Review of Drown Me with Dreams, by Gabi Burton

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Drown Me with Dreams

by Gabi Burton
read by Dami Olukoya

Bloomsbury YA, 2024. 12 hours, 52 minutes.
Review written August 17, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Let me say again that I love the new trend in fantasy books of publishing duologies instead of trilogies. Drown Me with Dreams completes the duology begun in Sing Me to Sleep (a 2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out), following the siren Saoirse, who’s the only one of her kind in the kingdom of Keirdre, after the king slaughtered them all as monsters. (An advantage to listening to the book is now I know how to pronounce that.)

Things have changed for Saoirse in this book – I don’t want to give too many details and give away the first book, but now Saoirse is living openly as a siren, and she finds a way to cross the barrier to leave Keirdre. But she won’t be able to come back if Hayes doesn’t bring the barrier down – and that could have terrible consequences.

In this book, besides doing some sleuthing and plotting for the good of the kingdom, Saoirse also learns not to be afraid of her power – and that she doesn’t have to use it to kill.

In the first book, I got a little bogged down with the world-building – a kingdom enclosed by a barrier that not even birds can get through? I have trouble believing it. But in this book, I was used to the idea, and the focus was more on how could they bring it down without starting multiple wars. There was also speculation about what makes a good ruler. Can a good man be a good ruler to a kingdom that was founded to reward ruthlessness?

I’m also a little skeptical of Saoirse’s ability to taste other people’s emotions. Because how does it get in her mouth instantly? I mean, if it were a smell, it could waft in the air, but these were described even as tastes in the back of her throat. Again by this time, I was used to the idea, and the descriptions were so creative, never mind details like that. The emotions weren’t described as simply salty or spicy or sweet, but through a wide range from cinnamon to orange to old stew going rancid. It turns out that with this power, Saoirse can tell when someone is lying, which did make sense.

For most of the book, Saoirse is across the barrier from the one she loves – but she can dream walk to see him. There’s another world-building detail that was a little hard for me – they can touch and feel each other, but it’s only a dream. So when Saoirse talks to Hayes in the dream walk – what is her actual body doing? Apparently nothing. It’s all a little murky – but the romance is beautifully done, and questions of trust are explored. And then the beads she uses to dream walk stop working exactly when it causes the most possible misunderstanding. (Which is precisely how coincidences should work in fiction – cause problems, and we’ll believe it. Solve problems, and it feels way too convenient.)

So – without giving details, this second book made me love the whole duology more. The first book was a debut novel I read when on the Morris Award Committee – and this second book is even stronger – full of tension and intrigue, and finishes off the story in a satisfying, but not predictable way. The author has already grown in her writing in just one book. I look forward to seeing what she will do next.

gabiburton.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/drown_me_with_dreams.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

Review of Good Dirt, by Charmaine Wilkerson, read by January LaVoy

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Good Dirt

by Charmaine Wilkerson
read by January LaVoy

Books on Tape, 2025. 11 hours, 27 minutes.
Review written August 22, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Good Dirt, from the author of Black Cake, is another sweeping saga that shows us a person in extraordinary circumstances in the present and weaves a tapestry of history around that person.

In Good Dirt, Ebony Freeman has fled to France in order to get some time to herself, nine months after the man she was supposed to marry didn’t show up for the wedding.

This wasn’t Ebbie’s first brush with notoriety, and the first time was even worse: When she was ten years old, her fifteen-year-old brother was shot in their Connecticut home when some thieves were trying to steal their family’s historic old jar. Ebbie was with her brother when he died and saw the jar in pieces on the floor.

The family was proud of that jar, and loved to tell stories about its history. It came to New England when Ebbie’s great-great-grandfather brought it along when he stowed away on a ship and made his way to freedom. Moses, the enslaved man who made the jar, carved an inscription on the bottom of the jar, at a time when it was illegal for enslaved people to read or write. That inscription has inspired the family for generations.

But now Ebbie’s managing her friend’s guesthouse in France – and the first people to show up are her ex-fiance and his new girlfriend, Ashley. It’s not as big a coincidence as it seems – Ashley had picked up an ad Ebbie’s friend had placed in a neighborhood cafe when she was in the area for Ebbie’s planned wedding. But the awkward situation forces Ebbie to think through a lot of things she’d been avoiding.

