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The Weight of Blood
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Mystery & Thriller (2014), Nominee for Readers' Favorite Debut Goodreads Author (2014)For fans of Gillian Flynn and Daniel Woodrell, a dark, gripping debut novel of literary suspense about two mysterious disappearances, a generation apart, and the meaning of family-the sacrifices we make, the secrets we keep, and the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love.
The Dane family's roots tangle deep in the Ozark Mountain town of Henbane, but that doesn't keep sixteen-year-old Lucy Dane from being treated like an outsider. Folks still whisper about her mother, a bewitching young stranger who inspired local myths when she vanished years ago. When one of Lucy's few friends, slow-minded Cheri, is found murdered, Lucy feels haunted by the two lost girls-the mother she never knew and the friend she couldn't protect. Everything changes when Lucy stumbles across Cheri's necklace in an abandoned trailer and finds herself drawn into a search for answers. What Lucy discovers makes it impossible to ignore the suspicion cast on her own kin. More alarming, she suspects Cheri's death could be linked to her mother's disappearance, and the connection between the two puts Lucy at risk of losing everything. In a place where the bonds of blood weigh heavy, Lucy must decide where her allegiances lie.
The Dane family's roots tangle deep in the Ozark Mountain town of Henbane, but that doesn't keep sixteen-year-old Lucy Dane from being treated like an outsider. Folks still whisper about her mother, a bewitching young stranger who inspired local myths when she vanished years ago. When one of Lucy's few friends, slow-minded Cheri, is found murdered, Lucy feels haunted by the two lost girls-the mother she never knew and the friend she couldn't protect. Everything changes when Lucy stumbles across Cheri's necklace in an abandoned trailer and finds herself drawn into a search for answers. What Lucy discovers makes it impossible to ignore the suspicion cast on her own kin. More alarming, she suspects Cheri's death could be linked to her mother's disappearance, and the connection between the two puts Lucy at risk of losing everything. In a place where the bonds of blood weigh heavy, Lucy must decide where her allegiances lie.
302 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
651 people are currently reading
32709 people want to read
About the author
Laura McHugh
8 books1,409 followersLaura McHugh's debut novel, The Weight of Blood, won an International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel, a Silver Falchion Award for Best First Novel: Literary Suspense, and the Missouri Author Award for Fiction. It was also nominated for an Alex Award, Barry Award, and GoodReads Choice Award (Best Mystery and Best Debut). Arrowood was an international bestseller and a finalist for the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Hardcover Novel, and The Wolf Wants In was one of Library Journal's Best Books of the Year. McHugh's latest novel, What's Done in Darkness, was one of Oprah Daily's Best Beach Reads of 2021, a Self Magazine Best Book of the Year, and Harlan Coben's pick for Best Summer Thriller on the Today Show.
Linktree: Laura McHugh
Linktree: Laura McHugh
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,642 reviews
September 2, 2018
3.5 stars, actually...
without even consciously trying to, i have read seven books so far this year, and all of them have been by women. take that, patriarchy! but don't start raising me on the shoulders of feminism just yet, because what i am about to say will probably cause you to throw me into the gutter, and i would rather avoid the bruising.
this book is a women's version of grit lit.
but hold up! by saying this i am in no way saying it is inferior to the novels in the mostly male-author dominated genre, and i am offended that you would even make that accusation. which you haven't. but here on the goodreads, i have seen so many flare-ups over people using terms like "women's fiction" or "chick lit" as though these are not actual, useful and recognizable distinctions for certain kinds of books, that i am trying to make myself perfectly clear before these situations arise.
this is not women's fiction, and it certainly is not chick lit. but it does offer a more female (not "feminine") perspective to grit lit, which is usually characterized by a stark writing style and less insight into a character's psychology than just the very basic facts of the struggles of rural individuals living impoverished lives in harsh landscapes where nature doesn't give a damn and the moral codes are more biblical than, for lack of a better word at the moment, civilized.
so i'm not saying this is girly, not at all. it is still full of that backwoods justice that i so love:
It was common knowledge that in the hills, with infinite hiding places, bodies disappeared. They were fed to hogs or buried in the woods or dropped into abandoned wells. They were not dismembered and set out on display. It just wasn't how things were done. It was that lack of adherence to custom that seemed to frighten people the most. Why would someone risk getting caught to show us what he'd done to Cheri when it would've been so easy to keep her body hidden? The only reasonable explanation was that an outsider was responsible, and outsiders bred fear in a way no homegrown criminal could.
and that's perfect - that is one of the reasons i love this kind of writing so much - i love the idea of these small, close-knit social groups with their mistrust of outsiders and their very specific traditions and superstitions that have evolved over time, living away from the rest of the world.
and we have a strong independent female co-narrator in lucy who has grown up within this system, knows the rules, and is handy with a gun, who is somewhat "other" because her mother came from "outside," but who is enough of the place to understand its rules, even as she deviates from them somewhat.
"I know you, though, Luce, and you always want to do the right thing."
"I want to do my version of the right thing."
but the book is ultimately about women, and the ways in which their lives have been affected, for better or worse, by men. this is a split-narrative (mostly) between two female characters: lila and her daughter lucy. lila came up through the foster care system in iowa after her mother and stepfather were killed in an accident. a beautiful, magnetic kind of girl with a keen instinct for survival who makes people uneasy even as they are drawn to her. she endured the unwanted sexual attention of foster brothers and fathers, and fought back when it became an attempt at actual abuse. she has nowhere else to go, and no kin of her own, so when she responds to a help wanted ad that takes her to henbane, missouri (population 700) she knows this has to work out, because - again - she has nowhere else to go. it does not work out at all well, and she finds herself in a dangerous place without any allies willing to risk their lives for an outsider. a scrap of luck falls her way, and she finds herself married with a baby girl, but still in danger and unable to tell anyone about what happened to her in henbane, lest she disrupt the fragile happiness she has managed to claw to herself. and then she goes missing, when lucy is still a baby, presumed by the town and her husband to have killed herself.
her daughter lucy is the other major voice. she has grown up in henbane, and is now a teenager with a teenager's conflicted feelings of love for her family and her familiar surroundings but an uncomfortable yearning for more.
We'd learned in science class that stars looked brighter here than in most places because there were no competing lights. Henbane was a dark spot on the globe seen from space.
lucy is still haunted by the mystery of what happened to her mother, which only intensifies when her friend cheri, a "slow-minded" girl she has mostly outgrown but still feels responsible for, also goes missing, and whose body turns up a year after her disappearance, scarred and cut into pieces.
the story back-and-forths through lila and lucy's stories, and paints an ugly picture of sexual intimidation, kidnapping, loyalty, and an understood code of silence. but it also tells the story of a mother's love for her daughter, and the risks she is willing to take to protect her. there are other voices here: birdie, the midwife who delivers lucy and becomes a surrogate grandmother to her, lila's only friend gabby, who knows nothing of lila's predicament or background, and is shattered by her disappearance, and ransome, a woman who worked beside lila upon her arrival -who knew everything but never told. there are men in the story, too - lila's husband carl, his older brother crete, and jamie, a man who was bewitched by lila when he was just a little boy, but it is the women's stories that are the driving force. this is why i am calling it a women's version. the voices at the forefront are those of women. the violence is the violence towards women. the men exist in this novel to affect or be affected by the female characters, and the emphasis on family, particularly motherhood, sacrifice, and the inner life of the characters are not often found in male-authored books of this genre.
this is obviously not saying that men won't read this or that they wouldn't appreciate it, because obviously that would be a stupid thing to say. (i have spent a great deal of this review fending off attacks before they happen, but that's only because i am not new here on goodreads. i know this is a very hot button) and i appreciate the perspective - it brings a fresh take to a genre i have read bunches of.
(incidentally, this review i wrote ages ago crossed my path today, and that's probably why i am so fixated on this gender/genre issue, even though they are very different books)
there is a lot to appreciate here. some of the plot-points strain credulity a bit, so that's why it didn't get a four or a five-star, but it is definitely a page-turner with an engaging story that is certainly dark and brutal, but not without its light at the end of the tunnel.
come to my blog!
without even consciously trying to, i have read seven books so far this year, and all of them have been by women. take that, patriarchy! but don't start raising me on the shoulders of feminism just yet, because what i am about to say will probably cause you to throw me into the gutter, and i would rather avoid the bruising.
this book is a women's version of grit lit.
but hold up! by saying this i am in no way saying it is inferior to the novels in the mostly male-author dominated genre, and i am offended that you would even make that accusation. which you haven't. but here on the goodreads, i have seen so many flare-ups over people using terms like "women's fiction" or "chick lit" as though these are not actual, useful and recognizable distinctions for certain kinds of books, that i am trying to make myself perfectly clear before these situations arise.
this is not women's fiction, and it certainly is not chick lit. but it does offer a more female (not "feminine") perspective to grit lit, which is usually characterized by a stark writing style and less insight into a character's psychology than just the very basic facts of the struggles of rural individuals living impoverished lives in harsh landscapes where nature doesn't give a damn and the moral codes are more biblical than, for lack of a better word at the moment, civilized.
so i'm not saying this is girly, not at all. it is still full of that backwoods justice that i so love:
It was common knowledge that in the hills, with infinite hiding places, bodies disappeared. They were fed to hogs or buried in the woods or dropped into abandoned wells. They were not dismembered and set out on display. It just wasn't how things were done. It was that lack of adherence to custom that seemed to frighten people the most. Why would someone risk getting caught to show us what he'd done to Cheri when it would've been so easy to keep her body hidden? The only reasonable explanation was that an outsider was responsible, and outsiders bred fear in a way no homegrown criminal could.
and that's perfect - that is one of the reasons i love this kind of writing so much - i love the idea of these small, close-knit social groups with their mistrust of outsiders and their very specific traditions and superstitions that have evolved over time, living away from the rest of the world.
and we have a strong independent female co-narrator in lucy who has grown up within this system, knows the rules, and is handy with a gun, who is somewhat "other" because her mother came from "outside," but who is enough of the place to understand its rules, even as she deviates from them somewhat.
