanyl for more profit, Sweetie’s attempts to justify his business dealings crumble. Sweetie witnesses the unraveling life of Lucy as her parents fall deeper into the pit of addiction. The Perleys, like so many others on Turkeyfoot Mountain, become willing to do whatever it takes to get their daily fix. Their bad company leaves Lucy vulnerable to a type of evil she has yet to encounter.
Before Sweetie can atone for any of his wrongdoings, he must either acknowledge his role in the lives ruined or continue paving a path of destruction.
Advance Praise
“This harrowing debut is equal parts grit and empathy. Turkeyfoot is full of complex characters, pitch-perfect dialogue, and a sense of place so vibrant you can hear the birds singing, see the mist-shrouded hills, and smell the smoke of the off-brand cigarettes. Rick Childers is a writer who cares as deeply about language as he does about action, whose love for Appalachia shows clearly in his insistence on showing its joys, sorrows, and complications.”
—Silas House, New York Times Bestselling novelist and Kentucky Poet Laureate
“A story of place richly imagined, Turkeyfoot ties together a cast of characters fully fleshed and deeply scarred. Where Childers shines is in his understanding of the intimacy demanded by such places. Here, no one is ever more than one person removed. All are linked like bloodkin.”
—David Joy, author of Those We Thought We Knew, winner of the Willie Morris Award and the Thomas Wolfe Literary Award
“Rick Childers brings to Turkeyfoot an ear for language, an eye for detail, and a feel for the structure of story that will keep the human face of the opioid epidemic before us.”
—Michael Henson, author of Maggie Boylan
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781956957747 |
| PRICE | $17.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 292 |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Reviewer 1331242
TURKEYFOOT by Rick Childers is a story of lost souls and the innocents unable to escape their destructive orbit; a story set amidst the melancholic beauty of today's Appalachia. A story to humanize the damage and destruction the opioid epidemic has dealt to rural communities across the country. Such a description may echo with familiarity, but make no mistake, TURKEYFOOT, the eponymous tale, quickly and firmly finds its footing in the small Appalachian town where its people have sought joy and sustenance in a place that offers little of either and few of life’s modern comforts—and that’s without the corrosive force of widespread addiction.
Two characters are key to the story: Sweetie Goodins, 73 years old and sensing his own mortality and young Lucy Perley, the 4th grade daughter of two addicts. Sweetie provides the pills to those who must have them—whether they can pay or not—while young Lucy observes helplessly as her parents, two of Sweetie’s many customers, spiral endlessly downward. The story pulls you in immediately; the writing is heartfelt and at times lyrical. The sense of place is the tale’s beating heart as Appalachia, like any worthwhile character, shows its true self as it suffers changes wrought by darkness.
The ending arrives as simply as it begins and in a moment of bleakness but as your breath hitches and your reading slows you realize that amends are being made. Childers is subtle here, choosing not to embellish the moment before he closes the story with a sense of hope, showing us that beauty and goodwill remains within reach of those determined to see it in Turkeyfoot.
This is a striking and worthy debut from an author who is surely someone to watch. Be sure to read it.
Thank you to Shotgun Honey and NetGalley for the copy of Turkeyfoot to read and review.
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