And that’s the situation that fuels the book. Ebbie decides to write the stories of the jar, and we learn its rich history while watching Ebbie deal with her own history and what this all means for the present with the man she’d planned to marry in front of her on the other side of the ocean.

As in Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson gives us multiple perspectives on events. I, for one, didn’t care what the ex-fiance thought about things – but she uses even that to help us get to know the whole family – all still dealing with the loss of Ebbie’s brother, and trying to go on with dignity in the present.

This is another powerful story that completely enthralls.

charmspen.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/good_dirt.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

Review of Kismat Connection, by Ananya Devarajan, read by Reena Dutt and Vikas Adam

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

Kismat Connection

by Ananya Devarajan
read by Reena Dutt and Vikas Adam

Harlequin Audio, 2023. 8 hours, 41 minutes.
Review written October 7, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.

Kismat Connection is a sweet romance about two Indian American seniors in high school who have been best friends since childhood. We get the story told from both their perspectives.

Arjun is a lacrosse star who wants to be an aerospace engineer. His mother has traveled often for work since his dad left, and he’s learned not to count on her. Instead, he spends time with Madhuri’s family, who welcomes him as if he’s their own. He has long been in love with Madhuri, but doesn’t dare tell her because he doesn’t want to mess up their friendship.

But when Madhuri’s mother reads both their astrological charts for the upcoming year and Arjun’s forecasts great success but Madhuri’s outlines trouble – Madhuri thinks of a way to fight against fate. She devises a plan to date Arjun for their senior year – but plan in advance to break up the day after graduation. She thinks of course it will work because neither of them will ever have romantic feelings for their best friend.

Well, it surprises no one but Madhuri when things get more complicated than that.

This book is a delightful rom-com with thoughts about free will and destiny as well as finding who you truly are and following your heart.

ananyadevarajan.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/kismat_connection.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

Review of As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow, by Zoulfa Katouh

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow

by Zoulfa Katouh
read by Rasha Zamamiri

Hachette Audio, 2022. 12 hours, 16 minutes.
Review written August 13, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Wow. This is a book about ordinary people who become extraordinary during wartime.

Salama is 18 years old and working in a hospital in Homs, Syria, in 2011. She got to attend two years of pharmacy school before people had enough and rose up against Assad. Her father and brother were taken to prison to be tortured after a protest, and her mother died when a bomb struck their home. Now Salama volunteers every day at the hospital and has learned to do surgery such as removing bullets and sewing up wounds.

Salama’s been through trauma, and she knows it. She knows that the man she sees named Hawf is someone created in her brain that no one else can see. He is relentlessly trying to get her to leave Syria before her 8-months-pregnant sister-in-law Layla gives birth. She’s torn because she’s needed at the hospital. And what about the cost? And will they even survive the journey?

In the middle of all these hard things, she meets a boy a little older than herself, who brings in his little sister with an injury. It turns out the boy was the same one her mother was arranging for her to meet just before the revolution started and their lives blew apart. He, too, feels he is doing important work in Syria – posting YouTube videos of the protests and the response. As their attraction for each other grows, they both need to decide at what point the risk is just too great and when staying alive is simply the most important goal.

The characters speak eloquently of their love for Syria. There is plenty of horrific violence in this book, including a chemical attack on children. Salama is badly traumatized, and she knows she’s traumatized – but she still wants to help people.

The author tells us at the end that she was trying to show ordinary people in wartime, trying to show the beauty of Syria – that was crushed by the regime in power. And that people are still people.

The romance in this book is wonderful. I appreciate that when the characters are Muslim, the romance isn’t focused on physically getting together – and to me, it makes the attraction all the stronger. The author said she was trying to copy Jane Austen’s romances, and she did a wonderful job. We can watch these two fall in love on the page – even while horrific things are happening around them and they each fear for the lives of those they love.

It does leave me wondering: When will humans stop doing this to one another? Until that day comes, this book is an amazing look at some young people who manage to find love and beauty even in the middle of war.

zoulfakatouh.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/as_long_as_the_lemon_trees_grow.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

Review of The Women, by Kristin Hannah, read by Julia Whelan

Audiobooks, Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

The Women

by Kristin Hannah
read by Julia Whelan

Macmillan Audio, 2024. 14 hours, 57 minutes.
Review written August 5, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I know, I know – I’m way behind most people on reading this book, but Wow! Now I see why it’s been so popular.

