Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

The story of Cussy Mary really drew me in, she was an extremely lovable and inspiring character.
The book is very informative, I learnt so much about the Pack Horse Library and blue people.
So many traumatic things happen at breakneck speed, it's incredibly emotionally affecting.
The audiobook narrator Katie Schoor was outstanding.

The writing style isn't very poetic and feels unsophisticated, it makes sense because the story is told in Cussy Mary's voice but it sometimes grated.
The plot is repetitive;

someone bullies or assaults Cussy and somebody else will turn up and save her.

There was some oppression olympics saying anti-blue sentiment was worse than racism which was really unnecessary.

I would recommend this book as I learnt a lot from it and I enjoyed the rollercoaster of emotions it put me through.

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justmys's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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dblue236's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Trigger warnings: Sexual assault, racism, domestic violence.

This was one of the best books I've read so far this year, for a number of reasons. I loved the setting and the beautiful descriptions of the time frame and rural Kentucky. The characters were well rounded and felt real, and the historical aspect of it that was clearly very thoroughly researched really added depth to the story. This was the first book I've read by this author, and if it was any indication, I definitely need to seek out more of her work. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

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sareidle's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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ocean_the_reader's review against another edition

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sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This wasn't a book for me. It didn't have a lot of happy moments and didn't really have a plot. What little romance there was wasn't believable, in my opinion. It was narrated well and that's all I got to say really.

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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I usually love historical fiction but this one took so long to get going that I struggled a lot at first. It didn’t really take off for me until about 100 pages in which is nearly halfway, and that’s why I didn’t rate it higher. The second half of the book kept me reading and I didn’t want to put it down. The historical aspects of the KY Pack Horse program and the blue people of Kentucky were fascinating as a native Kentuckian, especially because I had never heard of the former prior to reading this book. The story is sad and tells of the hardships of rural, Appalachian life in the 1930’s and 40’s with candor and grace. It definitely makes you appreciate the technological, medical, and social advancements we’ve made and just how hardy a people the folks from mining country truly are.

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