A review by gabriele_queerbookdom
The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning
5.0
DRC provided directly by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Representation: pansexual polyamorous white protagonist, queer German-Dominican tertiary character, Dominican tertiary character, white German tertiary character, queer Lakota Oglala tertiary character, Ghanaian tertiary characters, queer Ghanaian tertiary character, tertiary characters of colour, queer tertiary characters, asthmatic tertiary character.
Content Warning: violence, death, grief, loss, alcohol, mention of slavery, mention of genocide, mentions of colonialism, bullying, kidnapping.
The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning is an astounding near-future thriller story about grief, loss, guilt and the ways to overcome it, family, love and the forms justice takes.
Dinah Caldwell is a seventeen-year-old girl living in the Ozarks. When her father abandoned the family after the failure of his garage, Dinah felt like she needed to fill the void he created on top of running their farm with her mother. After years of barely surviving, Gabriel Gates, a local profiteer, starts hounding them for their well, even resorting to physically assaulting her mother. When she comes home one day after helping out her neighbours, she finds her mother dead on the floor and that man on her house’s porch. Alone, homeless and with a bounty on her head, she takes refuge on the mountains with the help of a fellow unfortunate soul; her only thought: seeing Gabriel Gates dead.
Frankly, while I expected to enjoy this book, I did not anticipate loving it this much, but I am really happy I did. I was so captivated by the story that I managed to flash through it in only two sittings (I am honestly still unsure how I did it, because I am usually a slowcoach even with my favourites books), which for people who know me as a reader, is an exceptionally unusual event. I loved so much the narration’s fluidity and the alternation of those moments of suspense and emotionality. Dinah is an extraordinary character, a relentless girl who would do anything for her family and friends and who is not going to be subdued by a ruthless and immoral man.
The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell is definitely an outstanding story that I recommend with my whole heart!
Representation: pansexual polyamorous white protagonist, queer German-Dominican tertiary character, Dominican tertiary character, white German tertiary character, queer Lakota Oglala tertiary character, Ghanaian tertiary characters, queer Ghanaian tertiary character, tertiary characters of colour, queer tertiary characters, asthmatic tertiary character.
Content Warning: violence, death, grief, loss, alcohol, mention of slavery, mention of genocide, mentions of colonialism, bullying, kidnapping.
The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning is an astounding near-future thriller story about grief, loss, guilt and the ways to overcome it, family, love and the forms justice takes.
Dinah Caldwell is a seventeen-year-old girl living in the Ozarks. When her father abandoned the family after the failure of his garage, Dinah felt like she needed to fill the void he created on top of running their farm with her mother. After years of barely surviving, Gabriel Gates, a local profiteer, starts hounding them for their well, even resorting to physically assaulting her mother. When she comes home one day after helping out her neighbours, she finds her mother dead on the floor and that man on her house’s porch. Alone, homeless and with a bounty on her head, she takes refuge on the mountains with the help of a fellow unfortunate soul; her only thought: seeing Gabriel Gates dead.
Frankly, while I expected to enjoy this book, I did not anticipate loving it this much, but I am really happy I did. I was so captivated by the story that I managed to flash through it in only two sittings (I am honestly still unsure how I did it, because I am usually a slowcoach even with my favourites books), which for people who know me as a reader, is an exceptionally unusual event. I loved so much the narration’s fluidity and the alternation of those moments of suspense and emotionality. Dinah is an extraordinary character, a relentless girl who would do anything for her family and friends and who is not going to be subdued by a ruthless and immoral man.
The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell is definitely an outstanding story that I recommend with my whole heart!