Read this book because it is the 2018 Spokane is Reading selection—which I learned of only recently. It's a powerful story, well told. I found myself looking up from the book because I could smell the cigarette smoke drifting through the screen door from the back porch that only existed in the story. And making cornbread and beans for dinner (sadly, I had no cabbage for slaw).

Perhaps it resonated with me because I was able to identify strongly with the characters, rural setting, and time. Jess could have been one of my classmates and friends.

The only disconnect I had was the spacial direction. I pictured a right turn where the author described a left. The river flowed the opposite direction in my mind. A winding road up the side of the mountain went around the left side in my mental version, not the right.

I rarely give a book five stars. It means: I'd like to read this again.