If the Creek Don't Rise

I appreciate the opportunity to read this book for my review. I live in the mountains of western North Carolina very near the places mentioned and was familiar with the setting of this novel. Every character was so well developed and felt like I knew them well. In some instances I could anticipate what a character might do and in others I was very surprised. The author describes Appalachian poverty and some of the choices people made to survive. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from 'this author.

A debut novel & an arc. Thank you Net Galley for this advance copy in return for an honest review.

I wasn't sure at first when this story took place but through bits & pieces & finally a date, we learn that is 1970. The main character is Sadie Blue, 17 years old. Lover of Loretta Lynn. Poor, alone, no one to care for her & no education, she starts to "date" the local bad boy. This is a back wood, scrappy story. She takes up with Roy & he is not a good person. Times are hard, life is hard & Sadie really has no one to help her nor does she even know that life doesn't have to be like this.

A new teacher arrives in this small Appalachian town & this teacher gives Sadie hope.

The chapters go back & forth between a variety of characters ( some are real characters!) & we get a glimpse of parts of the back story of a few of the main characters.

It really was a sad story, & I am sure there are parts of this area where people still live like this- poor, uneducated & without hope. It was an engaging story & I was rooting for Sadie all the way...

What a fascinating story! If the Creek Don't Rise is a very raw and real novel about the townspeople of a small Appalachia town in North Carolina called Baines Creek, in the early 1970's. From it's lack of formal education to it's painful secrets people want to sweep under the rug, Baines Creek's residents have be reluctant to change in any form. So when a new face comes to town, some are apprehensive (to put it mildly), but for some, the possibility of change the exactly the lifeline that they've been dreaming of.

I have to say that I was complelty captivated throughout the entire book! I was so immersed in the stories and lives of the townsfolk of Baines Creek that I couldn't put my kindle down. Each chapter Leah Weiss alternates characters perspectives, which I felt worked perfectly with storyline. Leah Weiss has a gift for writing strong, determined females who strive for "better" even when at times the likelihood of "better" is slim. I love it when an author can pull off an ending I did not see coming--wowzer!! If the Creek Don't Rise is hands down a 5 star book! A MUST READ! I cannot wait to read whatever Leah Weiss comes out with next!

Heartbreaking tale of abuse, but there's hope in the end. This was a little hard to read because of the wording, but I see why it was worded the way it was, to stay true to the setting, story, and characters. I received an advance copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Free ARC from Netgalley for an honest review.

One of my favorite settings combined with a parade of characters with intertwined stories made this a home run for me.

I started off liking this book. I liked the way the story grabbed me from the very start. I liked Sadie Blue and wanted to know more about her and her story~past and future. The second chapter is from her Grandmother's prospective and then someone else and someone else until Sadie almost gets lost. It's difficult for me to become totally interested in a characters story when there is so many side stories going on. It is well written I would read others by this author but not right away. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy for my honest review. This book is not on Goodreads or Amazon for me to leave additional reviews.

At first I didn't like the format--the skipping to different perspectives and time periods. But then I realized I was reading a tapestry of life during a specific time and place in history, and I got hooked. It's not an easy book to read, and the reader will feel ambivalence towards many of the characters. The author does a beautiful job of creating characters that both tug at your heart and repel you. Above all, the characters burrow into your soul and cause you to question your beliefs and suppositions about other people.

Haunting, exquisitely painful and with a powerful sense of place, Leah Weiss's 'If The Creek Don't Rise' is a story I know I will return to again. Weiss's command of dialect and idiom only adds to the beauty of her prose.

Appalachia is a much-misunderstood region and although Weiss's novel doesn't offer a wildly differing view to the well-established one of poverty, insularity, inbreeding and lack of opportunity, she does offer solutions over the long term via Kate, a teacher who is given a post in the mountains as a kind of banishment for her own transgressions against the moral codes of the time. Kate loves these mountains and is prepared to grow and adapt, a quality seen in Sadie Blue, the protagonist of the book whose intended escape from the ties that bind drives much of the narrative.

I loved this book, there are sentences that will remain with me. A must-read.

Great book! It took me a little bit to get into this book, but once I did I couldn't put it down! This book left me wanting to read and know more about the characters lives.

This is a debut novel by Leah Weiss and it really is good.I loved the cover of this book, it made me want to know more about the girl. It is a story told from different points of view where all the story starts to fall into place. It is a tearjerker so be ready for it, but a truly remarkable read. The people of Baines Creek are honest and gritty folk. This is a book of abuse and scandal but so well written.

I truly adored this book. Everything about the book - setting, tone, characters, etc. - is right up my alley but this is also a very well written book. Others have given an overview of the story so I'll just skip to what I think sets it apart from other books. Characters, characters, characters.....this book is full of them. Some are endearing and others are mean and unlikeable. But what each character has in common is that they are fully formed and multi-layered. Even with the unusually high number of narrators in this book you can really tell each one of them apart from the others.

Fans of southern fiction, Appalachian stories, or books with a rural setting with really enjoy this work.

Every now and then a gem comes along and you want to show everyone around you your good fortune at having found it. This novel is such a gem.

There's a certain musicality to the language as the mountain air is pure and the conditions are bad. The story is told from ten points of view, with Sadie Blue being the central character. Vividly drawn, the characters leap off the page. You see the goings on in little Baines Creek, a town in Appalachia. It is a town in which moonshine is a thriving business, men misunderstand Ephesians 5:22-23 and the women are left to pick up the pieces.

This novel explores a town steeped in such poverty its hard to remember that its set in 1970's and not in the 1930's. Its as if the Great Depression never lifted for Baines Creek. Seventeen year old Sadie Blue finds herself in the family way to Roy Tupkin, probably the worst guy in the town. We follow her story from their marriage to the point in which, seventy-one days later, Sadie finally understands that she deserves better than the domestic violence that she is enduring. We are told her story through the eyes of nine other characters, each very different from the next, who give us insight into the world in which Sadie lives. We hear from Sadie's grandmother, older, wiser friends, a teacher, a preacher a child and a quirky old 'witch' and even Roy himself.