“The Women” the title refers to are the women who served in Vietnam. Even though they were often told after the war that “There were no women in Vietnam.” (And Kristin Hannah’s author’s note at the end tells us that was a detail she got from more than one woman she interviewed.)

She tells the story of many women by focusing in on one woman, Frankie McGrath. At her brother’s going-away party, setting off to serve in Vietnam, when they all thought the war would be over soon, she was told, “Women can be heroes, too.”

So Frankie trained as a nurse and decided to serve in Vietnam with her brother. But the very day she signed up and told her parents the news was the day that they got word that her brother was killed in action, no remains found.

When Frankie got to Vietnam, it was trial by fire. Kristin Hannah takes us through her bewildering first day when there was a mass casualty event, through her training in the neuro ward, watching over patients who were unresponsive, through her coming into true expertise as an Operating Room Nurse.

And the author shows us how this was the worst and best time of Frankie’s life. Besides the horrors that haunt her, she built friendships like cement. She fell in love more than once – trying to avoid the ones who are already married. And she watched people die. But she also saved many lives, and held the hands of the dying so that they were not alone.

Half of the book is about what happened after Frankie got back. She was not hailed as a hero, not even by her parents, who’d told people she’d gone to school in Florence. The reader can see her PTSD symptoms – before that was even named as an issue.

There were times as I was reading this book when I cringed because I was pretty sure another impossibly hard thing was going to hit Frankie. And I wasn’t wrong.

But this is ultimately a story of a woman who went through impossibly hard things and came out the other side. The book ends on a well-earned hopeful note. And I love that Frankie represents the actual lives of the thousands of women who served in Vietnam. Her story helps us understand their stories.

kristinhannah.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/women.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

Review of This Book Won’t Burn, by Samira Ahmed

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

This Book Won’t Burn

by Samira Ahmed
read by Kausar Mohammed

Hachette Audio, 2024. 10 hours, 23 minutes.
Review written July 29, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I loved this audiobook so much! I’d been meaning to read it pretty much since it came out, so when it accumulated enough NotifyMe tags in Libby to order for the library, I placed a hold – and I was completely charmed. (Yes, it’s gotten to where I am more likely to read audiobooks than print books. This is a drastic change.)

It’s the story of Noor Khan, a senior in high school. She’s just gotten an acceptance to the University of Chicago, close to home. The book begins on the day her life fell apart, when her father left their family – including her mother and younger sister. He left the house and never came back. Later, they found a note in his briefcase saying he couldn’t do this any more. Noor even references Vikki Stark’s work on Runaway Husbands, so I related to that part all too much, but Noor was somewhat resentful that the website focuses on the wives who get left suddenly – when it also includes the children.

A few months later, Noor is facing the last quarter of her senior year at a new school in small-town Illinois, where her mother moved them to give them all a new start. Noor’s not happy about that.

But she does make friends quickly. The one Desi guy in the school volunteered to give her a tour, and she quickly makes friends with his lesbian friend. And then a cute white boy makes overtures.

However, when Noor gets to the library, she sees the librarian pulling books off the shelves because of a new school board policy that one challenge from the public gets books removed until they can be “reviewed.” The next day, Noor wears an “I Read Banned Books” t-shirt, which gets her called into the principal’s office.

When some of the books being banned show up in Noor’s locker, she decides to read them aloud in the park across the street during lunch. But then the principal retaliates by taking the privilege of going off campus for lunch away from juniors and seniors, letting everyone know she’s to blame.

Meanwhile, Noor’s mother, who together with her father taught Noor that silence is defeat, is upset with Noor for making waves in their new town. And she’s confused about her feelings for the two guys in her life. As Noor stands up for the freedom to read, she gets more and more pushback and even violence.

As a librarian, I found this book completely realistic and completely timely. The situations were pulled directly from current headlines. Yay for standing up for free speech and our Constitutional rights! I also appreciated the call-out of many excellent books that are widely banned by groups such as Moms for Liberty. (The book called them “Liberty Moms,” but I know the real-life group.) It showed their hypocrisy in trying to “protect” kids from books by excluding books by diverse authors.

