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Fourth of July Creek: A Novel
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Fourth of July Creek: A Novel
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Fourth of July Creek: A Novel
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Fourth of July Creek: A Novel

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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About this ebook

In this shattering and iconic American novel, PEN prize-winning writer, Smith Henderson explores the complexities of freedom, community, grace, suspicion and anarchy, brilliantly depicting our nation's disquieting and violent contradictions.

After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral eleven-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face to face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times.

But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the F.B.I., putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateMay 27, 2014
ISBN9780062286451
Author

Smith Henderson

Smith Henderson is the author of Fourth of July Creek and lives in California and Montana.

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Reviews for Fourth of July Creek

Rating: 3.9133663366336635 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Excellent book. Good pace/rhythm. I will definitely read more Gross.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Andrew Gross has had a seven-year partnership with James Patterson and it shows. I'm mixed about James Patterson who I thought wrote some great books early in his career - the first Alex Cross books were truly outstanding thrillers - and then became, quite frankly, a hack spewing out indifferent thrillers back-to-back. Andrew Gross has benefited in a sense from both sides of this equation - he's definitely learned the elements of a successful thriller and he's definitely learned to spew out the formula. You can probably guess that I'm not impressed with the latter half of the equation.I read a lot of thrillers and many of them are very good. Sure, they follow a formula, but the best ones go beyond that to deliver both plot and characters that make you want to keep turning the pages. Unfortunately for me this just didn't deliver anything beyond the average. The plot premise was definitely interesting: What if the recent economic crisis was actually evidence of a complex terrorist action targeting the financial sector? It's an idea with a lot of promise - a sort of Law and Order ripped from the headlines kind of thing (and I do love Law and Order).Where the problems come is in the characters who are pretty lackluster and typical. Yes, yes, the intrepid hero is intrepid and, well, heroic. Yes, yes, the government agent is female, skinny, and model-beautiful - can you see the TV mini-series being cast? If the book was skewed more towards the female agent, it'd be on Lifetime, but since it's skewed towards the intrepid hero think FX.Don't get me wrong, this was fairly entertaining, but not entertaining enough to keep me up reading and that's the minimum requirement for me to think it was a great thriller.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This wasn’t too bad. You can definitely tell Gross is a student of James Patterson’s method, because the book is filled with short and punchy chapters. He’s done a good job capitalizing on the current economic climate, showing us a worst-case scenario, of sorts. Unfortunately, financial storylines tend to make my brain shut off, so I should have known that I wouldn’t love this. The good thing is, I was able to follow what was going on enough to get it. Hauck isn’t a bad character — he’s one of those guys that just can’t leave well enough alone. I kept expecting more of a romantic interlude with Naomi, based on the way he described and reacted to her, and that colored my opinion of him a bit. After all, he has a girlfriend at home. That line is never crossed, but I’d be surprised if this is the last you see of Naomi Blum. Speaking of surprises, I wasn’t surprised by any of the twists, even the final one about Ty’s true connection to April. Frankly, it was obvious almost from the start.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    elaborate thriller set in a world where everything is connected, where not just bullets can kill people. highly plausible how things could happen as described.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I have never read a novel by Andrew Gross, but have enjoyed Gross's joint ventures in writing with James Patterson. Gross and Patterson both employ the short chapter that tricks a reader into completing another chapter. Both men utilize a range of characters and settings that force the reader to continue reading just to discover what is happening. This novel centers on a worldwide plot to topple the financial world that reeks of reality. Has the world become like King Midas who never has enough power and wealth? As usual, both Patterson and Gross write a fast paced novel that demands that the reader stop and think about the world's corrupt practices.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An ex-policeman working in a private financial firm becomes involved in the investigation of two prominent banking heads who are killed. His investigation gets him involved with the US government and takes his chase around the world. So very good. Grabs you from the start. So typical Andrew Gross!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I don't normally pick up books like this, I have to be in a rare mood to read a thriller, but something about the Goodreads description intrigued me to enter the giveaway and lo and behold, I won. This book is apparently third in a series, but that fact had no impact on the storyline at all. It read like it's own, independent novel and it was a nice change of pace from what I have been reading lately.When a friend from investigator Ty Hauck's past is murdered, he finds himself trying to solve the case and is thus drawn into a much larger mystery involving the collapse of the economy. Together with government agent Naomi Blum he travels the world to find out once and for all what's going on and to bring justice to his deceased friend.The plot line was intricate and could be seen from several different points of views of various characters. It read like a movie and was definitely a page-turner right through the bitter end. Just when you think things are winding down -BAM!