This novel gives an authentic slice of Appalachian life with a constant dialect and language. It takes some getting used to, but 'won't' instead of the word 'weren't' keeps the voices and language clear in your head. The characters feel real as does the story. Weiss has written a brilliant debut novel. She makes an unknowable community very real. Her work is sure of itself, grave and comical all at once. It made me ache to reach out to the community as the teacher Kate does, trying to make a difference to a place that time forgot.

I eagerly await Leah Weiss' next book.

A gritty, realistic Christy.

Leah Weiss does an incredible job showing the hard life in 1970 Appalachia. The Appalachian people are different from all others and Ms. Weiss shows their strength as well as their weaknesses.

If the Creek Don't Rise gives you a small glimpse into this unique segment of American society.

Thank you Net Galley for this advance copy in return for an honest review.

Leah Weiss has hit it out of the ballpark with her debut novel "If the Creek Don't Rise". After viewing the cover, I had to know the story behind the waify girl sitting and looking so forlorn by the derelict truck.

"If the Creek Don't Rise" is a myriad of stories: love, anger, jealousy, murder and redemption. It begins with Sadie picking herself up off of the floor of a trailer after being savagely beaten by her husband of only a few days. The book is the story of her deliverance. Many characters are introduced and play a pivotal part in how she got to this point in her life and how she can carry on. The many facets of how these Appalachian mountain folk get by day to day is woven throughout the story; but it is also inspiring and very interesting.

The story is written in first person and chapters switch to different characters. With some books, this makes the story very hard to follow, but Ms. Weiss makes the transformation seamlessly while telling the back story of that character. The dialect may make the book a bit hard to read for some, but as I am from the foothills of the Smoky Mountains it did not for me. The vernacular only adds to the authenticity of the story.

She writes a great, unexpected ending that is truly satisfying. My only complaint is that I want to know more about some of the characters! This would make a great and compelling series. Readers need to know what happens to Preacher Eli, Kate Shaw, Prudence, Birdie and her crows, Tattler Swan, Jerome Biddle and even Sadie later in life. Perhaps some characters will get their own book.

Be sure to read the conversation with the author. She discusses the inception of the book. She entered a writing contest that had an opening prompt of <i>I struggle to my feet</i> and the book blossomed from there.

i really liked this book, the story was well written and the characters and setting was described in great detail

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!

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!

Awesome story and characters. Interesting information on Appalachia. A whkle undercurrent of social beings. Unfortunately it ended too abruptly..

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.

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.

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.

Wow this was a very good book! I was rooting for Sadie Blue from the very beginning. All the characters were so interesting and I would love to read more about these characters. It seem like it was further back in time rather than 1970. It was the fact that time seemed to stand still in Baines Creek. I love how it ended and was left with the odd twist at the end. I loved this book!

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.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. Thank you.

This book. Wow. I couldn't put it down. What a story, so richly told through varying points of view, that is neither repetitious or abrupt. I can't wait to read more from this author. Bravo!

Beautiful prose, deeply developed characters, engaging story-line, unforgettable read.

I wish I could adopt the blurb and make it to my review. It has absolutely everything that a reader needs to know to decide if it is worth it to read this book or not. Honestly, just read the blurb and you will know.

This book is a pure beauty, in words and in a way the story is told. It has a very unique structure, a multiple first person pov. I'm not a big fan of changing POV, and I have never imagined that a multiple viewpoint novel could be such a satisfying read, and even less that a debut author can master the challenge with such ease and style.

Set in a small provincial community, in North Carolina, in the Appalachian mountain, in the 1970s, If The Creek Don't Rise: A Novel tells the story of Sadie Blue, of finding hopes and strength to be able to take fate in her own hands.

Breathtaking nature as an astonishing contrast to the terribly poor living and social conditions.

I absolutely LOVE this book.

"We learned the important key to good storytelling - add real people to the mix." ... Which is exactly what Leah Weiss does in 'If The Creek Don't Rise'. She captures a people of true grit that resonate in a solid structure of a good story. The timbre of their language rings hypnotic and true, as Weiss crafts a voice of extraordinary texture. You can't help but pull in close to enjoy the details.
Each chapter is named after the eponymous character it focuses on. They center, in a kind of circular flow, around a few main events - the domestic abuse of a pregnant woman, the arrival of a new school teacher and the disappearance of a local girl. When we read a new chapter, we circle back to those events from the new characters first person POV, offering new insight, keeping the narrative stream clear and fresh.
There are almost a dozen to meet - every one of them unique. Weiss maintains a good command over this list of dimensional characters, most of whom are never lost in the layers of the narrative.

Thank you, Ms. Weiss, for "Sadie Blue" - the prettiest color thread weaved throughout your story. And thank you for "Marris" - for being its heart.

This book had me captivated from the start. It is fascinating and heartbreaking in so many places. This story about Baines Creek and the people in it is beautifully told. Their colourful lives are heartbreakingly different from the books I normally read and I will remember them for a long time.

Sadie Blue. Pregnant, seventeen, still a newlywed, if maybe a little less optimistic about her hopes for her marriage since her husband Roy Tupkin knocked her around a bit. Her only weakness, if you can call it that, is her love of Loretta Lynn. She can’t read the magazine she carries around with her since she only knows how to read but a few words, but she knows all her lyrics from listening to her on the radio. Her daddy, Otis Blue, has passed on, but continues to give advice to Sadie on saving herself from Roy’s temper. Her mother, Carly, left Sadie’s father when she was just a baby, leaving town with a “fancy man full of flashy promises and little else.”

In the here and now of 1970’s Baines Creek, the person Sadie counts on most of all is her grandmother, her mother’s momma, the first of their family still living to come to live in Baines Creek. Mary Harris Jones, named after Mother Jones who once upon a time visited their little town of coal mine families. Born in 1898, she’d lived in Rock Bottom, West Virginia with her parents and brothers, a coal mining family among other coal mining families.