"I know you, though, Luce, and you always want to do the right thing."
"I want to do my version of the right thing."
but the book is ultimately about women, and the ways in which their lives have been affected, for better or worse, by men. this is a split-narrative (mostly) between two female characters: lila and her daughter lucy. lila came up through the foster care system in iowa after her mother and stepfather were killed in an accident. a beautiful, magnetic kind of girl with a keen instinct for survival who makes people uneasy even as they are drawn to her. she endured the unwanted sexual attention of foster brothers and fathers, and fought back when it became an attempt at actual abuse. she has nowhere else to go, and no kin of her own, so when she responds to a help wanted ad that takes her to henbane, missouri (population 700) she knows this has to work out, because - again - she has nowhere else to go. it does not work out at all well, and she finds herself in a dangerous place without any allies willing to risk their lives for an outsider. a scrap of luck falls her way, and she finds herself married with a baby girl, but still in danger and unable to tell anyone about what happened to her in henbane, lest she disrupt the fragile happiness she has managed to claw to herself. and then she goes missing, when lucy is still a baby, presumed by the town and her husband to have killed herself.
her daughter lucy is the other major voice. she has grown up in henbane, and is now a teenager with a teenager's conflicted feelings of love for her family and her familiar surroundings but an uncomfortable yearning for more.
We'd learned in science class that stars looked brighter here than in most places because there were no competing lights. Henbane was a dark spot on the globe seen from space.
lucy is still haunted by the mystery of what happened to her mother, which only intensifies when her friend cheri, a "slow-minded" girl she has mostly outgrown but still feels responsible for, also goes missing, and whose body turns up a year after her disappearance, scarred and cut into pieces.
the story back-and-forths through lila and lucy's stories, and paints an ugly picture of sexual intimidation, kidnapping, loyalty, and an understood code of silence. but it also tells the story of a mother's love for her daughter, and the risks she is willing to take to protect her. there are other voices here: birdie, the midwife who delivers lucy and becomes a surrogate grandmother to her, lila's only friend gabby, who knows nothing of lila's predicament or background, and is shattered by her disappearance, and ransome, a woman who worked beside lila upon her arrival -who knew everything but never told. there are men in the story, too - lila's husband carl, his older brother crete, and jamie, a man who was bewitched by lila when he was just a little boy, but it is the women's stories that are the driving force. this is why i am calling it a women's version. the voices at the forefront are those of women. the violence is the violence towards women. the men exist in this novel to affect or be affected by the female characters, and the emphasis on family, particularly motherhood, sacrifice, and the inner life of the characters are not often found in male-authored books of this genre.
this is obviously not saying that men won't read this or that they wouldn't appreciate it, because obviously that would be a stupid thing to say. (i have spent a great deal of this review fending off attacks before they happen, but that's only because i am not new here on goodreads. i know this is a very hot button) and i appreciate the perspective - it brings a fresh take to a genre i have read bunches of.
(incidentally, this review i wrote ages ago crossed my path today, and that's probably why i am so fixated on this gender/genre issue, even though they are very different books)
there is a lot to appreciate here. some of the plot-points strain credulity a bit, so that's why it didn't get a four or a five-star, but it is definitely a page-turner with an engaging story that is certainly dark and brutal, but not without its light at the end of the tunnel.
come to my blog!
April 15, 2015
Set in the fictional town of Henbane in the Ozark Mountains this story could be billed as girl hick lit.
NOOOO! Not the Honey Boo Boo version..more like this:
Lucy Dane's slow minded friend Cheri had gone missing, now she has turned up in pieces and Lucy is one of the few in town that cares what happened to her.
I remember when Cheri's body turned up in the tree: the ways I had failed her. Like how I'd been her best friend but she wasn't mine. How I'd worried something bad might have happened when she went missing, but I didn't do anything about it. All the way back when we were little, me being less of a friend than she thought I was. I gave her my Happy Holidays Barbie, not because it was her favorite but because I had ruined its hair.
Lucy later finds Cheri's necklace in a trailer and she starts asking questions around town about what might have happened. Lucy's mom Lila also went missing from the town but no one looked hard for her either. She was the outcast, called a witch because she "ensnared" men.
More like suffered from being around the assholes.
Told from two different viewpoints this story works. Moving from past to present usually gets me confused but this one was done right.
One thing that surprised me in the story was the town being okay with people just disappearing. It happened pretty often in the time period of the story being told. I did get kinda stabby feeling wanting the jerks to disappear...so who I am to judge? Uncle Crete I'm looking at you.
"You grow up feeling the weight of blood, of family. There's no forsaking kin. But you can't help when kin forsakes you or when strangers come to be family.
PS. I found a gif while searching for some to use for this review. Even though it doesn't make a dang bit of sense to use it I am going to anyways. Because it's my review. And he is hot.
NOOOO! Not the Honey Boo Boo version..more like this:
Lucy Dane's slow minded friend Cheri had gone missing, now she has turned up in pieces and Lucy is one of the few in town that cares what happened to her.
I remember when Cheri's body turned up in the tree: the ways I had failed her. Like how I'd been her best friend but she wasn't mine. How I'd worried something bad might have happened when she went missing, but I didn't do anything about it. All the way back when we were little, me being less of a friend than she thought I was. I gave her my Happy Holidays Barbie, not because it was her favorite but because I had ruined its hair.
Lucy later finds Cheri's necklace in a trailer and she starts asking questions around town about what might have happened. Lucy's mom Lila also went missing from the town but no one looked hard for her either. She was the outcast, called a witch because she "ensnared" men.
More like suffered from being around the assholes.
Told from two different viewpoints this story works. Moving from past to present usually gets me confused but this one was done right.
One thing that surprised me in the story was the town being okay with people just disappearing. It happened pretty often in the time period of the story being told. I did get kinda stabby feeling wanting the jerks to disappear...so who I am to judge? Uncle Crete I'm looking at you.
"You grow up feeling the weight of blood, of family. There's no forsaking kin. But you can't help when kin forsakes you or when strangers come to be family.
PS. I found a gif while searching for some to use for this review. Even though it doesn't make a dang bit of sense to use it I am going to anyways. Because it's my review. And he is hot.
February 25, 2015
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
“For fans of Gillian Flynn . . .”
Seriously. Just stop it.
Right. NO ONE likes this. It makes me feel all . . .
Bitey.
In this case (like most) it isn’t even true. Now, I am admittedly a drinker of the Flynn Kool-Aid. I think she kind of shits the bed when it comes to her endings, but she provides a wild ride for 99% of the story, so I have been forgiving. McHugh’s writing on the other hand . . . What can I even call it? Grit lit? Hick lit? Who the hell knows. All I know is it kept my attention like a slap to the face and made me incorporate words like “HOOOOOO-DOGGIE!” into my language.
“You grow up feeling the weight of blood, of family. There’s no forsaking kin. But you can’t help when kin forsakes you or when strangers come to be family.”
A simple synopsis is this was a two-fold story of the Dane family and their small community in the Ozarks. Part I of the book was told through the voice of Lila (in the past) and Lucy (in the present). (Usually the wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff has a tendency to get on my nerves since it’s sooooooo overused, but in this case it worked.) By the end of that section I looked a little something like this . .
Parts II and III were told through alternating voices of nearly every character who was introduced in Part I. Not only did the additional narratives add depth to the story, having added perspectives was necessary because of . . . . reasons.
The Weight of Blood will be given the generic label of “mystery” for the simple fact that the present-day story loosely revolves around a murdered girl and the flashback story revolves around the disappearance of one. Since that’s the case, I’m pretty much going to tell you diddly squat about what happens. I will say that I never read a synopsis, another review, and don’t remember what made me put this book on hold at the library, so I read 100 pages before even realizing I was reading a “mystery.” This wasn't a book that tried to hide the bad guys. In fact, it pointed the finger right at them and listed out examples of why they were terrible. The end result was a story about the community I was so caught up in that I forgot all about the poor dead girl!
Not to mention how invested I became in the characters. Especially the women. These broads were no shrinking violets. You’ll have to read between the lines a bit on the following quote, but let’s just say the snake didn’t end up having such a good day ; )
“That so?” he sneered. “Didn’t see one single thing all day? Not one thing that caught your eye?”
“Maybe I saw a snake,” she said, “laying in the dirt. But the next time I looked, it was gone.”
I hemmed and hawed all evening about what rating to give this one. I can’t come up with any legitimate complaints, so it’s getting all 5 Stars. And y’all know I don’t hand out 5 Stars very often. What’s that old saying? “The sun shines on a dog’s ass every now and again”???????
“For fans of Gillian Flynn . . .”
Seriously. Just stop it.
Right. NO ONE likes this. It makes me feel all . . .
Bitey.
In this case (like most) it isn’t even true. Now, I am admittedly a drinker of the Flynn Kool-Aid. I think she kind of shits the bed when it comes to her endings, but she provides a wild ride for 99% of the story, so I have been forgiving. McHugh’s writing on the other hand . . . What can I even call it? Grit lit? Hick lit? Who the hell knows. All I know is it kept my attention like a slap to the face and made me incorporate words like “HOOOOOO-DOGGIE!” into my language.
“You grow up feeling the weight of blood, of family. There’s no forsaking kin. But you can’t help when kin forsakes you or when strangers come to be family.”
A simple synopsis is this was a two-fold story of the Dane family and their small community in the Ozarks. Part I of the book was told through the voice of Lila (in the past) and Lucy (in the present). (Usually the wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff has a tendency to get on my nerves since it’s sooooooo overused, but in this case it worked.) By the end of that section I looked a little something like this . .
Parts II and III were told through alternating voices of nearly every character who was introduced in Part I. Not only did the additional narratives add depth to the story, having added perspectives was necessary because of . . . . reasons.