- they're not and I loved that. What's more, you can tell Gross is a student of James Patterson because of the chapter length. I love short chapters, they really keep a novel moving in my opinion. Overall, glad to have won and read it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In what at first appears to be a burglary gone wrong, At first, the murder a successful Wall Street trader and his family appears to be a burglary gone wrong. Then another financial executive dies in a suspicious “suicide.” Ty Hauck left law enforcement and is now an investigator works for a major private security firm. As he investigates the deaths, he uncovers an international financial conspiracy and discovers that the miscreants will kill anyone who gets in their way.With its fast pace and building suspense coupled with convincing characters, makes this a book that will give readers much to enjoy.Recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First, a few warnings about this book.If you are looking for a cheerful, uplifting story of redemption, this is not your book.If you re looking for something to give you a glimmer of hope in this broken world, this is not your book.If you are offended by bad language, this is not your book.If you have difficulty reading stories about child abuse, this is not your book.If you have made it through all of this list without shying away, then maybe this could be a book for you.It's dark and edgy and grim and gritty. It's not a pretty story, and the writing spares no details when it comes to some of the horrors and tragedies experienced by these characters. Yet, despite all the disclaimers above, I did find this to be an intriguing story. I've never been one to shy away from dark stories, and I think that is because they are usually so different from my own life experiences. I enjoy being able to get a glimpse of what life is like for people who are not like me. And these characters from rural Montana are definitely not like me!Pete Snow, the main character in Fourth of July Creek, is a social worker trying to help kids in his rural Montana town of Tenmile. But just like the kids he is trying to help, Pete has plenty of problems of his own. When Pete tries to help a boy living in the woods, he comes face to face with the boy's father, Jeremiah Pearl, a conspiracy theorist who is anxiously and eagerly awaiting the End Times. As Pete's own family falls apart, he also begins to form a cautious and unlikely friendship with the Pearls, and he gets caught in the middle when the FBI come to town on the hunt for Pearl.The idea that "abuse leads to more abuse" was illustrated clearly in this grim tale. I just felt so incredibly sad for all of these characters. They all appear to be stuck in the rut of following what their parents and grandparents have done before them, of living a life filled with abuse, pain, alcohol, drugs, sex, and regret. No one was happy. At all. I know this story is fiction and not based on real people, but I know there are many people in the world who live this way. It is terribly sad to think that people could spend their whole lives living like theses characters, without joy and without hope. I also found it interesting that the social workers in this story seemed to have the same problems and issues as the clients that they are trying to help. Pete said something to this effect in the story, "we take kids away from people like us." Yet, I still found myself rooting for Pete and wanting him to succeed, despite his flaws. He was far from perfect, but still he was trying to do good. I appreciated the real humanity of his character.So while this story didn't make me feel good in any way, it was still captivating. It's hard to say I enjoyed reading it because of some of the tough content, but I still would say I liked the book quite a bit. I especially liked the parts when Pete interacted with Jeremiah Pearl and his son Benjamin, and when we were given glimpses into what their life was like before Pete met them. I also liked the "interviews" (I put that in quotes because I'm not convinced that they were really interviews...kind of wish there was a little more closure there) with Rachel, Pete's daughter. Although having two daughters of my own, those interviews were also terrifying for me to read!I would recommend this book with a lot of caution, because it is definitely not for everyone. But if you are up for this gritty story full of flawed, troubled characters, it is well written and engaging and one that I won't forget for a while.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In 1980s rural Montana, social worker Pete Snow tries to keep his own life together while helping the children in his care.Smith Henderson has written a very readable book, a gripping story with several insights about the hardships of life on the fringes of society. However, I had a major problem with the novel that kept me from enjoying it completely. The main male characters in the book -- Pete, his brother Luke, and the survivalist Jeremiah Pearl, who Pete encounters in the woods with his son Benjamin -- are, despite their deep flaws, basically noble men trying to do their best by their kids and families. Pete himself has a failed marriage, is battling alcoholism, has a runaway teenage daughter, and seems prone to criminality, but it's clear that he cares about the kids he comes across and only wants to help them in any way he can. In contrast, the women in this novel are all ruins. They are addicted to either drugs, alcohol or sex; they are failures as girlfriends, wives and, most especially, mothers. They may love their children, but inevitably wind up damaging them, sometimes irreparably. The only female character who's allowed to show some strength is Pete's runaway daughter, Rachel, but she may well be on the road to ruin herself -- her fate is a question mark. I found this treatment of men and women in the story to be incredibly lopsided, without justification -- a feeling that continued to grow as I continued to read. While all in all, I liked the book and admired the writing, I had to deduct a star just because of this one-sidedness.Read in 2014.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the story of a Montana social worker, a flawed character in need of social work himself. He comes across Benjamin Pearl, a nearly feral boy living in the wilderness with his survivalist father Jeremiah, who is paranoid and mentally disturbed. Pete, the social worker, begins leaving food and other items that might be useful to the family in an attempt to gain their trust. Then, confirming Jeremiah's fears, the FBI comes to believe that Jeremiah is a terrorist. Pete's professional dramas are played against Pete's chaotic family life. Pete fights his own alcoholism. He is divorced from his wife who is unstable, and has followed a trucker to Austin, taking their daughter with her. After their daughter runs away, Pete also spends much time and resources to trying to find her. Pete's brother is also a fugitive from the law, and Pete is involved in trying to find him as well.kI enjoyed the book, was interested in many of the characters. There is a great deal going on throughout this rather long book--we learn much about the hard lives of the survivalists living in the great western wildernesses, the life of a teenage runaway on the streets of Seattle, the lives of children whose parents are crack addicts, and who are shunted through foster homes, and even into juvenile detention if no foster homes are available, the life of hard-scrabble musicians in Austin Texas. It's a very sad book, full of broken characters. It might have been a better book had the author not attempted such breadth, but it is nevertheless a book well-worth reading if you can deal with the pain of the characters.3 1/2 stars