When Mary Harris Jones, called Marris as those two names slid into one, arrived in Baines Creek at ten years old, she saw colours for the first time, having never seen any in Rock Bottom where the sky and everything else was always coated in gray. The blue sky and white clouds seemed to be a glimpse of heaven.

"When I was born, my folks don’t live in Baines Creek in the highlands of North Carolina like now. Baines Creek don’t have coal to dig in its heart that breaks a man in two. When I come along, we live over Rock Bottom way in West Virginia, on the airish side of the mountain where coal dust sifted through slits around the windows, and spindly houses can’t be scrubbed clean. Where we lived looked the same inside as it did outside. Gray."

Part of her family left behind. Coalmines are dangerous work. Their family is smaller now.

"Rock Bottom cut the heart outta folks and let em walk round thinking they was alive when they won’t.""

Sadie is still a bit of an innocent, hard to believe anyone could be in this place where moonshine is a primary source of income. Her heart is still open to people, despite everything life has tried to teach her, and when Miss Kate Shaw comes to Baines Creek to be the new teacher, they bond quickly. Sadie wants to help Kate, and Kate wants to help Sadie, help her learn to read and more. Others join in, an alliance, each intent on helping Sadie, but also the “others” within this group.

Each section shares a perspective of time and place and people, and there are many different perspectives. Amazingly this flows effortlessly, and you see their views, how those connect with young Sadie’s life, all of their stories lead you right back into Sadie’s story, a group consciousness, if you will, which reads as though you were sitting in the room with them. Narrated in a stream-of-consciousness type flow, with a uniquely Appalachian colloquial essence, which really adds to the joy of reading this unforgettable story. The narration might require a very slight adjustment. Words such as won’t instead of weren’t, writing by the sound rather than the standard spelling.

I loved this story, these wonderfully authentic characters, with a setting so purely raw, wild and gritty I could see it, the language so convincing I could hear the measured lilt of the drawl.

The ending is the cherry on top of the best sundae you’ve ever wanted to have. After a carefully concocted blend of flavours, it ends with that bit of zing you weren’t quite expecting.

This is Leah Weiss’ debut novel, which is hard to believe. I’m hoping she’ll return to these people in her next novel!

Thank you Net Galley for this advance copy in return for an honest review.
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 in the middle of the book. But when things came together.... WOW! No spoilers... but the when I read the last sentence of this book all I could say was WOW. Great book, I enjoyed reading.

Interesting story told through different viewpoints of life in Appalachia. The characters are engaging and the story unfolds smoothly. Great ending.

4 1/2 Stars

A gem of a story, richly told and beautifully woven together. This novel was cleverly written by using a different voice for each new chapter. With the storylines overlapping, we really got a feel for each unique character. A haunting debut that was very hard to put down with a doozy of an ending! ❤

If the Creek Don't Rise is a book about a girl name Sadie Blue and the town she was raised in.
There are fourteen chapters in this novel and eleven are told by a different character, three told by Sadie Blue. This is about a poor town and how the people live by relying on each other but also trying to get away from the bad town folk.
Each chapter weaves the tale of the characters giving a little back story and coming current. It all ties together in the end but at the same time leaves so much to the imagination. Is there going to be another book letting the readers know what happens to Preacher Eli or Miss Shaw? Or any of the other characters? We can only hope.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32804703-if-the-creek-don-t-rise" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="If The Creek Don't Rise" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1478043967m/32804703.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32804703-if-the-creek-don-t-rise">If The Creek Don't Rise</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16013248.Leah_Weiss">Leah Weiss</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1864642826">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
It is 1970, and we follow the story of a young Appalachian girl, Sadie Blue age 17, pregnant and newly married to an evil young man who is abusive.<br /><br />This story takes place in a small town in the mountains of North Carolina and we are introduced to quite a cast of characters.<br /><br />I really enjoyed this book. I hope there is a follow up to learn more about the people we met in this town.
<br/><br/>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/12851291-karen">View all my reviews</a>

Set in the Appalachian mountains, this story gives us a glimpse into the community of Baines Creek from several viewpoints. There is no doubt that life is hard in this economically depressed area where no one ever seems to have enough of anything. Yet the spirit, kindness, and community of so many outweighs the mean-spirited and even evil deeds of others. At times this story is heart-wrenching and at others uplifting to see folks caring for one another when times are toughest. Filled with truly interesting characters, the good and the bad, this feels like a very real story and the reader just stepped in to visit for a time.

This book is absolutely BREATHTAKING! It's been quite a while since a book has had such an impact on me that I forgot that books could actually do this! Leah Weiss is an absolute GENIUS and I couldn't recommend this book more to fellow book lovers. This is definitely a book I will share with my friends over and over again!

I am from a small town in the south so all these southern drawls and references made my heart melt. Her description of people and their situations felt so real. I was pulling for Sadie all the way. I give this book 2 thumbs up. heartfelt writing

Leah Weiss does an incredible job showing the hard life in 1970 Appalachia. The Appalachian people are different from all others and Ms. Weiss shows their strength as well as their weaknesses.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I didn't know "if the creek don't rise" was a saying. The phrase is "God willing and the creek don't rise".

I'll be honest. It was hard for me to stay with this book at first. The main characters speak a dialect that is hard to understand and to follow. However, please stick with it. This is a stunning debut. I nearly gave up, and I would have missed this.
The novel is set somewhere in Appalachia. Sadie Blue is facing a terrible future. She's married to a dangerous drunk named Roy. She thinks that this is her only future, but something may change. She's had a terrible life and has been abused by so many. You are rooting for her. There is hardship, murder, love, hatred, and some redemption.

I am surprised that this is a debut as Weiss is fantastic. I am a fan of fiction set in the south. A good read.

If The Creek Don't Rise By Leah Weiss

This story takes place in the mountains of Appalachia in the 1970's. What struck me was how insulated this world really is. Sadie Blue young and pregnant is newly married to Roy Tupkin who beats her on a regular basis. My favorite character's are Sadie, Marris and Kate Shaw, the new school teacher from the valley.