The Weight of Blood will be given the generic label of “mystery” for the simple fact that the present-day story loosely revolves around a murdered girl and the flashback story revolves around the disappearance of one. Since that’s the case, I’m pretty much going to tell you diddly squat about what happens. I will say that I never read a synopsis, another review, and don’t remember what made me put this book on hold at the library, so I read 100 pages before even realizing I was reading a “mystery.” This wasn't a book that tried to hide the bad guys. In fact, it pointed the finger right at them and listed out examples of why they were terrible. The end result was a story about the community I was so caught up in that I forgot all about the poor dead girl!
Not to mention how invested I became in the characters. Especially the women. These broads were no shrinking violets. You’ll have to read between the lines a bit on the following quote, but let’s just say the snake didn’t end up having such a good day ; )
“That so?” he sneered. “Didn’t see one single thing all day? Not one thing that caught your eye?”
“Maybe I saw a snake,” she said, “laying in the dirt. But the next time I looked, it was gone.”
I hemmed and hawed all evening about what rating to give this one. I can’t come up with any legitimate complaints, so it’s getting all 5 Stars. And y’all know I don’t hand out 5 Stars very often. What’s that old saying? “The sun shines on a dog’s ass every now and again”???????
July 23, 2021
The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh is a 2014 by Spiegel & Grau publication.
Sixteen- year -old, Lucy Dane, has lived in the shadow of Lila, her beautiful mother, who disappeared when she was a child. Many folks in Henbane, believed Lila was a witch, and those rumors are still whispered about behind Lucy’s back. If her mother’s disappearance wasn’t enough to cope with, years later, her friend Cheri also disappeared.
When Cheri’s body was found, Lucy stumbles across a startling discovery that could be a clue to Cheri’s murder. This prompts Lucy to start asking questions, and do a little investigating on her own. Her unwanted snooping uncovers disturbing information about her mother, leading Lucy to believe the two cases could be connected…
This, believe it or not, is McHugh’s debut novel!! I was impressed by her other books, and knew I needed to circle back and read this one too.
McHugh has an amazing gift of creating a taut atmosphere. This story grabbed me right from the start and I had a really hard time putting it down.
The story develops across two timelines and dual first-person narratives, gradually piecing together the events of the past and connecting them to the present. The suspense is gripping, the story is both riveting and heart wrenching.
Overall, McHugh’s debut is every bit as riveting as her follow up novels. If you like dark, compelling thrillers written with a literary tone, this is a book, and an author, you’ll want to try.
4+ stars
Sixteen- year -old, Lucy Dane, has lived in the shadow of Lila, her beautiful mother, who disappeared when she was a child. Many folks in Henbane, believed Lila was a witch, and those rumors are still whispered about behind Lucy’s back. If her mother’s disappearance wasn’t enough to cope with, years later, her friend Cheri also disappeared.
When Cheri’s body was found, Lucy stumbles across a startling discovery that could be a clue to Cheri’s murder. This prompts Lucy to start asking questions, and do a little investigating on her own. Her unwanted snooping uncovers disturbing information about her mother, leading Lucy to believe the two cases could be connected…
This, believe it or not, is McHugh’s debut novel!! I was impressed by her other books, and knew I needed to circle back and read this one too.
McHugh has an amazing gift of creating a taut atmosphere. This story grabbed me right from the start and I had a really hard time putting it down.
The story develops across two timelines and dual first-person narratives, gradually piecing together the events of the past and connecting them to the present. The suspense is gripping, the story is both riveting and heart wrenching.
Overall, McHugh’s debut is every bit as riveting as her follow up novels. If you like dark, compelling thrillers written with a literary tone, this is a book, and an author, you’ll want to try.
4+ stars
June 16, 2018
When the dismembered body of one of her friends is found, Lucy Dane goes down a rabbit hole of sex trafficking, a rabbit hole that nearly claimed her missing mother decades earlier. Will Lucy discover her mother's true fate before she meets her own?
I've had this book for at least a couple years but forgot about it until I started chewing through my backlog due to my wife's commandeering of the Kindle. It was a gripping read.
The Weight of Blood is told in two threads, one in the past when Lila Petrovich came to Henbane, the other in the present featuring her daughter Lucy. Henbane is a flyspeck town in the Ozarks and I feel like Laura McHugh did a good job capturing the small town way of life, complete with distrust of strangers. The two plot threads were like speeding trains heading toward each other on the same track. You know the end result isn't going to be pretty.
The two mysteries were fairly engaging, although I preferred the Lucy thread. Crete Dane is as rotten as they come but still cares for his family in a twisted sort of way. I felt bad for all the bad stuff that happened to Lila, especially since I knew the worst was yet to come.
The book reminds me of The Roanoke Girls more than anything else, although I preferred The Roanoke Girls. The characters were pretty thin and didn't have a lot of life to them. Lucy and Lila were so alike I forgot which was which a couple times. The writing didn't have much of a spark either. It was pretty basic. While the plot was good, the rest of it could have used more juice.
The Weight of Blood was very readable and I liked it but ultimately didn't have a whole lot of weight to it. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
I've had this book for at least a couple years but forgot about it until I started chewing through my backlog due to my wife's commandeering of the Kindle. It was a gripping read.
The Weight of Blood is told in two threads, one in the past when Lila Petrovich came to Henbane, the other in the present featuring her daughter Lucy. Henbane is a flyspeck town in the Ozarks and I feel like Laura McHugh did a good job capturing the small town way of life, complete with distrust of strangers. The two plot threads were like speeding trains heading toward each other on the same track. You know the end result isn't going to be pretty.
The two mysteries were fairly engaging, although I preferred the Lucy thread. Crete Dane is as rotten as they come but still cares for his family in a twisted sort of way. I felt bad for all the bad stuff that happened to Lila, especially since I knew the worst was yet to come.
The book reminds me of The Roanoke Girls more than anything else, although I preferred The Roanoke Girls. The characters were pretty thin and didn't have a lot of life to them. Lucy and Lila were so alike I forgot which was which a couple times. The writing didn't have much of a spark either. It was pretty basic. While the plot was good, the rest of it could have used more juice.
The Weight of Blood was very readable and I liked it but ultimately didn't have a whole lot of weight to it. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
December 25, 2013
It is interesting to live in the area in which a story is set. Although Henbane is a fictional town in Missouri, Springfield is real and is my own personal stompin' grounds. Branson is within spittin' distance. Both are mentioned several times in The Weight of Blood. The author captures the tone, the feel, and the landscape of the Ozarks quite well. Clear blue skies, the humidity of the summers (like living in a sponge), and the year round threat of tornadoes are all touched upon in this novel.
Small town ties can be strong, the bond of blood and family even more so. This is illustrated perfectly in Laura McHugh's debut novel. The multiple POVs tell the tale without a single stumble. Characterizations are right on - from the despicable Joe Bill Sump to Birdie the midwife to the five church ladies with their identical old woman hairstyles and stiff looks of disapproval.
Sadly, a large portion of this story is based on a true happening in Lebanon, Missouri from 2010. The subject matter is not pleasant, but it makes for an engrossing read. I borrowed this from a Goodreads buddy who won it in a giveaway, thank you.
Small town ties can be strong, the bond of blood and family even more so. This is illustrated perfectly in Laura McHugh's debut novel. The multiple POVs tell the tale without a single stumble. Characterizations are right on - from the despicable Joe Bill Sump to Birdie the midwife to the five church ladies with their identical old woman hairstyles and stiff looks of disapproval.
Sadly, a large portion of this story is based on a true happening in Lebanon, Missouri from 2010. The subject matter is not pleasant, but it makes for an engrossing read. I borrowed this from a Goodreads buddy who won it in a giveaway, thank you.
February 26, 2014
Excellent stuff. I loved this book so much that I decided to publish it under my imprint in Holland. I've always been fascinated by the Ozarks and how people survive the hard life the mountains have laid out for them. When people talk about poverty in America, they tend to mean the inner cities, but there are folks in Appalachia who don't have running water in their homes. It's an awful existence for some, though thankfully not all. This is a great story well told. I highly recommend.
April 20, 2017
Damn Bloody Rednecks
Outstanding debut told from perspective of multiple narrators, primarily mother and daughter, 17 yrs apart. The book has one of the most despicable villains in recent lit.
The eponymous quote:
The mother and daughter alternate their stories 17 years apart related to the male villain (one related by blood, the other by marriage) and the trafficking and exploitation of young females in the rural mountain country.
The main characters are well developed, but really wins the day here is the suspenseful story and splendid structuring.
I didn't want to stop reading until finished.
Next up for me, from the top of many lists of best redneck nonfiction, this Billy Ray Cyrus memoir from the early, "romantic" years:
You Never Was My Girl (Butt, You Kindly Stole My Heart)
Outstanding debut told from perspective of multiple narrators, primarily mother and daughter, 17 yrs apart. The book has one of the most despicable villains in recent lit.
The eponymous quote:
"You grow up feeling the weight of blood, of family. There's no forsaking kin but you can't help when kin forsakes you or when strangers come to be family."A suspicious Ozarks mountain town hides an incredibly seedy underside and sets up a showdown between Blood and Love.
The mother and daughter alternate their stories 17 years apart related to the male villain (one related by blood, the other by marriage) and the trafficking and exploitation of young females in the rural mountain country.
The main characters are well developed, but really wins the day here is the suspenseful story and splendid structuring.
I didn't want to stop reading until finished.
Next up for me, from the top of many lists of best redneck nonfiction, this Billy Ray Cyrus memoir from the early, "romantic" years:
You Never Was My Girl (Butt, You Kindly Stole My Heart)
April 25, 2014
The Weight of Blood is an easy read for which I was in the mood. It encompasses mothers and daughters; human trafficking, family bonds; and life in the Ozark. It is simply written with great character development and an easy story flow.
Laura McHugh chose the personal chapter style, where each chapter is from a character’s point of view. The first third of the book is from daughter(Lucy) and mother(Lila’s) point of view. The following two thirds comprises Lucy, Lila, and other town member’s view. The reader learns that a friend of Lucy, Cheri, was found dead after being missing for a long time. No one was found to be guilty of her death. Lucy is engrossed with this case because her mother went missing when she was one year old, and was never found. The reader learns of Lila through Lila’s story. And the reader learns soon who should be implicated.