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Train WreckAnyone who thinks about reading this book needs to understand that everyone in the book is a complete train wreck. The social worker who is the main focus, his estranged wife, daughter, girlfriend, brother and boyhood best friend. And then there's the people he is trying to help -- almost always unsuccessfully. None of these people is just mildly flawed -- they are all walking disasters. The one hint in the last few pages of something going right is erased by the last page in the book. Don't expect to be uplifted, satisfied or anything other than regretful that you had to read through such horror stories of lives.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is on several best book of 2014 lists and well deserving of the honor. It's about a male social worker in Montana (one of his first remarks is, "I know, most of us are women"), parenting in all forms, bad decisions from small to life altering, religious and political nuttery, police overreach, government under reach and the fragility of humankind. I was sad to finish the tale because I was so caught up in the characters and kept hoping good would come to them.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    FOURTH OF JULY CREEK, by Smith Henderson.Who is this guy, Smith Henderson, and where did he come from? Because this book is just so damn good! He's like Athena, who was born fully grown and armed, springing from the forehead of Zeus. Only this guy, this AUTHOR, has sprung fully armed with all the best tools of the writing trade from, from ... Hell, I don't know where from, but did I say how GOOD this book is?I probably don't really need to summarize the plot, because the book's already been reviewed a few hundred times by now. But Pete Snow is a protagonist who will not be easily forgotten. A caseworker for the Department of Family Services in western Montana in the early Reagan years, Snow is overworked but fiercely dedicated, trying with everything he has to make a difference in the lives of some of the poorest and most screwed up people you have ever met. As a character, Snow is completely, fully realized. Henderson is inside the guy's head to an extent that, once you've started reading, it's almost impossible to get Snow out of YOUR head. While Pete tries to save the least of our brethren, his own family has disintegrated. His wife and thirteen year-old daughter (and oh, the daughter, another sad story, and another character Henderson OWNS, he is so inside her head too) have left. Pete is living in a cabin in the mountains, off the grid. Hey, I don't want to summarize this complex, moving, at times frighteningly horrific story. That's already been done. Then there is Jeremiah Pearl and his eleven year-old son, Benjamin. Pearl is a survivalist, a religious crazy, a guy who hates the government and civilization in general. When they enter Pete's purview in tiny Tenmile, Montana, the story takes off, and you can't help but hang on for your life in a tale that takes you from Montana to Texas to Indiana to Washington and Oregon and a lot of strange places in between. Henderson knows these places. He knows the Yaak wilderness - the forests and mountains and valley - as well as the red light district of Seattle and the main drag at UT-Austin. And he makes you feel that you know these places too.What makes this book such a ride? Think Waco, think Ruby Ridge, think the Unabomber, and maybe even a little bit of Jonestown with its sacramental Kool-Aid. Put all this kind of stuff deep in the trackless "rain forest" and "jungle" of the Yaak. Send in cops and the ATF and FBI on a concentrated all-out manhunt. And put Pete Snow, this imperfect, battered but dedicated "priest" of the secular religion of Social Work, right smack in the middle of it, trying to save a young boy. (In fact there are other cases he's covering that are equally interesting and morbidly horrific, i.e. Cecil and Katie, and their abusive druggie mom.) And then there's the parallel plot of Pete's daughter Rachel (aka 'Rose'), who takes you deep into the terrifying, dark and ineffably sad world of teenage runaways.Sorry, I can't get all this stuff into a review. There's just too much going on, but it all comes together masterfully, and there is a kind of redemption to be found, finally, if you manage to ride it out to the end.Influences? Comparisons? I first thought of a recent novel by another Montanan, Kim Zupan's THE PLOUGHMEN - another beautiful book about an equally grim subject. And the descriptions of the bars and clubs of Missoula made me think of the late James Crumley, whose PI noirs nailed those places so well. And the Yaak Valley, with its dope farmers and other weirdoes brought to mind the West Virginia stories of Pinckney Benedict. And poor, crazy, raging teenage Cecil and his doper mother brought back Earl Thompson's classic novel of Depression-era Kansas, A GARDEN OF SAND. In the end, however, Smith Henderson has created his own unique world here, and it couldn't be any more real - or terrifying - than it is. Final word: FOURTH OF JULY CREEK is, hands down, simply one of the best books I have read in the past ten years. My highest recommendation.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I liked this book though it got really depressing at times. Didn't love the ending.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In the opening chapter we are introduced to Pete Snow, social worker, as he intervenes with a very dysfunctional family in Pete's jurisdiction of rural Montana. And we think, "Ah, a do-gooder! Let's root for Pete." But come the second chapter, we find that Pete's pretty dysfunctional too. His wife is leaving him, and his daughter has no sympathy for him either for the things he's done, so our sympathies shift to them. But, no, we then find up they're pretty screwed up, too.