In this story Baines Creek, which is a fictional town of North Carolina the setting comes alive and is as richly drawn as the characters. I enjoyed every page of this book from cover to cover. The character's were all vivid and came alive on the page to me. Marris, who was always ready to help any of the character's in this community was a favorite for me. I truly enjoyed seeing Kate Shaw adapt to the community of Baines Creek. I thought Kate Shaw was brave to live up on the mountain by herself and was warmed by how kind she treated the children that she taught, giving them penny candy for answering a question. Watching her learn and have a desire to learn and respect the way of life of Appalachia.

I don't remember the last time I read a book that I loved some of the character's so deeply and intensely, as some of the characters of this story. This was a debut book for this author and would love to read more of her future work. This book is one of the reason's I enjoy reading so much. I can't praise this book high enough and do hope reader's enjoy it as much as I did.
Highly Recommended. Five Stars Plus!!!!!

Thank you to Net Galley, Leah Weiss and Sourcebooks, Inc. for the pleasure of reading and reviewing this book for a fair and honest Review. Leah Weiss you have talent more than words could describe.

Copy furnished by Net Galley for the price of a review.

In the shadow cast by Bentwood Mountain lies the small town of Baines River, North Carolina. This is coal mining territory, and the accumulation of years of dust and grit coat the town gray on the inside and out. The local church is a magnet for folks with unanswered prayers, where false hopes are encouraged to flourish.

Big news comes in the form of a new teacher in town. No shy and retiring schoolmarm, this lady is much older than her failed predecessors. Tall and rawboned, Miss Kate Shaw wears her hair chopped off short and blunt, and is clad in britches rather than a dress. She aims to make a difference here. Folks in Baines River are slow to accept newcomers, though, especially one as different as Miss Shaw.

If you come across an old woman in the woods with a tangled topknot of wild hair and a crow perching atop, you have found the aptly named Birdie Rocas. With her gnarled hands and knotty walking stick, Birdie is the area's medicine woman, midwife, and soothsayer. Have a care, this lady can see through you, right to your very core.

Prudence Perkins, spinster sister of the town reverend, is sour, self-righteous, and mean-spirited. Granny Hicks, her frail old body hides a spine of pure steel and the nerve to match it. Roy Tupkin, a local miscreant, has just married young Sadie Blue. He's meaner than a snake with his slitted eyes and abusive ways. Sadie is sweet, but not <i>too</i> sweet.

The scent of made-from-scratch huckleberry pie wafts through the air. Moonshine hot-rods carry 170 proof white lightning brewed in hidden stills and protected by camouflaged traps. What is in that poke sack toted by Jerome Biddle, the simple-minded man who speaks in rhymes?

All the stars are burning bright for this one, my first five-star read this year. Don't miss it, it's a dandy.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of my honest opinion. Loved this book. Hooked me in the first chapter. Totally was not expecting this. Can't wait to read more by this fantastic author.

This is a VERY strong four rating. The only reason it didn't earn a five is that I was so tempted to abandon it at about the 12% mark. The first chapter opens with the beating of Sadie - pregnant, 17, and married. The abuse is hard to stomach, but her situation is the entire purpose of the story - and the story is exceptionally well done.

Appalachia in the 70s was grim and hard; I'm not sure there was a time that it wasn't a challenging place to live. The eight years I lived in NC were not in Appalachia, yet to this reader's ear, the "voice" in each chapter rang true. Several of the characters have settled into my heart, and I hope we hear from them again in future books.

Relate-able these days. 17, pregnant and newly married to a young man who is abusive. How many kids go through this today? This book is set in 1970's in North Carolina in the Mountains. The characters are really alive in this book. I loved this book through and through and will reread it! netgalley review!

A bittersweet story of a poor Appalation town told through the voices of characters living there. Written in the first tense we get to know all the good and bad of each person. Sadie Blue is a young girl who ends up married and pregnant to an older man who beats her regularly. The story revolves round Sadie and all her friends and family. Introduce a new school teacher and will things begin to change?The characters are all interwoven and fascinating. A great book about small town America in the 70s

Bio:

A strikingly sincere portrait of a town and its buried secrets from an outstanding new voice in southern fiction.

In a North Carolina mountain town filled with moonshine and rotten husbands, Sadie Blue is only the latest girl to face a dead-end future at the mercy of a dangerous drunk. She’s been married to Roy Tupkin for fifteen days, and she knows now that she should have listened to the folks who said he was trouble. But when a stranger sweeps in and knocks the world off-kilter for everyone in town, Sadie begins to think there might be more to life than being Roy’s wife.

As stark and magnificent as Appalachia itself, If the Creek Don’t Rise is a bold and beautifully layered debut about a dusty, desperate town finding the inner strength it needs to outrun its demons. The folks of Baines Creek will take you deep into the mountains with heart, honesty, and homegrown grit.

Review:

This story is extremely character driven. The author has strong three dimensional characters that feel so real they literally jump out of the pages at you.

Sadie Blue, the main character, is seventeen and pregnant. Newly wed to Roy Tupkin, a wife beater.

Most of the people in the town are uneducated, as is Sadie, but it doesn't stop them from leading what can be considered extraordinary lives.

As you meet each character, you can literally feel your heart warming and opening to love another one.

This story combines strong characters with strong voices, a bit of drama, and a town full of secrets to make an amazing southern fiction. This is the story you take with you and never forget because the characters felt so real.

*I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ - Five Hearts

Wow! This was an extremely enjoyable read! I absolutely loved the southern voice of these characters throughout this book. It is a breathtaking and gritty portrayal of hillbilly life from the year 1970 which is set in the Appalachian Mountains.

“Regular folks buckle under the piss and vinegar in this world.”

IF THE CREEK DON’T RISE by LEAH WEISS is an interesting, compelling, and beautifully written novel that has a really engaging storyline and characters that grabbed my attention from the very first chapter.

Being a Loretta Lynn and country music fan I absolutely loved Sadie Blue’s respect and adoration that she had for Loretta Lynn. The references to Loretta Lynn were quite appealing and enjoyable!

