Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from Atria Books via #netgalley, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own.
A woman returns to her estranged, magical family in Appalachia, where a conjuring meant to protect the community may have summoned something sinister in this lush, shimmering, and wildly imaginative debut novel, perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman, Deborah Harkness, and Sarah Addison Allen.
Lee left Craw Valley at eighteen without a backward glance. She wanted no part of the generations of her family who tapped into the power of the land to heal and help their community. But when she abandons her new life in California and has nowhere else to go, Lee returns to Craw Valley with her children in tow to live with her grandmother, Belva.
Lee vows to stay far away from Belva’s world of magic, but when the target of one of her grandmother’s spells is discovered dead, Lee fears that Belva’s magic may have conjured something far more sinister.
As she and her family search for answers, Lee travels down a rabbit hole of strange phenomena and family secrets that force her to reckon with herself and rediscover her power in order to protect her family and the town she couldn’t leave behind.
Review:
Taken any small town in southern America, add in a touch of Appalachia magic, some Native ancestry, a dysfuctioning family and a search for roots, and you've got this novel. The family characters will be familiar, the way outsiders are treated will ring true, and the sense of it being the family against all others will resonate. But while all this rang authentic, there was just something off that I couldn't put my finger on. Was I comparing to much to Hoffman's and Addison's books? Did the lead character of Lee just not connect for me? Did the custody dispute just not work? I couldn't put my finger on what was not making me love the book, just like it. I had to read in stops, as I would sense a frustration with the book, but then when I picked it back up, I'd read solid for a good bit before having to stop again. I just didn't want to stay immersed in the book like I do with Hoffman's and Addison's books. But it's still a solid 3.5 leaning toward 4 star read, that might be more your taste than mine.
About the Author:
Alli Dyer grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia where her family has lived for generations. For the last decade, she has worked in entertainment and book publishing and now lives in Los Angeles. Strange Folk is her first novel.
Comments
Post a Comment