    Indeed, there's not a single character in this book--and there are quite a few--who isn't screwed up in one way or another.

    And by the end, a major character whom we perceived as being screwed-up from his introduction becomes one who gains some of our sympathy.

    Human beings are a complicated lot, we are. No one can righteously carry the mantle of angel, and there are few true devils. The book ends, "You gotta believe. You can't just go through live acting like there are answers to every--"

    The book is very well written. Ironically, with so much ugliness happening in the narrative, it is countered in the narrative by so much beautiful prose. I question a bit whether some of the wonderful allusion and metaphor the author uses should have been allowed to slop over into the things actually voiced by some of the uneducated characters, but I suppose that's literary license.

    This is Smith Henderson's first novel, and I would look forward to his next.

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I kept reading this book in the hopes of finding something of value in it that would justify the raving reviews it's received. Never did find it. I didn't like any of the characters or cared about any of them except little Ben Pearl, who was caught in all of his father's paranoia. I don't see where the writing was brilliant. I thought it was very disjointed and confusing. Very disappointed in this book and will stay away from anything else written by this author. The book literally gave me a headache and made me feel sick. I very seldom give any book two stars but this hardly deserves that. I'll give it those two stars only because about a third of the way in, I was curious about what would happen, especially to the Pearls, but that curiosity died out another third of the way in.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson is an astonishing debut novel and a one that I will carry with me for quite some time. Henderson takes the reader back to the beginning of the Reagan area and into rural Montana where Pete Snow, a social worker, is trying to help almost feral eleven-year-old Benjamin Pearl, until he comes up against Benjamin’s survivalist father, Jeremiah. Soon the F.B.I. are involved in a manhunt for Pearl and Pete finds himself in the center of it all while his own life is falling apart. Fourth of July Creek with make readers think about iconic America in all its complexities and contradictions, along with the ideas and views of violence, anarchy, freedom, and the value of community. Fourth of July creek is a book that is not to be missed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an extraordinary first novel. Pete Snow, a 31 year old social worker, seems to be failing at his personal
    and professional lives, overmatched by the evils of the world, drinking way too much. Three stories are interwoven: the failure of Pete's marriage and disappearance of his daughter; the tragedy of a family infected by drugs; and the story of Jeremiah and Benjamin Pearl. Can Pete save any of them? Himself?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One of the best books I've read this year. Not fun. But GOOD!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Pete Snow is a social worker in the Montana wilderness of Tenmile, a small town in the middle of nowhere outside of Missoula. He is divorced, fighting with his ex-wife and his surly teenage daughter, and trying to steer clear of his troubled brother who has recently beat up a parole officer and taken off to parts unknown. When a bedraggled boy is picked up in town, Pete decides to hike up into the wilderness to return the boy to his family. He has no idea that the boy’s father, a radical man named Benjamin Pearl, might just not want to be found.Fourth of July Creek is about the unraveling of family and community as Benjamin Pearl becomes more paranoid and unpredictable and Pete’s personal life slides out of control with the disappearance of his daughter and an FBI investigation.Smith Henderson’s first novel (he has published numerous short works and won the 2011 Pushcart Prize) is a bit of a doorstopper at over 450 pages, and there were times I thought it could have stood a little editing. Despite this, Henderson’s prose is gritty and mesmerizing as the story unspools into chaos. Pete is not terribly likable, and yet I found myself hoping he would sort out his problems and find a happy ending, not only for himself, but for the damaged people he is trying to help.Henderson reveals the struggles of rural Americans including poverty, illegal drug use, homelessness, and broken families. Benjamin Pearl becomes symbolic of a modern America where fear of government intrusion and paranoia about losing freedom spirals into a madness that would be funny if it were not so terrifying.Fourth of July Creek is a dark commentary on the problems facing our country. Pete Snows struggle to save the families of Tenmile, while losing the fight to save his own family, becomes a compelling story about one man’s quest to find meaning in a disconnected world.Readers who enjoy novels set in the rural Pacific Northwest which are literary in style, will want to give this one a try. Smith Henderson is an author to watch.Recommended.