HE’S GONNA BE SORRY HE EVER MESSED WITH ME AND LORETTA LYNN

“She’s got a hard life. Sings hard songs. She found a way up and out of her Kentucky holler. Miss Loretta is a miracle to me.”

LEAH WEISS delivers an impressive read here told in the first person from the perspectives of quite a few different relatable and likeable characters that was easy to follow along with the storyline and all the characters involved.

The ending was a complete surprise!

To sum it all up it was an entertaining, steady-paced, and an easy read with a very satisfying ending. Highly recommend!!

Thank you to NetGalley, Leah Weiss, and Sourcebooks, Inc. for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book for a fair and honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I'm not generally a fan of first person narratives, but I loved that this one was shared by multiple and contrasting characters. It reinforced the spirit of community in Baines Creek - something that is integral to the story.
Leah Weiss transported me to Appalachia with her strong individual characters, their distinct manner of speaking, and their fierce spirit of rural independence. While I didn't love everyone that I met, I felt that I understood where they came from.
My biggest gripe with the story is that the author and I seem to have a disagreement over the morality of one of her characters, and I wasn't altogether happy with the way his part of the story ended. Similarly, there were characters that I came to love (Eli, Kate Shaw, and Birdie), whose stories were not tied into the end, and I wanted them to be. These are small complaints. This is Sadie Blue's story, and I think I understand why Weiss did what she did. I just fell a little too much in love with the characters and wanted to know more. I suppose that is something of a compliment.
I look forward to reading whatever project Weiss takes on next, and I am thankful that she did decide that there was room in the world for another story.

I liked the way Leah Reiss, gave each character such a distinctive voice by alternating the narrators of the chapters. I enjoy this style as it allows us to get to know them all separately. The character's stories tragic and seemed to be firmly rooted in a time and place - Appalachia in the 1970's. But, at the same time, they are human stories that take place in communities worldwide. There may be cultural differences but the tales remain the same, allowing us to identify with the characters and their stories. Beautifully written, evocative book.

It was a great read. I feel the character development was good and I would recommend to friends.

A moving story of poverty and desperation! Sadie Blue lives in Baines Creek, NC, a small town deep in the Appalachian Mountains. Baines Creek is full of secrets. Sadie is married to Roy Tupkin who takes pleasure in beating her up, but violence has always been a part of Sadie’s life. This story is told by several members of the community who each gradually reveal the town’s secrets. In a place where people depend so much on each other for survival, betrayal runs deep.

I was completely captivated by this story. The characters are carefully crafted and they develop in the reader’s mind as the story grows. I thought that the author’s choice to tell the story through the eyes of different members of the community, each revealing their part, was very clever and engaging. This story is dark at times but it captures well the life of the residents. This is a beautiful debut novel and I highly recommend it.

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Set in Appalachia, this is more than historical fiction. It is culturally and emotionally driven. From family secrets to marriage dynamics. Sadie Blue, love the character name is married to Roy. He likes to speaks with his fists. We will just leave it at that. As we venture through the story we learn about her parents, her Grandmother and the questions that begin to represent themselves to Sadie. I couldn't put this down! Powerful! I will say you have to get used to the dialect, but it won't hinder the story. In fact, it puts you right there on the mountain.

An exceptional book with believable, relatable characters. Wow, what an ending. I'm hoping for more from this author so that I can continue to follow the characters I got to know. A must read!

This review is going to be a bit gushing because I was completely blown away by this book – I absolutely loved it. I’m split between finding it hard to believe that this is Leah Weiss’s first novel and shouting, Leah, why did you wait so long? Did I mention that I adored this book?

There are a number of different narrative voices but they are each distinctive and convincing in terms of characterisation and tone.

The central character in the story is Sadie Blue. The reader is immediately drawn to her – not much more than a child herself, pregnant and saddled with a no-good husband who beats her up for the slightest reason:
‘Fifteen days has gone by since that piece of paper got signed. Roy beats on me pretty regular cause nobody stops him. I thought we got married for a mighty reason. I thought I was special to him. I musta made it all up, cause none of it’s true.’

Despite all she suffers, Sadie’s resilience is incredible as she looks for a way out - any way out - of the situation she finds herself in. Channelling the voice of her dead father and her singing idol, Loretta Lynn, she finds the strength to do this.

Sadie is just one of the incredible female characters the author has created. There’s Gladys, who also endured marriage to an abusive husband until his death in an accident, and finds herself alone and every day a struggle but still carries on because she knows no other way.

‘Life’s too shitty. For a old woman, it’s more shit that I can shovel. I can’t remember if I ever had a choice but to put one front of the other and walk the line on a rocky road to nowhere.’

Gladys has secrets that she thinks nobody knows but her friend, Marris, knows different. Marris, a widow, is a lovely warm character who looks out for the less fortunate in Baines Creek.

In case you’re thinking all the male characters are bad and the female characters good, the author redresses the balance with Eli Perkins, the preacher, and Prudence, his sister. Eli feels an immediate affinity with the new schoolteacher, Kate Shaw, an older woman who left her previous position under a cloud but whose passion for teaching shines through.

‘Kate is a magician, a pied piper who has absconded with our children’s hearts. Mine too.’

Eli recognises in her a kindred spirit, someone who is prepared to fight against the low expectations of the townspeople for their children, who can be ‘an ally to instil hope and possibility in my good people’. However, as an outsider and single, independent woman, Kate attracts the malicious attention of Prudence, made resentful by her harsh upbringing in a familyof several generations of preachers.

‘Everything I did was coated with the Lord’s slippery words. I almost drowned in verse. I learned to breathe underwater was what I did, being the daughter of an Eli.’

The close of the novel sees Sadie Blue’s story return to centre stage as she draws on all her strength of will to bring about a change in her situation.

This book will stay with me for a long time – even more so because of that devastating final line. I’m not sure my review can do justice to this book but I’ll just say that if you love southern fiction, superlative writing, a compelling storyline and wonderful characterisation, please search out If the Creek Don’t Rise. I just hope Leah Weiss doesn’t wait as long to publish her next book.