So the cause, of course is wonderful. But the story was wonderful, too. I related to Noor’s pain from being abandoned by her father, her difficulties in her relationship with her mom, and enjoyed reading about her setbacks and triumphs with her new friends. This one doesn’t even have an kisses, but there are a couple of sweet romances going on, and the conflict between Noor’s head and heart at times was portrayed in a completely relatable way. Listening to this book had me smiling all day.

samiraahmed.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/this_book_wont_burn.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Catfish Rolling, by Clara Kumagai, read by Susan Momoko-Hingley

Audiobooks, Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Catfish Rolling

by Clara Kumagai
read by Susan Momoko-Hingley

Clipper Audiobooks, 2023. 9 hours, 17 minutes.
Review written October 19, 2023, from a library eaudiobook

Catfish Rolling is an intriguing speculative fiction debut novel set in Japan after a series of earthquakes that also were timequakes.

Sora and her parents were visiting family in Japan from Vancouver when the first timequake hit years ago. They lost her mother in one of the zones where time was faster or slower and stayed in Japan to try to find her. Sora’s father is a scientist and made his career out of studying the time anomalies, but now he often seems confused, and traveling into the time-disrupted zones can’t be good for him.

That doesn’t stop Sora from traveling there herself to keep looking for her mother. Can people survive there? Sometimes she sees shadows. After graduating from high school, she sticks around their village to watch over her father but also to keep searching herself. She’s better than anyone at feeling the difference in the rate of time flow in the zones, and starts a black market business of taking people into the zones.

Now, I got hung up on some of the details occasionally. Seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth’s axis. So how could there be a zone on the same planet where in one place it’s Spring while nearby it’s Winter? They’re all on the same planet.

But Clara Kumagai’s skill was such that most of the time I could suspend my disbelief as Sora and her father took a scientific approach to the zones, trying to learn how they worked. They approached it as a serious scientific phenomenon, so as a reader it was easy to go along with that.

This book was engaging and fascinating, looked at as a dangerous scientific phenomenon that was hard to understand. So it’s a speculative fiction book about dealing with the unknown, but all bound up in grief and risk. I am looking forward to seeing more from this author.

clarakumagai.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/catfish_rolling.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Under the Same Stars, by Libba Bray

Audiobooks, Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Under the Same Stars

by Libba Bray
read by January LaVoy, Jeremy Carlisle Parker, and Major Curda

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2025. 16 hours, 31 minutes.
Review written June 10, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Under the Same Stars is a skillfully crafted historical novel about resistors in three time periods – 1941 Germany resistance, 1980s divided Berlin punk bands, and the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement. As the three stories progress, we learn that the stories are intertwined and there are returning characters.

One of those returning characters shows up early – the Bridegroom’s Oak, a tree in the forest outside Kleinwald Germany known for its magical matchmaking powers. We’ve also got a fairy tale about the tree, with forest magic woven through the tales.

Dear friends Sophie and Hanna start out by sending their own letters through the tree – which makes a cover for later using the tree to pass along forged documents to rescue people from Nazi Germany.

In 1980s West Berlin, Jenny, the young daughter of a diplomat isn’t at all happy about spending her summer away from her friends in Dallas. But when taking pictures of the city, she meets some punks and starts playing with their all-girl band, behind her parents’ back. And then she starts falling in love with her band mate, which would also horrify her parents. This girl is originally from East Berlin, and Jenny learns that the band’s music is an act of resistance.

And then in 2020, Miles is in isolation while one of his mothers got stuck overseas and the other is working around the clock in a New York City hospital. When his friend Chloe – who hadn’t been speaking to him – gets in touch, he starts working on the mystery of her grandmother’s partial story about a magical tree. Thinking about resistance helps him break out of isolation when the Black Lives Matter protests start up.

As usual, my summary doesn’t convey how well these stories are interwoven and the strong message that resistance is a loving and hopeful act. It’s something you do not for yourself, but because you have hope of a better world. It also conveys the message that the need for resistance is unfortunately very common.

I wish that message weren’t as timely as it is.

Even without the powerful message, this is a set of three gripping stories of folks who put their lives on the line.

libbabray.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/under_the_same_stars.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of A Woman of No Importance, by Sonia Purnell

Audiobooks, Biography, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

A Woman of No Importance

The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

by Sonia Purnell
read by Juliet Stevenson

Books on Tape, 2019. 13 hours, 54 minutes.
Review written July 8, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I wish I remembered what prompted me to put this amazing nonfiction audiobook on hold, because it was a great tip. I don’t do a great job of reading big thick nonfiction tomes, but as an audiobook, it kept my interest all the way.

