Review: If the Creek Don't Rise by Leah Weiss

If the Creek Don't Rise

by Leah Weiss

Publisher: Sourcebooks

Pages: 320

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  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.


Kritters Thoughts:  In the hills of Applachia, there are towns that seem like they haven't aged and life is still primitive and this book explores one of those towns as a new teacher has come to town to teach the children and will maybe stir up things.  

With only a few chapters and each chapter narrated by a different character and only a few chapters had repeats, it was an full view because you saw life through the pastor, a woman who was abused by her husband, her grandmother and her aunt and so on.

I lived in North Carolina in two parts for quite a few years and North Carolina has a special place in my heart because it is where I was first an adult and I am not naive to say that there are towns like this both in North Carolina and in many if not all other states in the United States, but this book just didn't work for me.  It felt like a caricature of this lifestyle and just disingenuous.  I was cringing a few times not because I didn't think it was true, it just didn't feel right.  I feel like I am talking circles, but its hard to describe what I really didn't love about it, but I felt it through the whole book.

I would read another book by this author, only if it wasn't set in this area because it wasn't her writing her per say it was more her portrayal.  


Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

Ebook 2017 Challenge: 31 out of 50

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Sourcebook.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.