I feel beyond lucky to have received this ARC by Sourcebooks Landmark in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book I truly want everyone to read. It is an ODE to women, the strength of women, the suffering of women and how they are much more affected by the lack of education than men are.
It is brilliantly written by a woman. The story is reminiscent of ‘The Glass Castle’, ‘Crooked letter, Crooked letter” or “Same kind of different as
me”.
Set up in rural North Carolina in the 70’s , Sadie Blue is pregnant, marry too young because she wants to be ‘legal’ and quickly gets knocked around by her new husband: bad boy Roy Tupkin.

Contrary to traditional story telling, the author is using all the character around young Sadie Blue to tell us about her, to lead us through sadie’s story. On the journey we learn about Sadie’s grand mother Gladys who raised her, about her aunt Mary Harris Jones, about Priest Eli Perkins and his sister Prudence, about the new teacher in town Miss Kate Shaw, about Roy and his sidekick Billy Barnhill and about the mystical Birdie and her crow.
In the small Appalachian village of Baines Creek everyone is connected to each other and plays a pivotal role, though a chain of events, into Sadie’s Blue unforgettable story.

This is Leah Weiss’ debut novel, which is really hard to believe.The whole story is masterfully crafted until the last sentence.
A well deserved 5 stars which I very rarely give out !

This book claims to be about Sadie Blue, a poverty stricken country girl from Appalachia North Carolina. This story is not about Sadie Blue. It begins with her and ends with her, but the bulk of the book is taken up by the teacher, Kate Shaw, and her struggles to fit into this town. I'm not saying the story was bad. It wasn't. It actually got better the farther into the book I got. It just wasn't about Sadie Blue.

This book deals with poverty in Appalachia in the 1970's. Kate Shaw comes to this mountain town to teach, and discovers a whole new world. The town is stuck in time, with no real advancements, and they even have their own "language" a southern dialect so foreign to me that I found myself having to Google some of the words. I live in the Kentucky Appalachia, for crying out loud and I still had a hard time reading the dialect. This lead me on a research kick that last for several hours. Reading about the poverty so close to my home that I was completely unaware of. It still exists today, just a few county's over from my own. I was baffled. I simply couldn't wrap my head around how a town could get so stuck in time. Upon researching, I learned that I had heard some of this Appalachian dialect before, from my own family growing up. Some of it was still new to me, however. I did not know that a "cathead" means a large biscuit or that a "poke" is a bag.

This book is from the view point of several different characters, each having a turn at their part of the story. I particularly liked the chapter about Prudence, though she was the most deplorable character in the book. It's insightful and it seems outdated, but it's not, apparently. I would recommend this book to anyone that was interested in the Appalachian lifestyle. However, you should know that towns like this are very isolated and while it's not a common occurrence, it does happen. Towns like this still exist today, and this book opened my eyes to that.

An unusual story that rings of truth. It took me a little time to get into it but once I got hooked it was hard to put it down. A surprise ending.

When I began the book, I knew it was set near my home. However, I didn't pay attention to the decade. I would have sworn for the first half of the book it was set during the Great Depression. Then I remembered where it was set and let the shock of 1970 settle in. I loved reading this book. It changes point of view quite frequently, but if you pay attention, it does not ruin the continuity of the story. I loved all the characters you were supposed to love, but I think I either loved Birdie or Miss Shaw the most. Every mountain community needs a Birdie and a Miss Shaw. I had no problem with the dialect, but it helps when you grow up with it. It was a good testament to the poverty, yet self-sufficient existence of Appalachia. It was fairly real, despite some of the far-fetched behaviors of some characters.

I am going to ramble in this review. So if that isn't your thing just go on past it...

Back when I was in the fourth grade we had an English teacher who dumped a box of books out one day and told us to read them and do book reports. I ate that up with a spoon and did my best to read them all. The thing is...I read one that I have never stopped thinking about. It was set in the Ozark mountains featuring what some people called a witch. It completely nailed the "mountain living" that I remembered my grandmother talking about. It was a big old chunk of a book, so only a couple of the kids including myself read it. I've never forgotten it and it's drove me nuts because I would love a copy of it. This book reminds me of that. And it's high praise.
It's going to be hard to top this book as my book of the year, if it even happens.

Authors have been trying to write the whole "hick-lit" thing in the last few years. I admit that it's my favorite genre that I think I've ever read. But this. This is freaking perfection.
The story centers around a very young, pregnant girl named Sadie Blue.
Her grandmother raises her after her mother takes off right after her birth and her daddy ends up drinking himself to death. (Her daddy is far from perfect) So I think Sadie latches on to the first thing she thinks is good in life. And that was in the form of Roy.

Roy beats the heck out of Sadie starting from what seems like the minute she marries him. But this is Appalachia in the 1970's. A husband does what he wants to with his wife and the small mountain town turns it's head.
There are women in these hills whose men beat them because they misconstrue Ephesians 5:22-23 as saying they can. They twist God's holy words: "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife.".

You would think this sounds like a typical hick lit story. You are so very, very wrong. Told from multiple viewpoints this story will stay with me forever. You have the preacher and his sanctimonious sister, the new teacher that has come to the mountains to start anew, Sadie herself, the local witch woman Birdie and even the hateful Roy and his sidekick since birth Billy.
This book is Appalachia as I knew it as a child. Don't read it and look down at anybody that lives or lived in this area. As a matter of fact, if that's your mindset just don't even bother picking this book up.
Outsiders see Appalachian poverty as something to be cut out. The good with the bad. They send volunteers to save you from yourselves....
"Do you know the saying, 'Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater?'
The teacher in her don't give me the time to say so, when she adds, 'Well, you write about the baby while everyone else is writing about the bathwater.'

Exactly.

This book was the exact measure of perfection in my eyes. I'm thankful that I was able to read it. Appalachia may have changed a bit since the story was set, but this book is it's heart.

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
PS I used my favorite photographer of all times images in this review. Sally Mann's photos also do what this book does. (Portrays Appalachia in a light that might make you a bit uncomfortable but you will never forget it.)

