Reviews

The Cutting Season by Attica Locke

Only show reviews with written explanations

prettypious's review against another edition

4.0

Classic Attica Locke! You can always depend on her for a thrilling mystery! I loved Caren the protagonist and I loved the underpinned plot lines of ownership, possession and being/belonging.

tanzeela_k's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

anitaw16's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Caren Gray, the novel's protagonist, has many regrets: her inability to finish law school due to financial difficulties, her final argument with her mother that led to their estrangement, and last, but not least, her sabotage of the relationship with her daughter's father. These regrets led her back to a place where she never thought she would return.

Caren grew up at Belle Vie plantation, a Louisiana tourist destination where her mother had been a cook. Now, she manages the plantation for the Clancy family, who have owned the property since just after the Civil War. Much to Caren's dismay, she feels quite at home here raising her daughter.

This changes when the body of a migrant farmworker from an adjoining sugar cane operation is found on the property. As it turns out, this murder is tied to the disappearance of one of Caren's ancestors, a former slave who went missing from the plantation in the 1870s.

This novel has so much to love. It's filled with interesting characters, a wonderfully atmospheric setting, subtle commentary on race and class, and a compelling double mystery that truly surprised me.

bookph1le's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

This book made me think a lot about the legacy of slavery and how it's presented in American history. Setting it on an old plantation was fascinating because it really did make me dig into the implications of how we view that period of history, how we choose to preserve it, and the stories we choose to tell about it.

I thought the mystery itself was also interesting, weaving a lot of important issues into it.

The atmosphere of the novel was phenomenal too. This was one of those books where reading it felt like falling headfirst into it. It's extremely evocative.