The author researched one of the most important spies of World War II, Virginia Hall. Yes, she was American, from Baltimore – but most of the time she did her spying for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) before the United States even entered the war.

Not only did Virginia Hall face obstacles and being underestimated and dismissed because she was a woman – she was also disabled, an amputee with a wooden leg. Those things kept her from getting to go far in the U.S. diplomatic corps, so when World War II started, she found work with the SOE.

She was in “free” France under the Vichy government for most of the war, building more and more networks in the Resistance, sending more and more information to the Allies, and helping the cause more and more. She was the sort who wouldn’t let them send her back to safety, even when it became apparent the Germans were figuring out who was causing them so much trouble.

All along the way, she faced frustrations because her assessments and requests weren’t given the weight due her experience – because she was a woman. But still, her expertise and skills made her incredibly effective and helpful for the Allied cause.

The story is riveting – especially the bulk of it where she is working in war-time France. It’s truly amazing how much she accomplished right under the noses of her enemies. This book helped me understand that her many years of service and the wide variety of ways she helped the Allied cause.

soniapurnell.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/woman_of_no_importance.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Antidote, by Karen Russell

Audiobooks, Historical, Paranormal 0

The Antidote

by Karen Russell
read by Elena Rey, Sophie Amoss, Mark Bramhall, Shayna Small, Jon Orsini, Natasha Soudek, Karen Russell, and James Riding In

Books on Tape, 2025. 16 hours, 56 minutes.
Review written June 22, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

The Antidote is a historical novel of the Dust Bowl, woven throughout with magical realism. When I began the book, I wasn’t sure I liked it, and the pace is literary and more slow-moving than the young adult and children’s books I often read. But by the last several hours – well, let’s just say that I stayed up until 3 am and finished a jigsaw puzzle to also finish this book. (Would I have stayed up to finish the jigsaw puzzle anyway? Maybe. But wanting to finish this audiobook meant I didn’t even try to resist.)

The “Antidote” of the title is a person. She’s a prairie witch, and that’s the name she uses for customers. She’s a vault for things you want to forget, memories that trouble you or that you want to stop thinking about for a time. The Antidote goes into a trance and the customer talks into her ear trumpet and the memories get transferred to her to carry. The customer doesn’t remember what they confided, and the Antidote never heard it, but they can come back at any time, read their deposit slip backwards, and this time the transfer will go the other way, giving the memories back to the customer.

But the book opens on Black Sunday, the day an enormous dust storm went through Nebraska. On the same day, the Antidote went bankrupt. She can feel in her body that all the deposits were lost. What will she do when the customers fleeing the dry prairie want their deposits back?

There are other characters we follow. Harp Oletsky is a farmer whose wheat crop was miraculously spared. Even the scarecrow survived intact! He starts seeing lights coming from the land.

Harp’s niece, Asphodel, is living with him after her mother was found dead in a ditch. She tries to escape her nightmares about her mother’s body by playing basketball. But the folks supporting their team one by one are leaving Nebraska. And Asphodel wants to make some money by working for the Antidote.

Then there’s a government photographer. She’s a Black lady traveling alone. She tries to follow the instructions for the pictures the government wants to support the New Deal – but then her camera reveals images that she didn’t see when she took the pictures.

And through all of this, we learn about life on the prairie and the hard things that happen there – things people are willing to pay to forget. For example, the Polish settlers don’t want to face that they were offered free homesteads in order to secure land that belonged to the Pawnee people. And in fact, the Pawnee people are being treated exactly the way the Polish people were treated in Europe.

It also turns out that the no-good sheriff has been forcing the Antidote to receive deposits in order to hide evidence. And that comes to a head when the Lucky Rabbit’s Foot Killer – who supposedly killed Asphodel’s mother – has a botched execution on Black Sunday when the electric chair malfunctions. The election is coming up, and the sheriff intends to win on his record, never mind what is really the truth behind the murders.

And it’s all wound together in a way that winds itself into your heart. I have to admit it got me thinking uncomfortable thoughts about my homesteading ancestors in a way I never faced before. The motto of the prairie in this book is “Better you than me.” And the book shows up the problems with that motto – and how deeply it’s embedded in the heart of America. Powerful stuff, and an engrossing read (once you get started).

karenrussellauthor.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/antidote.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?