What marvelously poignant storytelling. 1970's Appalachia is what most would call a 'god forsaken' place; a dot on the map. But, to the people that have settled there for generations it's home and carries its own rules for survival. "This protracted scene in primitive Appalachia—in the throes of another angry storm that refuses to end, when political assassinations and civil rights battles and the birth control pill change tomorrows down below—is timeless and tiring." This is a bitter sweet story of finding hope when there is little light.

If The Creek Don't Rise takes place in a very small and remote Appalachian mountain community called Baines Creek in North Carolina. Taking place in the 1970's, many can't read, as education is fairly unheard of and severe poverty is considered normal among Baines Creek residents. We first meet Sadie Blue, who is 17, pregnant and newly married to her husband Roy Turpkin. She has only been married 15 days when she Roy starts hitting her and she knows she should her listened to her grandmother and other folks who told her to stay away from him. When someone new comes to town and gives everyone a new perspective, Sadie starts to believe there might be more to life then just being Roy's life.

This book is told from a variety of perspectives including Sadie Blue, her grandmother Gladys Hicks, Glady's next door neighbor Marris Jones, the local Pastor, Eli Perkins, as well as 6 other perspectives. I have only read one other book where I enjoyed this type of perspective, but it did work pretty well in this story. Although I wish I had been able to hear from Sadie's perspective a bit more. The language the book is written in is also fairly spot on to the Appalachia region where Baines Creek is located in the book. Anyone from or who has spent time there will instantly feel like they are listening to a neighbors conversation while reading this book. I haven't spent much time in the area, but it instantly brought back a lot of memories. The language might be difficult for some people to read, it did take me one chapter to adjust, but after that I really enjoyed it.

I really liked all of the characters in this book and because they live in such a small community, they are all so intertwined with each other. I love Glady and Marris and could easily see Glady sitting on her front porch in the evening watching the night roll in. All of the characters are well developed, even though we only hear from them each for one or two chapters. Although, again I would have enjoyed hearing a bit more from Sadie, otherwise it was a well written book with a pretty good ending. Thank you to the publisher for sending me an advanced reading copy of this book.

I received this novel via Advance Reader Copy (ARC) from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Netgalley.

This novel starts with the protagenist, Sadie Blue, talking to her dead father. Very young, naive Sadie's mother ran away shortly after she was born, leaving her with her weak father, who drank himself to death at an early age. Struggling with life and being forced to depend on her less than supportive, mean grandmother, Sadie is easy prey for local bad boy Roy Tupkin.

Falling pregnant, Sadie grasps at getting hitched, to become respectable in the eyes of the small town gossips. Poor Sadie has no idea what she's letting herself in for. Beaten by her husband, and deserted for days at a time, Sadie cannot depend on the local town, who turns a blind eye to her suffering. Scenes like this play out daily in remote Appalachia in 1970.

Into this bleak landscape, arrives Kate Shaw. Independent, strong-willed and very different to the townsfolk of Baines Creek, Kate has secrets of her own. The townsfolk are at once suspicious of and intrigued by her. So is the local preacher. Kate may just offer a way forward for Sadie. But will Sadie be strong enough to escape her pre-destined lot in life to make something of herself?

Woven into the story of Sadie Blue, the inhabitants of Baines Creek step forward and speak to the reader of their lives. I was transfixed reading the story. At first I wasn't sure of the year the story was set in. I was shocked to discover that the year is 1970. Reading this novel, I was simultaneously transfixed and immersed into both a different world and era. It is difficult to imagine living, let alone growing up in such a remote, desperate place, devoid of any hope, where beatings, incest and malnourishment are commonplace and where these traits can be handed down from generation to generation.

Stylistically, the novel was well written. The characters spoke in the local dialect, which I found hard to follow at first and made for a slightly slower read, but once I got used to the cadence of the speech, I found that this enhanced the story, rather than detracting from it.

Bravo!

The fact that this book is written by a debut author is astounding to me. IF THE CREEK DON'T RISE is one of the best books I have read in a very long time, and I read A LOT, so this is a huge compliment.

Leah Weiss truly has a gift and I predict that this book will find itself on bestseller lists all over the United States and in Canada and it deserves to be there.

The way the small settlement is described makes it come alive for the reader, you can almost feel short of breath from the thin mountain air and feel the crunch of the leaves under your feet as you walk alongside the characters on the wooded paths.

The way each character is described makes the reader feel as if they know them. You will want to go search your closets to drop off extra clothes and blankets to drop off to some of the poorer families. In fact, you will start to think about all that you have, and just how lucky you are.

You will be inspired by the priest who tends to his small congregation and despite all proof that their lives will never change, he holds onto hope and onto the belief that things can and will get better. He is an inspiring character.

It is actually amazing just how wonderfully and thoroughly readers will come to care about the various people in the book, and not just one or two of them, you will come to care about the entire community.

In short, this book is freakin' fabulous. I rate it as 5 out of 5 stars but if it were possible to rate it higher, I would.

This is a MUST READ book that readers will not soon forget.

I have been very fortunate to have good relationships in my life, so I can't relate, but I can't help but feel for Sadie Blue. This book does deal with some heavy themes; her life definitely isn't easy. It was an experience to "travel" to that time period, and read the interactions between people. I liked that the chapters were told from different character's points-of-view as well, and I liked their back stories & insight into their thoughts.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this novel.

This book, while could have been set at any time in history was set in the 1970s and tells the story of 17 year old Sadie Blue who finds herself pregnant and in an abusive relationship. But it is also a story of the strength of people who have so little and especially the bonds between the women who endure so much.

WOW!!!! This is an amazing book! I couldn't put the book down once I picked it up. The book is set in the 1970s. It's the story of teen bride Sadie Blue. She's newly married to Roy Tupkin who repeatedly abuses her in just the 15 days of their marriage.

Sadie Blue soon realizes she should have listened to those who told her he was no good. She's stuck in her small town of Baines Creek, North Carolina and her only joy is listening to Loretta Lynn. When a stranger arrives and completely turns the town upside down, Sadie realizes there's more to life than being Roy's wife living in moonshine territory.