This is a story of a small town, filled with gossip, subterfuge, and pretense. The bullies run the town. The townspeople suspect corruption but are not brave enough to do anything.
This is also a story of family: the bond that overlooks bad character. It’s also about creating a family: one of not bloodlines but of choosing.
It’s a great book for a quick read that’s fairly well written and engrossing.
Laura McHugh chose the personal chapter style, where each chapter is from a character’s point of view. The first third of the book is from daughter(Lucy) and mother(Lila’s) point of view. The following two thirds comprises Lucy, Lila, and other town member’s view. The reader learns that a friend of Lucy, Cheri, was found dead after being missing for a long time. No one was found to be guilty of her death. Lucy is engrossed with this case because her mother went missing when she was one year old, and was never found. The reader learns of Lila through Lila’s story. And the reader learns soon who should be implicated.
This is a story of a small town, filled with gossip, subterfuge, and pretense. The bullies run the town. The townspeople suspect corruption but are not brave enough to do anything.
This is also a story of family: the bond that overlooks bad character. It’s also about creating a family: one of not bloodlines but of choosing.
It’s a great book for a quick read that’s fairly well written and engrossing.
July 26, 2016
The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh .
A well written and suspenseful novel and a coming of age story dealing with the mystery of two women one who is murdered and the other who disappeared and both a generation apart.
The story about the two women is told in alternation chapters in two different time frames and yet this works very well for this book and the author keeps the story flowing with enough suspense to keep the reader interested and turning those pages.
This is a debut novel by Laura McHugh and it is very well written with all the elements of suspense, mystery and southern gothic tone of a seasoned writer.
I enjoyed the stroy and the secrets that unravelled as the tale unfolded. The characters are cleverly written and the plot is well paced and edgy.
An enjoyable read and I will look forward to other books from this author.
My thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.
March 15, 2014
Is it just me or does Lucy seem unable to react to what is happening around her.
She finds her uncle is and yet she doesn't react like it's something out of the ordinary. From her reaction you'd think it was a common occurrence in her town to
Apart from that:
AND SHE HARDLY BATS AN EYE
NOT NORMAL
It wasn't bad overall, but you sort of figure out who the bad guy is in the first few pages...and yet at the end of the story you don't feel any sort of closure.
I believe it could have been done better.
March 3, 2014
Told in alternating chapters by different voices this is a very dark story set in the Ozarks. Lucy grew up never knowing what happened to her mother but when a friend of hers goes messing she sets out to find answers and what she dines brings the truth back into her own family.
A solid suspenseful and atmospheric debut. A novel exploring the ties of blood and exactly how much one will do for family. A fast moving novel that reveals secrets kept and crimes hidden. How much does one really know about the people to which one is closest?
ARC from Netgalley.
A solid suspenseful and atmospheric debut. A novel exploring the ties of blood and exactly how much one will do for family. A fast moving novel that reveals secrets kept and crimes hidden. How much does one really know about the people to which one is closest?
ARC from Netgalley.
February 13, 2019
3.5
Lucy Dane is a 16 year-old girl who lives in a tiny little hick-town in the Ozark Mountains. A little place known as Henbane. Her best friend is found murdered. Her mother disappeared when she was a toddler. There’s deeply rooted superstistions and a whole lot of “don’t ask” going on in this quiet little town.
Lucy is restless and wants answers. She finds her best friend’s necklace in an old trailer that looks like something out of a snuff film gone wrong. Lucy begins asking difficult questions around town. In a town like Henbane, this isn’t a good idea. She gets a warning to let things be, let the dead rest.
Like any 16 year old in any other book, Lucy does not listen to this advice. She goes on a quest for answers about her mother’s disappearance, her friend’s murder and what is actually going on in her small hometown.
The story flips back and forth between perspectives. We get Lucy’s and we get her mother’s from when her mother first moved to this tiny little town as a troubled teen who had aged out of the foster system. Though it did take me way longer than it should have to realize that these two POV’s were YEARS apart and that it was Lucy’s mom. I apparently don’t catch on to things as quickly as I used to. 😉
What I loved about this was how rich the atmosphere was. You could feel the heat of the summer. You felt the tension building as the story went on. It was a dark place to be, there is no doubt. And the secrets Henbane is trying so desperately hide are the darkest kinds around.
I really enjoyed this book, though I do think the ending got wrapped up rather quickly. The whole pace of the book was that of a slow burn and then you crash into the wall at the end. It just could have been a little better, in my ever-so-humble opinion. But it did not in any way ruin the book itself. It’s one of those ones that kind of lingers in your mind and I like that kind a whole lot.
Lucy Dane is a 16 year-old girl who lives in a tiny little hick-town in the Ozark Mountains. A little place known as Henbane. Her best friend is found murdered. Her mother disappeared when she was a toddler. There’s deeply rooted superstistions and a whole lot of “don’t ask” going on in this quiet little town.
Lucy is restless and wants answers. She finds her best friend’s necklace in an old trailer that looks like something out of a snuff film gone wrong. Lucy begins asking difficult questions around town. In a town like Henbane, this isn’t a good idea. She gets a warning to let things be, let the dead rest.
Like any 16 year old in any other book, Lucy does not listen to this advice. She goes on a quest for answers about her mother’s disappearance, her friend’s murder and what is actually going on in her small hometown.
The story flips back and forth between perspectives. We get Lucy’s and we get her mother’s from when her mother first moved to this tiny little town as a troubled teen who had aged out of the foster system. Though it did take me way longer than it should have to realize that these two POV’s were YEARS apart and that it was Lucy’s mom. I apparently don’t catch on to things as quickly as I used to. 😉
What I loved about this was how rich the atmosphere was. You could feel the heat of the summer. You felt the tension building as the story went on. It was a dark place to be, there is no doubt. And the secrets Henbane is trying so desperately hide are the darkest kinds around.
I really enjoyed this book, though I do think the ending got wrapped up rather quickly. The whole pace of the book was that of a slow burn and then you crash into the wall at the end. It just could have been a little better, in my ever-so-humble opinion. But it did not in any way ruin the book itself. It’s one of those ones that kind of lingers in your mind and I like that kind a whole lot.
September 17, 2016
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
This is an astonishing book, brilliantly written and both engaging and disturbing at the same time. I was truly lost in the story reading this, unaware of the world around me. I was right there, in the book.
This is one of those books that you can't write too much about without giving it all away. The book takes you towards it's reveal and outcomes whilst you hold your breath still wondering what will be revealed, it didn't let me down. Fantastic.
Sixteen year old Lucy Dane is still considered an outsider in the close knit community where she lives. Memories of her Mother, Lila are some of the things she searches for as well as answers, relentlessly seeking answers to questions that people don't want her to ask.
Lucy's friend Cheri is found dismembered and placed in a tree. Lucy decides that she can find who killed her friend and once she finds a necklace that she gave her friend in an abandoned trailer she is determined to find answers. But the town and it's people are a closed book, secrets, lies, blood is thicker than water in the most binding of ways.
The book shares different points of view, it cleverly moves between Lucy's perspective and her mother Lina's perspective at the start of the book, sometimes POV transitioning spoils a book, but in The Weight of Blood it just flows, it all connects, it makes sense but reveals not all of it's treasures.
This is not a happy book, some of the goings on and the secrets hidden are disturbing and dark. It makes you wonder a bit about the hearts of men and the minds of those that turn the other way. It's intriguing yet uncomfortable.
Lucy's determination to find answers about her mother and her friend Cheri lead her to places that she didn't expect to go, I went on that journey with Lucy and felt everything she did.
An exceptional work of fiction, atmospheric with characters that will stay with you forever, it's a haunting book, memorable and clever and very readable. I am not smiling at the end of the book, not all books have happy endings, but this book was one of the most outstanding reads I have read in quite some time. Five stars plus.
This is an astonishing book, brilliantly written and both engaging and disturbing at the same time. I was truly lost in the story reading this, unaware of the world around me. I was right there, in the book.
This is one of those books that you can't write too much about without giving it all away. The book takes you towards it's reveal and outcomes whilst you hold your breath still wondering what will be revealed, it didn't let me down. Fantastic.
Sixteen year old Lucy Dane is still considered an outsider in the close knit community where she lives. Memories of her Mother, Lila are some of the things she searches for as well as answers, relentlessly seeking answers to questions that people don't want her to ask.
Lucy's friend Cheri is found dismembered and placed in a tree. Lucy decides that she can find who killed her friend and once she finds a necklace that she gave her friend in an abandoned trailer she is determined to find answers. But the town and it's people are a closed book, secrets, lies, blood is thicker than water in the most binding of ways.
The book shares different points of view, it cleverly moves between Lucy's perspective and her mother Lina's perspective at the start of the book, sometimes POV transitioning spoils a book, but in The Weight of Blood it just flows, it all connects, it makes sense but reveals not all of it's treasures.
This is not a happy book, some of the goings on and the secrets hidden are disturbing and dark. It makes you wonder a bit about the hearts of men and the minds of those that turn the other way. It's intriguing yet uncomfortable.
Lucy's determination to find answers about her mother and her friend Cheri lead her to places that she didn't expect to go, I went on that journey with Lucy and felt everything she did.
An exceptional work of fiction, atmospheric with characters that will stay with you forever, it's a haunting book, memorable and clever and very readable. I am not smiling at the end of the book, not all books have happy endings, but this book was one of the most outstanding reads I have read in quite some time. Five stars plus.
February 3, 2015
I started this one as an audio book, but about 2/3 of the way through I had to switch to the written version because I can read faster than audio can read to me. The novel had progressed to the point that I was too impatient to know what happened. This is a very good first novel set in a small town in the Ozarks, where strangers are looked upon with suspicion. There are multiple narrators, and it jumps back and forth in time periods, which built suspense with little bits of information for the reader to mull over. Although it was pretty clear from the start who the real villain of the book was, the how and why of the events was the reason to keep going.
There were some great characters, and the descriptions of the town and the people were good enough to place you right in the middle of the action. Suffice it to say, there are some bad characters in those Missouri Ozarks. I'll give it a wide berth.
