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caitlinxmartin's review against another edition
1.0
Sharyn McCrumb writes books set in her native Appalachians that are almost all evocative of both place and time. She's got two series going - the Elizabeth MacPherson novels (Appalachian cop books, basically), and the Ballad series. I'm fond of all of her books, particularly the Ballad series which are historical fiction based on Appalachian ballads. I like her books a lot and was pleased to find a new one.
Unfortunately, this one is unreadable. I got about 100 pages again before I gave it up. The primary problem with this book is that its author quite obviously loathes most of the characters she's writing about. She's grinding a hard ax here about the media's poor treatment of the Appalachians and her people and I'm sympathetic to her feelings, but I can't care about characters that the author loathes. I don't have to like everyone, but something has to engage me and there's just too much bias here for me to be engaged. Disappointing.
Unfortunately, this one is unreadable. I got about 100 pages again before I gave it up. The primary problem with this book is that its author quite obviously loathes most of the characters she's writing about. She's grinding a hard ax here about the media's poor treatment of the Appalachians and her people and I'm sympathetic to her feelings, but I can't care about characters that the author loathes. I don't have to like everyone, but something has to engage me and there's just too much bias here for me to be engaged. Disappointing.
cmbohn's review against another edition
2.0
This one just didn't work for me. The story of a murder trial of an Appalachian girl arrested for killing her father. That story showed promise, but it seemed to be mostly a chance for the writer to editorialize about journalism and their search for an angle to every story, never mind the truth, and how the poor are victimized by Big City Journalists. Plus, what was that whole Japan subplot about? That had nothing at all to do with the story. I almost didn't finish it, but I felt I needed to give it a chance. If you want to read a really good book on the same subject, check out Scoop by Evelyn Waugh.
janetlun's review
I generally really enjoy McCrumb's books. This one was just interesting enough to keep me reading, but just barely. She's decided to write a polemic about how Big City Northern Journalists Lie and Slander Good Honest Southern People, and boy howdy does she hammer you over the head with it. She'd be much more effective in achieving her goal if she just wrote the action to reveal that, but she does that _and_ has virtually every character do an info dump on the topic, too. It gets very tiresome.
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