Small Southern towns

This might not be a long book, but man does it pack a punch!

“In a small Southern town during the 1950s, elopement and divorce were serious moral transgressions deserving of punishment.”

In the late 1960s, Eugene and his older brother Bill lived under the thumb of their ambitious and strict grandfather. As the town doctor, their grandfather controlled his patients as much as he did his grandsons, by threatening to tell their secrets or refusing to treat them if they did not follow his instructions to the letter. The boys’ only escape is the river in town, where they stumble across a girl named Ligeia — one of these free-loving hippies they’ve been warned about. Years later, their short time with Ligeia comes back to haunt them both.

This book was maybe 250 pages long, and in that short space, Rash manages to tell a story twice that size. It’s tense and fast paced and every time something new was revealed (about the girl, about the boys, about their grandfather), I felt a new shock. It’s beautifully written and incredibly well-plotted.