Re the audio version: The different narrators were very well done, with different readers for each important character. I very much enjoyed the experience and reccommend it.
There were some great characters, and the descriptions of the town and the people were good enough to place you right in the middle of the action. Suffice it to say, there are some bad characters in those Missouri Ozarks. I'll give it a wide berth.
Re the audio version: The different narrators were very well done, with different readers for each important character. I very much enjoyed the experience and reccommend it.
January 9, 2014
The problem with reading multiple books at once is that one always wins out, and as a direct consequence, the others often get abandoned altogether. I have a difficult time finishing a book after I've left it because I've usually forgotten half of the characters' names, become distanced from the plot, or had some shiny, new book catch my eye. I mention this not because I almost neglected to finish this novel, but because it was the one that I devoured in 2 days during little chunks of free time and has now caused me to look at the two novels I had previously started with a scrunched up nose, because they aren't nearly as immediately juicy or satisfying.
I seem to have a bit of a fascination with stories about backwater towns and the peculiar and often dark characters that inhabit them, as is evidenced from my thorough enjoyment of this book and another that it reminded me of, Tawni O'Dell's Back Roads. In this particular tale, the town is Henbane (located in the Ozark mountains) and the main character is 16-year-old Lucy Dane, who is still reeling from the disappearance and subsequent discovery of the chopped up body parts of her friend Cheri. She's well acquainted with loss, as her mother, Lila, disappeared when she was a baby. Lila was captivatingly beautiful and exotic, which drew both lust and ire from the townsfolk, and had her labeled by many as a witch. Most fortunately/unfortunately, she captured the attention of the Dane brothers, which led to both her greatest happiness and her undoing. Cut to present day, when Lucy decides to play detective and find out what exactly happened to Cheri, and more importantly, her mother.
The deliciously dark townspeople have plenty to hide, and the necessary ruthlessness to keep it all hidden. It's a violent story, but that only adds to the tension and the atmosphere. And rather than turning the "bad guys" into caricature villains, they are complex and multi layered, and at times even slightly sympathetic.
The mystery isn't all that hard to guess, and you see the majority of the twists coming, but there's more depth to this book than a typical thriller/mystery. It's obviously not perfect - the main issue of the book is a real life horror and the gory details are barely even touched upon - but that's not totally unexpected for a fictional thriller rather than a true crime book.
Overall, just a great book about family secrets and how far people will go to keep them, and a perfect first-book-of-the-year for me!
I seem to have a bit of a fascination with stories about backwater towns and the peculiar and often dark characters that inhabit them, as is evidenced from my thorough enjoyment of this book and another that it reminded me of, Tawni O'Dell's Back Roads. In this particular tale, the town is Henbane (located in the Ozark mountains) and the main character is 16-year-old Lucy Dane, who is still reeling from the disappearance and subsequent discovery of the chopped up body parts of her friend Cheri. She's well acquainted with loss, as her mother, Lila, disappeared when she was a baby. Lila was captivatingly beautiful and exotic, which drew both lust and ire from the townsfolk, and had her labeled by many as a witch. Most fortunately/unfortunately, she captured the attention of the Dane brothers, which led to both her greatest happiness and her undoing. Cut to present day, when Lucy decides to play detective and find out what exactly happened to Cheri, and more importantly, her mother.
The deliciously dark townspeople have plenty to hide, and the necessary ruthlessness to keep it all hidden. It's a violent story, but that only adds to the tension and the atmosphere. And rather than turning the "bad guys" into caricature villains, they are complex and multi layered, and at times even slightly sympathetic.
The mystery isn't all that hard to guess, and you see the majority of the twists coming, but there's more depth to this book than a typical thriller/mystery. It's obviously not perfect - the main issue of the book is a real life horror and the gory details are barely even touched upon - but that's not totally unexpected for a fictional thriller rather than a true crime book.
Overall, just a great book about family secrets and how far people will go to keep them, and a perfect first-book-of-the-year for me!
March 6, 2015
3.5 stars rounded up to 4
Henbane is a small impoverished rural town in the Ozarks where people seem to take justice in their own hands, and crime is overlooked. The ineffectual members of the police force are probably related to almost everyone in town. Lila, an orphan from Iowa who had just aged out of Social Services, was hired by Crete Dane to work at his farm and store. Fascinated by the exotically beautiful outsider, townspeople were soon spreading rumors that Lila was a witch. With no one to turn to for help, Lila finds herself in great danger as her "job description" changes. Fortunately, she soon is married with a baby daughter, Lucy. But Lila still lives with the fear of violence so she risks her life:
"I had something more to fight for now, something bigger than my own life. My daughter. Lucy. I could go...and put an end to the one thing that threatened to destroy my family."
Lucy's story as a seventeen-year-old girl living with her father is intertwined with the chapters about her mother, Lila. Henbane was no safer for young women of Lucy's generation than it was during her mother's life. People went missing, bodies disappeared, crimes were hidden, and silence reigned. When Lucy finds a piece of jewelry belonging to her friend Cherie who disappeared, she tries to uncover information about Cherie's last days. She finds that the beautiful Missouri forests are hiding many secrets. Her father, her new boyfriend, and her honorary grandmother Birdie try to keep her safe, but Lucy steps straight into danger. Throughout the story, family ties--the weight of blood--influence decisions people make, both right and wrong. Birdie told her:
"You grow up feeling the weight of blood, of family. There's no forsaking kin. But you can't help when kin forsakes you or when strangers come to be family....Now, it ain't my place to tell you what to think of your own family, but you've got to look past what you've always been taught and listen to what you know in your bones to be true."
This book was a real page-turner that was hard to put down. The story transports the reader to the Ozarks with its atmospheric descriptions, and depictions of people living in poverty. Although Lila's story seemed very real, occasionally Lucy's actions seemed too incredibly reckless. (If she had seen other pretty girls disappear, wouldn't she think she would be in the same danger?) But the story certainly kept me in suspense.
Henbane is a small impoverished rural town in the Ozarks where people seem to take justice in their own hands, and crime is overlooked. The ineffectual members of the police force are probably related to almost everyone in town. Lila, an orphan from Iowa who had just aged out of Social Services, was hired by Crete Dane to work at his farm and store. Fascinated by the exotically beautiful outsider, townspeople were soon spreading rumors that Lila was a witch. With no one to turn to for help, Lila finds herself in great danger as her "job description" changes. Fortunately, she soon is married with a baby daughter, Lucy. But Lila still lives with the fear of violence so she risks her life:
"I had something more to fight for now, something bigger than my own life. My daughter. Lucy. I could go...and put an end to the one thing that threatened to destroy my family."
Lucy's story as a seventeen-year-old girl living with her father is intertwined with the chapters about her mother, Lila. Henbane was no safer for young women of Lucy's generation than it was during her mother's life. People went missing, bodies disappeared, crimes were hidden, and silence reigned. When Lucy finds a piece of jewelry belonging to her friend Cherie who disappeared, she tries to uncover information about Cherie's last days. She finds that the beautiful Missouri forests are hiding many secrets. Her father, her new boyfriend, and her honorary grandmother Birdie try to keep her safe, but Lucy steps straight into danger. Throughout the story, family ties--the weight of blood--influence decisions people make, both right and wrong. Birdie told her:
"You grow up feeling the weight of blood, of family. There's no forsaking kin. But you can't help when kin forsakes you or when strangers come to be family....Now, it ain't my place to tell you what to think of your own family, but you've got to look past what you've always been taught and listen to what you know in your bones to be true."
This book was a real page-turner that was hard to put down. The story transports the reader to the Ozarks with its atmospheric descriptions, and depictions of people living in poverty. Although Lila's story seemed very real, occasionally Lucy's actions seemed too incredibly reckless. (If she had seen other pretty girls disappear, wouldn't she think she would be in the same danger?) But the story certainly kept me in suspense.
May 15, 2015
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Release Date: March 11, 2014
I received this book free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Weight of Blood is a dual-narrative story separated by decades with a startling likeness to one another. Lucy is struggling to deal with the death of her friend, Cheri, after her body was found in a creek. She had been missing for a year previous to the discovery and her body shows the signs of a truly destructive year. The second narrative is the almost two decades old story of Lila, an 18 year old girl who moves to Henbane after gaining employment by helping at the general store for Crete Dane. But that ends up being far from what she was truly hired to do.
In Part I, the chapters alternate between Lucy’s story in the present day and Lila’s story almost two decades in the past. This consistency helped in differentiating between the two stories that were different yet contained a similar cast of characters. When we get to Part II and III the chapters alternate between several different POVs and that made everything convoluted and it was difficult to figure out whether we were reading about the past or present.
The comparison to Winter’s Bone/Daniel Woodrell is what intrigued me initially but this is only fairly accurate. The main character in Winter’s Bone is Ree Dolly, an incredibly strong-willed heroine that is completely unforgettable. Lucy was a far cry from Ree. Lucy took it upon herself to investigate the death of her friend, but even when she had valuable evidence that should have been turned over to the police because she was clearly out of her element, she instead kept it to herself to her own detriment. The vividness of the Ozark’s was well done as was the depiction of the hidden peril that skulked underneath the facadé of this seemingly simple town.
The Weight of Blood falls under the category of Southern Gothic/Country Noir and it’s quickly become a favorite genre of mine. The Devil All the Time and Winter’s Bone are responsible for producing my fondness of the genre. Comparatively to those two, I would consider The Weight of Blood to be Southern Gothic ‘Lite’. The environmental depictions are spot-on as are the terrible things that go on unseen in this small town, but the author attempted redemption for the characters responsible for the evil, gave the evil doings an underlying meaning and that those actions had good intentions. If I’ve figured out anything about Southern Gothic novels it’s that ethics and morals have nothing to do with these stories and struggles between right and wrong are never existent. Justifying the evil doings was a misguided attempt at resolving the story.
The Weight of Blood is a Southern Gothic thriller I would recommend for fans of dual-narrative stories and suspenseful mysteries.