If the Creek Don't Rise is a powerfully written story of small town life.

It's not often I have a sense of how much I'm going to like or despise a book from a single, opening sentence, but I did with this one. The opening line pulled me in. I held my breath and sent out a small prayer that this book wouldn't lose steam before it wound its way to the ending.

It really didn't, although there were a couple areas that kept me from outright calling this 5-star fare. I'll get to those later.

First, the teaser description: I was led to believe that this book followed the life of Sadie Blue, a 17-year-old Appalachian teenager, newly pregnant and married (not in that order), and it does. Kind of. Told in first person present tense, this novel is more of a character study, and hops around chapter to chapter to various character perspectives. Surprisingly, it was well-written enough that I didn't mind the various changes of POV (although a small handful didn't seem especially distinct, particularly closer to the book's end), nor did the first person narrative get irritating. Instead, I found it an effective way to distinguish (most of) the various character voices and really offer a full picture of this rural environment via the eyes of both locals and the outsider Kate Shaw, a newly arrived grade school teacher.

At the core of this story is indeed Sadie, a product of her time and place. She's received no formal childhood education, can't even read more than a couple words, but she possesses a willingness to learn and better herself. When Kate Shaw comes along, she also has a resource from whom to learn and blossom. Unfortunately, Sadie finds herself in the unenviable, but sadly all too common, position of being her new husband's punching bag. Even with today's laws against domestic violence, this happens all too frequently. In 1970s Appalachia, it's almost standard. We see the residents in this fictional town of Baines Creek through the eyes of Sadie, her grandmother, a friend of the family, the town reverend, Kate Shaw, and even Sadie's abusive husband, among others. There's no overt mention of the time period (although I believe the teaser indicated the decade so I had some context before jumping into this), and it took me awhile to realize that sometimes when a new chapter began we backtracked in time and replayed it through another character's eyes, which was a little confusing (and part of the reason I think this doesn't quite hit the full 5-star rating). The ending was also somewhat predictable and a little abrupt. It could've been more fleshed out for a fuller emotional impact.

That said, the prose worked for me. I loved the descriptions, and alternating from rural vernacular to Kate Shaw's and the reverend's more comprehensible speech patterns kept the book from being too much of a drudge into tedious colloquialisms. It was fascinating to step into a time and place that had shades of a dystopian setting, even though it is very much a real location that stands outside of modern society's temporal confines. This story also fueled my online search for more articles and photos depicting Appalachia, and the characters stayed with me long after I finished the last chapter. That's all I can really ask for in a novel.

I sincerely hope Weiss publishes more stories (and that NetGalley is kind enough to provide me with their ARCs so I can lose myself in more of Weiss' lush prose).

What a book! Really enjoyed! Highly recommend. Perfect book club pick!

It's bold, powerful, dark and hard to believe that this is a debut novel. In alternating first person narratives from a cast of characters that will be hard to forget, Leah Weiss took me to the mountain community called Baines Creek in the Appalachian Mountains in NC. And I mean took me there! From the present day of the story in 1970 to flashbacks of the past and dreams, these various points of view give us a vivid picture of this place and the people who live there. From the beginning, the first narrative of Sadie Blue, which broke my heart from the first page, it feels like it will be her story. She's seventeen, pregnant and two weeks into her marriage to Roy Tupkin, after enduring brutal beatings, Sadie knows she has made a mistake. The grit and darkness don't just belong to Sadie, though. Her grandmother Gladys tells us of her awful past ridden with the drunkenness and senseless abuse.

There's much more to the story with characters you will love and those you will hate. Eli Perkins, the preacher whose daddy took him to "see the devil" when he was nine years old is a good man wanting to help the community by bringing in a teacher who might stay. Kate Shaw is the woman who comes to teach because she wants to help as well as get a fresh start. There's Birdie Rocas , wise with a touch of eerieness about her who you can't help but love. There are secrets of revenge, secrets of identity, hidden stills and hidden feelings of the women who outwardly keep in their expected place as victims of marital abuse. I loved the dialect, the descriptions in phrases I would never have known but yet so perfectly describe an image or a feeling - "a pinch of sad" , "a slice of selfish that won't pretty". And omg - the ending - I wasn't expecting that . 5 stars and recommended especially to those who love Southern Literature.

I received an advanced copy of this book from SOURCEBOOKS Landmark through NetGalley.

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.

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

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.

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!

For a debut novel, this has some amazing writing and characterisation of strength and courage in what appears to be the dead end of the world. Told by several different players, its basically the story of Sadie Blue, young and pregnant with no future to speak of. My favourite parts of the story contained Kate Shaw and Birdie Rocas, strong and independent women who were not afraid to be themselves, even if the hillbillies didn't like it.


Thanks to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Lean Weiss, and Sourcebooks - Landmark in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

This novel is set in Appalachia in the 1970's and is written in first person of several of the protagonists. This is an interesting presentation, and not as confusing as it would at first seem. I found myself more heavily invested in some of the characters. The bad guys are mostly all bad. Roy Tupkin is a snake and at first seems the most dangerous to Sadie, but Billy is mentally challenged as well as pretty crazy. I really enjoyed Birdie and of course Sadie Blue held my sympathy throughout the novel. I love that she confides in both her dead daddy and Loretta Lynn, or occasionally Patsy Cline or George Jones. Of course that sounds crazy, but she is for the most part simply very young and naive. I enjoyed watching her mature. Leah Weiss is an author I will follow.

“ If the Creek Don’t Rise” caught me completely offguard and ended up being such a delightul read. Creative storytelling, dynamic characters, within a painfully honest & empathetic community. This book is a completely immersive experience!

The deeply human characters in Weiss’ novel touches our own souls as they struggle to understand themselves and their life situation. Especially Sadie Blue who marries Roy Tupkin, has a baby by him, and fifteen days after the nuptials realizes it was the most tragic decision she has ever made. The language of the Appalachians not only adds setting but promotes the story’s depth.
Intimate, colorful cast of characters, If the Creek Don’t Rise is a literary thumb’s up.