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    This book wasn't my cup of tea. I was interested by the primary story line, but then the author veered into the destruction of Pete and I couldn't figure out where it was going, and I got turned off. DNF @ 16%.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Pete is a social worker for Montana Protective Services, and he encounters cruelty and insanity and abuse every day, even while his own family has fallen apart. His relationships with his clients are caring and empathetic, and he becomes involved with a father and small son who are living in the wilds anticipating the end of the world. Meanwhile, Pete and his wife have split up and his teenage daughter is alienated from him, compounded by her move to Texas with her out-of-control mother. The daughter becomes a runaway, causing Pete untold worry. Even though most of the characters in this novel are deeply flawed, some downright evil, it seems that the author genuinely likes the people in this book, starting first of all with Pete. Henderson provides a complex world for us to inhabit, and then be grateful that we don't actually live there.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book drops you straight into the scuzzy backwaters fillled with grim-faced, fucked-up people. Like a gritty Empire Falls, you end up being charmed by the town and its odd inhabitants.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is one if not the darkess novel I've read. It the story of social worker in Montina and his clients. One client is young teenager boy, father not in his life, his mother druggie. the boy has a 4 year sister, she is perhaps the most sane and healthy person in the novel. the social worker other main client is the son 14 of surivalist that lives in the wilds. his mother is a born again christen and knows that god talks to her. she kills the boy's sibbings and then herself. the sw gets involved with a fellow sw, who on the side turns tricks. the sw's daughter, 14, moves to texas with the ex. the daugher ends running away and becomes a sex worker. to top things off the sw borther is a futivie from the law. the novel is very well written and does explore the ideas of fate and freedom. while it is very dark i recommend it
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this novel - the excellent writing, the deeply developed characters, the gorgeous imagery all create the world perfectly. This is a story of human pain, fatal flaws, heartbreaking parent and child interactions, and just carrying on through the worst and occasionally the better of situations. Great writer for those who can read the darkest of stories and appreciate the sheer mastery of the telling.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    At first I thought this was just another one oft hose critically acclaimed books that i just could not understand the appeal to and then the book caught me in it's web and I could not put it down. The novel has three main threads. The main story is Pete Stone is a social worker in the 70's for the state of Montana. There is no distance he won't go for his clients but the irony is while he is out saving other people's kids his own child is a mess. As he tells his ex wife, we are the people that I take children away from.The sad state of Pete's family life is due to his ex cheating on him and taking off with their daughter. The other two threads of the story relate to Pete's clients. Cecile has been asked to leave the home by his mother if she can be called that and Benjamin Pearl shows up in town one day exhibiting the signs of malnutrition. The mystery of the Pearl family was the most compelling part of the book for me. Pete knows that there are other members of the family besides Benjamin and his father but where they are is a mystery until the end. Normally I don't like illiterate, poor people who abuse their kids type of stories. So depressing and sad. This book is dark but the story was just so compelling.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Joy's review: Yes, everyone in this book is a train wreck. The social worker, the kids he's trying to help, his own daughter, the crazy guy living on the mountain. It also a wonderfully written book. All the scenes are vivid; all the characters seemed very realistic; all the dialogue I could hear in my head. For me, one of the primary reasons to read fiction is to get a glimpse of other lives quite different from my own and hopefully to become more empathetic and kind as a result. This book did this very well.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was grim and dark. I could not put it down and I won't soon forget it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have a push-me, pull-you feeling about this book. I kept reading it because the story pulled me along, but I wanted to push the main character over the side of a cliff several times. I found most of the characters well-drawn although not very likeable. I found the story discouraging, but couldn't be sure if I wanted to believe that it accurately portrayed the dismal life it was painting. All in all, it is a book I would recommend but with caveats that it can drag on a bit, and it certainly isn't a fairy tale.