Release Date: March 11, 2014
I received this book free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Weight of Blood is a dual-narrative story separated by decades with a startling likeness to one another. Lucy is struggling to deal with the death of her friend, Cheri, after her body was found in a creek. She had been missing for a year previous to the discovery and her body shows the signs of a truly destructive year. The second narrative is the almost two decades old story of Lila, an 18 year old girl who moves to Henbane after gaining employment by helping at the general store for Crete Dane. But that ends up being far from what she was truly hired to do.
In Part I, the chapters alternate between Lucy’s story in the present day and Lila’s story almost two decades in the past. This consistency helped in differentiating between the two stories that were different yet contained a similar cast of characters. When we get to Part II and III the chapters alternate between several different POVs and that made everything convoluted and it was difficult to figure out whether we were reading about the past or present.
The comparison to Winter’s Bone/Daniel Woodrell is what intrigued me initially but this is only fairly accurate. The main character in Winter’s Bone is Ree Dolly, an incredibly strong-willed heroine that is completely unforgettable. Lucy was a far cry from Ree. Lucy took it upon herself to investigate the death of her friend, but even when she had valuable evidence that should have been turned over to the police because she was clearly out of her element, she instead kept it to herself to her own detriment. The vividness of the Ozark’s was well done as was the depiction of the hidden peril that skulked underneath the facadé of this seemingly simple town.
The Weight of Blood falls under the category of Southern Gothic/Country Noir and it’s quickly become a favorite genre of mine. The Devil All the Time and Winter’s Bone are responsible for producing my fondness of the genre. Comparatively to those two, I would consider The Weight of Blood to be Southern Gothic ‘Lite’. The environmental depictions are spot-on as are the terrible things that go on unseen in this small town, but the author attempted redemption for the characters responsible for the evil, gave the evil doings an underlying meaning and that those actions had good intentions. If I’ve figured out anything about Southern Gothic novels it’s that ethics and morals have nothing to do with these stories and struggles between right and wrong are never existent. Justifying the evil doings was a misguided attempt at resolving the story.
The Weight of Blood is a Southern Gothic thriller I would recommend for fans of dual-narrative stories and suspenseful mysteries.
January 8, 2014
Thank you Random House for the privilege of reading this advance copy of Weight of Blood due to be published this March.
What immediately struck me and whetted my interest to read this book was its title Weight of Blood. The images this evokes are intriguing. Does it mean the true heaviness of blood, the heaviness of blood on your hands if you kill someone or is it referring to blood as in blood relatives? I think the author meant one of these and as you read you'll see how the reference fits but all three would work in this haunting debut tale of familial secrets.
Using dual time lines and dual narrators the story is peeled in layers. What starts off in present day as a story of a young woman, Lucy, trying to solve the mystery of a friend's disappearance and the puzzle of why her own mother, Lila, abandoned her and her father years ago, turns into a haunting tale, one leaving the reader filled with dread.
Credit is due the author as dual time lines can be a tricky plot element if the reader can't distinguish the breaks. McHugh solves this problem by identifying each narrator by name so you easily know when the story shifts time.
The Ozark Mountains are reluctant to give up their secrets and perhaps this would be better. Will the weight of truth reveal more than Lucy can bear about those she loves? Lucy grows but not without consequence. Women and men who care about their rights should find plenty to discuss in this tension filled read.
What immediately struck me and whetted my interest to read this book was its title Weight of Blood. The images this evokes are intriguing. Does it mean the true heaviness of blood, the heaviness of blood on your hands if you kill someone or is it referring to blood as in blood relatives? I think the author meant one of these and as you read you'll see how the reference fits but all three would work in this haunting debut tale of familial secrets.
Using dual time lines and dual narrators the story is peeled in layers. What starts off in present day as a story of a young woman, Lucy, trying to solve the mystery of a friend's disappearance and the puzzle of why her own mother, Lila, abandoned her and her father years ago, turns into a haunting tale, one leaving the reader filled with dread.
Credit is due the author as dual time lines can be a tricky plot element if the reader can't distinguish the breaks. McHugh solves this problem by identifying each narrator by name so you easily know when the story shifts time.
The Ozark Mountains are reluctant to give up their secrets and perhaps this would be better. Will the weight of truth reveal more than Lucy can bear about those she loves? Lucy grows but not without consequence. Women and men who care about their rights should find plenty to discuss in this tension filled read.
March 10, 2014
"You grow up feeling the weight of blood, of family. There's no forsaking kin. But you can't help when kin forsakes you or when strangers come to be family"
Deep in the Ozark Mountains, in the town of Henbane, there are many secrets and very few answers. The majority of the book focuses on a sixteen-year-old girl named Lucy Bane. She is sometimes treated as an outsider in her close knit community, even though she was born there. It is because of her mother that she is treated so differently.
Lucy's mother, Lila Petrovich, hails from Iowa by way of Lucy's uncle, Crete. She is an orphan who lost her family in a car accident and has no one who will take her in. Crete brings her in and offers her room and board and cash in exchange for work that she does on his property.
Lila is young and beautiful and it doesn't take long before someone invents a rumor that she is a witch and has placed a spell on the men of Henbane to fall all over her. In some respects, she finds it quite amusing. Although weary at first, she does form a friendship with her neighbor, the ever so feisty and self-reliant woman named Birdie. Lila and Birdie become so close that eventually Birdie happily takes on the job of a grandmother and guardian to Lucy, since Lila's mother is dead and her husbands mother is senile and in a home that is well equipped to handle her illness.
When Lucy is a newborn, her mother vanishes and it is legend that she ran off and killed herself considering her gun is missing as well. This has been the story that Lucy has always known and never really questioned until one of her childhood friends, Cheri, turns up dead.
Cheri was lucky to have Lucy as a friend as she was considered the town retard. I am not using that word in jest, no she was slow and had a very low IQ and just seemed to wander around and in most cases, following Lucy. She lived with a mother who thought that she was useless and undermining and without truly understanding her daughter as a person. Actually, the whole town doesn't take the time to know her or ever mention her until she is found butchered to pieces, and then she is the talk of the town.
Lucy eventually decides to look into her murder and the reason why she was missing for an entire year before she was murdered, and in addition to trying to put those pieces together (no pun intended) she also starts digging around for any information that she can find about the disappearance of her mother. In the process, she will bring to light some things that she may wish she hadn't, but knows that she is doing it for the sake of these missing women.
The book is told from the different perspectives of each character in various chapters. I tend to like this style of writing as I like to peak in the minds of everyone involved and get a feel for their personalities better as well as their points-of-view.
Sometimes when I am reading books of small and corrupt towns, I like to look and see the deeper meaning of its name if there is one, and was pleased when finding the definition of Henbane.
Henbane: a coarse and poisonous Eurasian plant of the nightshade family, with sticky hairy leaves and an unpleasant smell
I think that the definition of Henbane is a perfect representation of the town described in this novel. I looked at it as a shady and poisonous town with an unpleasant smell, but then that is how I think of most small towns where outsiders aren't welcome and most people turn a blind eye to evil doings.
I found that one of my favorite characters, Birdie, always had some metaphor for everything and I loved reading them:"You didn't wait for snakes to come out of their den, according to Birdie. You poured the den full of gasoline."
One day Lila led Birdie over to the tree line to show her some nightshade, and Birdie explained the medicinal uses and the deadly ones, then got to rambling about other names for nightshade-belladonna and devil's cherry and henbane and so on. She left out how belladonna was said to take form of a beautiful deadly woman, because certain folks in town had drawn the comparison to Lila.
She also had tidbits of information that I found quite useful:"I seemed to remember Birdie telling me hedge apples kept away spiders." (GOOD TO KNOW!)
Birdie wasn't the only one with those quotes that make you stop and think. The local attorney/judge had one that I thought was equivalent to that small town metaphor that can make a lot of sense:"Look at whom you know and think about how well you know them. Open your mind to the possibilities; rethink things you've taken for granted. Like we tell the kids in Sunday School: Just because you don't see the devil doesn't mean he isn't there. He doesn't carry a pitchfork."
(Hmmm...I think I may know of few devils then. Yes, I am almost positive)
The one thing that I have a hard time with when reading a book is when a word is a bit over used. I spot it out so quick and once I do, it becomes overbearing to me. In this book, I found that the word tethered was used once too many and I found that to be a bit distracting after the third time I saw it used for various things.
With all of that being said, overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this debut novel. I felt connected to the story and found the characters to be very believable. I also found the descriptives of the town subtle, but enough that I could envision this creepy and poisonous place and all the occupants within.
I received an advanced copy through Netgalley and the publisher of this book.
November 11, 2017
This book, McHugh's first novel, won the top award from International Thriller Writers for best debut novel.
The Weight of Blood has superb dialogue and is set, like much of Gone Girl, in Missouri--a rich new setting for writers, it appears.
I found myself expecting more horrified reactions as Crete's business becomes known and more discussion/detail of Lila's death at the end.
Nonetheless, The Weight of Blood offers readers plenty of suspense and characters that are young, brash, and against the odds, optimistic.
The Weight of Blood has superb dialogue and is set, like much of Gone Girl, in Missouri--a rich new setting for writers, it appears.
I found myself expecting more horrified reactions as Crete's business becomes known and more discussion/detail of Lila's death at the end.
Nonetheless, The Weight of Blood offers readers plenty of suspense and characters that are young, brash, and against the odds, optimistic.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 5, 2014
Hilarious that at times this reminded me of daniel Woodrell's writing and I read the description and it specifically said you might enjoy if you like his writing. I loved this book. It was intense and disturbing and gritty all in one book. I loved how you jump back and forth between narrators to tell the story. This is such a quick read because it's so hard to put down. If you liked the book Winter's Bone I recommend this book as well. It's in the same vain.
March 1, 2014
I recently read two books by Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects and Dark Places. Seeing that The Weight of Blood was compared to Flynn style books, I was sure I'd love it. Unfortunately, no.
Lucy is a teenage girl growing up in the Ozarks in a teeny tiny backwards town called Henbane. Take every single fucking stereotype you've ever heard about small communities like this because it's a running theme in this book. Close-minded people shunning strangers, backwards thinking, blood is thicker than water, and blah blah blah. Anywho, this is Lucy's home. She resides with her dad, mom had vanished years ago, long thought dead.
