Review: The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows

The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows

Blurb from Goodreads:

Evoking the same small town charm with the same great eye for character, the co-author of Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society finds her own voice in this debut novel about a young debutante working for the Federal Writer's Project whose arrival in Macedonia, West Virginia changes the course of history for a prominent family who has been sitting on a secret for decades. The Romeyn family is a fixture in the town, their identity tied to its knotty history. Layla enters their lives and lights a match to the family veneer and a truth comes to light that will change each of their lives forever.

My Review:
After Station Eleven, this is my favorite book I've read this year.  Set in the summer of 1938, I could feel the oppressive heat and rebel sympathies oozing out of the pages that I couldn't stop turning.  Even though Macedonia, West Virginia is a fictional place, you couldn't put that past me.  That is, I felt I was there and it was the summer of 1938 as I was reading -- the descriptions were so vivid and so engaging.  Willa Romeyn is a soothsaying narrator -- the omniscience of a child, a sneak, of all of us and I couldn't love her more.  When she ached, I ached.  

I was continually reminded of both The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and To Kill a Mockingbird while reading this book.  It is that classic!  The combination of the child narrator (predominately) and the Southern Gothic themes just spoke to me.  This is the first book I've read by Annie Barrows and her first solo venture in adult novels -- I hope she continues to write many, many more.  I HIGHLY, highly recommend this book.  The Truth According to Us was just released last week, and you can purchase HERE!

"You're right, Jottie, but what good is it?  Rightness is nothing.  You can't live on it.  You might as well eat ashes."  I glanced at Father, his bloodshot eyes and the stain on his pants.  I loved him so.  Once more, I tried to explain.  "This is all we can do; it's all we're allowed.  We can't go back.  The only thing time leaves for us to decide" -- I picked up Father's hand and held it tight-- "is whether or not we're going to hate each other."