Lucy's friend Cheri was found in pieces by the river and Lucy begins to ponder about what happened to her mom. By a coinky-dink of the relative variety, Lucy stumbles upon a necklace that she herself had given Cheri. She finds this astonishingly coincidental piece of evidence in her uncle's trailer.
What does our beloved Lucy do? She doesn't scoot on home to tell her dad or inform the police regarding this murder evidence. She decides to investigate on her own. She drags along her BFF. She also involves the dude she has had a crush on since they played spin the bottle a thousand years ago. Probably about 60% or so into the book, Lucy does tell an adult about her suspicions. This grown man tells her not to go to the police until she has more evidence. Seriously? Fuck you.
Simultaneously along with Lucy's
Lucy discovers a major human trafficking horror going on of which Cheri was a victim. Of course, it's her uncle who runs this operation, her mom was a victim, and Lucy seems to have missed her calling as a fucking FBI agent. Lucy doesn't really seem to give much of a shit about the poor girls her uncle has basically abducted. Therefore, I couldn't give a rat's ass about her.
The ending is absolutely priceless. An old family friend happens to shoot Lucy's uncle while a huge Nature's Wrath coincidence rages outside, destroying any evidence that may have been found.
I'll give you a hint. It's the above minus the sharks.
Uncle is dead, Lucy attempts to patch up her relationship with dad who is also somewhat of a piece of shit. Uncle's partner vanishes so that we assume he is still out there abducting girls and trafficking them. Does Lucy really give a shit? No. The trouble has left this sleepy Ozark town and all is well with the world.
1.5 Ninja Bunnehs
(Arc received in exchange for an honest review)
January 21, 2015
I am absolutely and positively in love with this book....with its story, its setting, its characters...and despite the fact that the "I'm so high on this book let me rave about it right away" version of my review got carried into oblivion by the magical forces of my Firefox, my initial literary infatuation has not diminished one bit in the meantime...
I find it a bit amusing that most debut books in this genre get compared to Gillian Flynn - I am assuming in the attempt to stir the readers of Gone Girl in the direction of this book but I find that this comparison is a bit unfair towards the talent that Laura McHugh brings to the table all on her own. I am not expert on small town America but Henbane of McHugh's literary world is going to stay with me for quite a while. I am drawn to writers who know how to create the worlds I end up inhibiting with (reading) ease. And though Henbane of this story is murky and ominous, filled with darkness and secrets, I've enjoyed every second of "visiting" it.
Lucy Dane is sixteen, and though she was born and raised in Henbane, she is constantly dancing on the outer edges of actual acceptance by the other locals. Probably because her mother was an exotic and alluring outsider whose sudden departure soon after Lucy's birth still haunts the little town and especially Lucy herself. Lucy's friends are few and far between and when one of them (Cheri) is found dead, Lucy's need for answers ends up leading her down the path of (self)discovery that will change her world in more ways than she expected.
The story moves seamlessly between the past and the present, switching narration between various characters, allowing the reader greater insight into numerous points of view and I loved that shifting point of view. Getting to know Lucy, her mom Lila, brothers Crete and Carl, Lucy's neighbor Birdie - their stories and journeys end up being just as seductive as the main story itself. I wouldn't be surprised to see this book turned into a movie, it seems to have all the elements Hollywood is drawn to these days.
I know I'll be grabbing a copy of whatever books comes out of Laura McHugh's keyboard next. In the meantime I just wanted to share a few of the beautiful quotes that simply "forced" their way into my collection:
"She'd make a game of it where she'd relax all the little bits of her body, starting with her fingers and toes and working in toward the center. She had to make herself limp and draw the hurt and want into a tight core inside, each time adding another layer to that core, so that if somebody came along and cut her open, they'd find inside a shining, perfect pearl, hard as any Willy Wonka jawbreaker."
"I took in the thick night air, the sweet smell of honeysuckle, the chirping of frogs, to impress the moment in the folds of my memory, preserve it like a flower between pages of a book. To remember: This is how it feels to be happy."
"It occurred to her then that there was a reason age drained the pleasure out of life, slowly stripping away all the things you enjoyed or took for granted. It was so you wouldn't need convincing when the time came. You'd be ready, because everything good in life was gone."
I find it a bit amusing that most debut books in this genre get compared to Gillian Flynn - I am assuming in the attempt to stir the readers of Gone Girl in the direction of this book but I find that this comparison is a bit unfair towards the talent that Laura McHugh brings to the table all on her own. I am not expert on small town America but Henbane of McHugh's literary world is going to stay with me for quite a while. I am drawn to writers who know how to create the worlds I end up inhibiting with (reading) ease. And though Henbane of this story is murky and ominous, filled with darkness and secrets, I've enjoyed every second of "visiting" it.
Lucy Dane is sixteen, and though she was born and raised in Henbane, she is constantly dancing on the outer edges of actual acceptance by the other locals. Probably because her mother was an exotic and alluring outsider whose sudden departure soon after Lucy's birth still haunts the little town and especially Lucy herself. Lucy's friends are few and far between and when one of them (Cheri) is found dead, Lucy's need for answers ends up leading her down the path of (self)discovery that will change her world in more ways than she expected.
The story moves seamlessly between the past and the present, switching narration between various characters, allowing the reader greater insight into numerous points of view and I loved that shifting point of view. Getting to know Lucy, her mom Lila, brothers Crete and Carl, Lucy's neighbor Birdie - their stories and journeys end up being just as seductive as the main story itself. I wouldn't be surprised to see this book turned into a movie, it seems to have all the elements Hollywood is drawn to these days.
I know I'll be grabbing a copy of whatever books comes out of Laura McHugh's keyboard next. In the meantime I just wanted to share a few of the beautiful quotes that simply "forced" their way into my collection:
"She'd make a game of it where she'd relax all the little bits of her body, starting with her fingers and toes and working in toward the center. She had to make herself limp and draw the hurt and want into a tight core inside, each time adding another layer to that core, so that if somebody came along and cut her open, they'd find inside a shining, perfect pearl, hard as any Willy Wonka jawbreaker."
"I took in the thick night air, the sweet smell of honeysuckle, the chirping of frogs, to impress the moment in the folds of my memory, preserve it like a flower between pages of a book. To remember: This is how it feels to be happy."
"It occurred to her then that there was a reason age drained the pleasure out of life, slowly stripping away all the things you enjoyed or took for granted. It was so you wouldn't need convincing when the time came. You'd be ready, because everything good in life was gone."
July 12, 2014
An impressive, captivating and thrilling debut novel! The author's magnetic words pull you in from the first page. Once you start you will not want to put this book down!
Laura McHugh moves gracefully from past to present as she tells a deliciously suspenseful adventure. The characters are believable and I enjoyed that the reader experienced the story via different character voices. I was totally blown away when I finally discovered what this story was "really" about. Kudos to Ms. McHugh on a fantastic debut.
The only thing that kept me from giving THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD 5 stars was that I felt the ending was rushed. I wanted more dialogue or to see more suffering for the guilty parties. Overall a solid 4 to 4.5 stars! Don't miss this one!
Laura McHugh moves gracefully from past to present as she tells a deliciously suspenseful adventure. The characters are believable and I enjoyed that the reader experienced the story via different character voices. I was totally blown away when I finally discovered what this story was "really" about. Kudos to Ms. McHugh on a fantastic debut.
The only thing that kept me from giving THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD 5 stars was that I felt the ending was rushed. I wanted more dialogue or to see more suffering for the guilty parties. Overall a solid 4 to 4.5 stars! Don't miss this one!
March 19, 2014
Laura McHugh's powerful novel is being compared to those of Gillian Flynn and Daniel Woodrell. McHugh uses the same rural Ozark environment as Woodrell. If it isn't as depressingly steeped in meth and nihilism as Woodrell, it isn't for lack of trying. But McHugh's writing style clings more to the dysfunctional lifestyle narrations of Gillian Flynn. She even uses a alternating first person narrative as seen in Gone Girl at least for the first third of it when she then spices it up with other characters' viewpoint giving us new glimpses in a mysterious and harrowing tale.
But that is where McHugh leaves the two writers and goes off on her own original yet entertaining tale. Seventeen years old Lucy's best friend's body is discovered and appears to have been murdered. It evokes strong feeling in Lucy not just for her friends but for her mother who disappeared shorty after her birth. Lucy begins an investigation into her friend's death while she also tries to find out more about her mother's mysterious disappearance. In alternating chapters, we hears Lucy's mother Lila's tale which starts eighteen years previously and before Lucy is born. The story is dark but not so dark that there are not noble characters and honest emotions in it. It is a tale of family secrets with plenty of twists and turn for the mystery fan but a also a novel where family interaction may be dyfunctional but are truly felt. Lucy is a very strong protagonist whose bond with her friend, who is more of a local misfit than she is, becomes a strong catalyst and makes Lucy the most endearing person in the book. My only complain is that some of the interaction of the brothers, Lucy's father and uncle, seem forced. I felt that Carl was a little too loyal to Crete, enough so to stretch plot credibility. But it is a minor complain considering how well the plot moves and how well the author weaves in the various narrations to make a coherent and exhilarating whole. Recommended.
But that is where McHugh leaves the two writers and goes off on her own original yet entertaining tale. Seventeen years old Lucy's best friend's body is discovered and appears to have been murdered. It evokes strong feeling in Lucy not just for her friends but for her mother who disappeared shorty after her birth. Lucy begins an investigation into her friend's death while she also tries to find out more about her mother's mysterious disappearance. In alternating chapters, we hears Lucy's mother Lila's tale which starts eighteen years previously and before Lucy is born. The story is dark but not so dark that there are not noble characters and honest emotions in it. It is a tale of family secrets with plenty of twists and turn for the mystery fan but a also a novel where family interaction may be dyfunctional but are truly felt. Lucy is a very strong protagonist whose bond with her friend, who is more of a local misfit than she is, becomes a strong catalyst and makes Lucy the most endearing person in the book. My only complain is that some of the interaction of the brothers, Lucy's father and uncle, seem forced. I felt that Carl was a little too loyal to Crete, enough so to stretch plot credibility. But it is a minor complain considering how well the plot moves and how well the author weaves in the various narrations to make a coherent and exhilarating whole. Recommended.
September 20, 2014
This is an exciting book, a good story of life in a very small town in the Ozark region of Missouri where a teenaged girl finds herself caught in the midst of multiple mysteries involving her family and missing girls. The most important missing person is her own mother who disappeared when she was still only an an infant. Her mother left for an errand one day and never returned. Rumor said she was a witch. Rumor said she killed herself. The girl, Lucy, only knows she misses the mother she never really knew and knows there is something wrong, something very wrong, going on in town.
There are wonderful descriptions of the town and area.
The hills were ecstatic with blooms, an embarrassing
wealth of trees and wildflowers: dogwoods in cream and
pink, clouds of bright lavender redbuds, carpets of phlox
and toothwort and buttercups. (loc 122)
And this description of the area:
When a kid in class welcomed him to God's country, Mr.
Girardi wondered aloud why the churches in God's country
were outnumbered by monuments to the devil. It was true:
the spiny ridge of Devil's Backbone, the bottomless
gorge of Devil's Throat, the spring bubbling forth from
the Devil's Eye - his very anatomy worked into the grit
of the landscape. (loc 137)
This is not a happily-ever-after land for Lucy. Not when we first meet her. If you are looking for a good mystery with a strong sense of place, some compelling suspense-ful moments combined with great descriptions of the rural countryside and life, then The Weight of Blood is very likely for you.
An ecopy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
There are wonderful descriptions of the town and area.
The hills were ecstatic with blooms, an embarrassing
wealth of trees and wildflowers: dogwoods in cream and
pink, clouds of bright lavender redbuds, carpets of phlox
and toothwort and buttercups. (loc 122)
And this description of the area:
When a kid in class welcomed him to God's country, Mr.
Girardi wondered aloud why the churches in God's country
were outnumbered by monuments to the devil. It was true:
the spiny ridge of Devil's Backbone, the bottomless
gorge of Devil's Throat, the spring bubbling forth from
the Devil's Eye - his very anatomy worked into the grit
of the landscape. (loc 137)
This is not a happily-ever-after land for Lucy. Not when we first meet her. If you are looking for a good mystery with a strong sense of place, some compelling suspense-ful moments combined with great descriptions of the rural countryside and life, then The Weight of Blood is very likely for you.
An ecopy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
October 31, 2015
Review to come,loved this book.
March 6, 2014
Full disclosure: I received an advance readers copy of this book from NetGalleys in exchange for an unbiased review.
I'd rate this 4.5 stars.
Lucy Dane has lived in the small Ozark town of Henbane all her life. She's always felt a bit suffocated by her hometown, always longed for something more, and she can't wait to graduate from high school and leave, in search of more excitement. She's also looking for answers—her young mother, Lila, disappeared when Lucy was just a baby, and no one has ever understood what happened to her, although some of the townsfolk believe that Lila was a witch, the way she enchanted people.
When Lucy's friend Cheri disappears and then is discovered dismembered about a year later, Lucy regrets not being a better friend to the girl, but she also can't stop wondering what might have happened to her. And when she finds something of Cheri's in a surprising place, it sparks her need to find out the truth, no matter what trouble she might dig up. At the same time, she starts trying to figure out the truth behind her mother's disappearance, from those she left behind, and those not as willing to share their thoughts.
"Cheri and Lila, two lost girls, bookends with a lifetime of mysteries between them. And then it occurred to me: If it was possible to find one, why not the other? It couldn't hurt to ask around. Someone out there might know what happened to my mother. It might not be too late to find out."
The Weight of Blood follows Lucy's search for answers, as she turns to her best friend, Bess, and Daniel, a local boy she can't stop thinking about. The book also shifts perspective to Lila when she arrived in Henbane, and the challenges, opportunities, and fears she faced. From time to time, the book also is narrated by other characters in both the past and present, which gives more weight to the story.
This is a really powerful book about the ties of family, how blood is so much stronger than anything else, and it often makes us turn a blind eye to what is in front of us. It's a book about the secrets that weigh on us, those we wish we could tell, and those we know we must carry with us for the rest of our lives. It's also a enormously compelling story about the things that go unsaid, and the actions we're driven to because we don't know the things we should.
Laura McHugh is a terrific writer. She's created a tremendously evocative setting in Henbane that you can truly feel, and her characters don't stoop to the stereotypes you often see in books set in the Ozarks. In some cases these are simple people who have made their lives from virtually nothing, but they're not one-dimensional characters. Both Lucy and Lila's stories are gripping, emotional, and satisfying, and although you probably can guess where the book will lead, the story keeps you hooked, much as Henbane has had its hold on so many throughout the years.
"The Ozarks did have a way of calling folks home, though I'd never thought I would be one of them. All my life I had told myself I didn't belong here. Henbane was a map of the devil, his backbone, eye, and throat, its caves and rivers a geography of my loss. But I hadn't taken into account how a place becomes part of you, claims you for its own. Like it or not, my roots tangled deep in the rocky soil."
I really enjoyed this, and recommend it wholeheartedly.
I'd rate this 4.5 stars.
Lucy Dane has lived in the small Ozark town of Henbane all her life. She's always felt a bit suffocated by her hometown, always longed for something more, and she can't wait to graduate from high school and leave, in search of more excitement. She's also looking for answers—her young mother, Lila, disappeared when Lucy was just a baby, and no one has ever understood what happened to her, although some of the townsfolk believe that Lila was a witch, the way she enchanted people.
When Lucy's friend Cheri disappears and then is discovered dismembered about a year later, Lucy regrets not being a better friend to the girl, but she also can't stop wondering what might have happened to her. And when she finds something of Cheri's in a surprising place, it sparks her need to find out the truth, no matter what trouble she might dig up. At the same time, she starts trying to figure out the truth behind her mother's disappearance, from those she left behind, and those not as willing to share their thoughts.
"Cheri and Lila, two lost girls, bookends with a lifetime of mysteries between them. And then it occurred to me: If it was possible to find one, why not the other? It couldn't hurt to ask around. Someone out there might know what happened to my mother. It might not be too late to find out."
The Weight of Blood follows Lucy's search for answers, as she turns to her best friend, Bess, and Daniel, a local boy she can't stop thinking about. The book also shifts perspective to Lila when she arrived in Henbane, and the challenges, opportunities, and fears she faced. From time to time, the book also is narrated by other characters in both the past and present, which gives more weight to the story.
This is a really powerful book about the ties of family, how blood is so much stronger than anything else, and it often makes us turn a blind eye to what is in front of us. It's a book about the secrets that weigh on us, those we wish we could tell, and those we know we must carry with us for the rest of our lives. It's also a enormously compelling story about the things that go unsaid, and the actions we're driven to because we don't know the things we should.
Laura McHugh is a terrific writer. She's created a tremendously evocative setting in Henbane that you can truly feel, and her characters don't stoop to the stereotypes you often see in books set in the Ozarks. In some cases these are simple people who have made their lives from virtually nothing, but they're not one-dimensional characters. Both Lucy and Lila's stories are gripping, emotional, and satisfying, and although you probably can guess where the book will lead, the story keeps you hooked, much as Henbane has had its hold on so many throughout the years.
"The Ozarks did have a way of calling folks home, though I'd never thought I would be one of them. All my life I had told myself I didn't belong here. Henbane was a map of the devil, his backbone, eye, and throat, its caves and rivers a geography of my loss. But I hadn't taken into account how a place becomes part of you, claims you for its own. Like it or not, my roots tangled deep in the rocky soil."
I really enjoyed this, and recommend it wholeheartedly.
February 21, 2014
Reading this book, the title quickly started to make sense: The people of Henbane, a rural area in the Ozark Mountains, seem to be bound together by the weight of blood - the blood on their hands as well as the blood that ties them.
Laura McHugh's novel is narrated by two main voices - Lila and Lucy - which run parallel at first, without a sense of connection other than that of the place they are in. Only a few chapters in does McHugh reveal their tie and when she does, she drops it almost in passing by, which makes it gain all the more impact.
'The Weight of Blood' tells a bleak, harsh story. A story of people dissapearing - mothers as well as friends - of sexual abuse and of prostitution, yet McHugh's storytelling and characters are as vivid and lush as the Southern landscape she's placed her narrative in. It is interesting how she switches perspective, how, as the story unfolds, we keep moving back and forth between Lila's and Lucy's first person narrative, and the stories of the other, very well drawn characters.
The atmoshpere she creates is that of being trapped in a place that - though one reads of people coming and leaving - feels almost hermetically sealed. The arm of law is a rather limp one here, and blood ties the most valuable currency. And so McHughs novel in many ways is an exploration of the dark and the light side of family ties and the things we do to keep - or in Lucy's case to make sense of - the "home [that] sings in your bones".
Laura McHugh's novel is narrated by two main voices - Lila and Lucy - which run parallel at first, without a sense of connection other than that of the place they are in. Only a few chapters in does McHugh reveal their tie and when she does, she drops it almost in passing by, which makes it gain all the more impact.
'The Weight of Blood' tells a bleak, harsh story. A story of people dissapearing - mothers as well as friends - of sexual abuse and of prostitution, yet McHugh's storytelling and characters are as vivid and lush as the Southern landscape she's placed her narrative in. It is interesting how she switches perspective, how, as the story unfolds, we keep moving back and forth between Lila's and Lucy's first person narrative, and the stories of the other, very well drawn characters.
The atmoshpere she creates is that of being trapped in a place that - though one reads of people coming and leaving - feels almost hermetically sealed. The arm of law is a rather limp one here, and blood ties the most valuable currency. And so McHughs novel in many ways is an exploration of the dark and the light side of family ties and the things we do to keep - or in Lucy's case to make sense of - the "home [that] sings in your bones".
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