Thank you NetGalley and Source Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This is a story of race relations in the early 20th century in a small southern town told by Judith Kratt, the daughter of a the founder of the town. When she decides to take an inventory of the things in her house the story of her life and that of her family is told. When her long lost sister returns after 60 years secrets are revealed.

I enjoyed reading this book.. I found the plot to be predictable. I would have liked to see Judith and her sister resolve their differences. I feel like this could be a series with each book about the characters that still remain a mystery from this book.

This book tells us of the life of Judith Kratt who grew up in a wealthy setting. This wealth did not bring happiness to Judith or her family or the people of Bound.
So many secrets were to be had by all. Illegitimate children born. Relationships secret relationships between black and white. Blackmail and murder.
This book is told in the past and present of Judith Kratt and is one to be read by all.

I am sorry, no matter how hard I tried I could not warm to this book. I could not warm to the characters or feel part of the story at all.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

A story that jumped back and forth between present day and 1914 or so, this was an interesting read. Judith Kratt is telling her story in the first person and in her old age, she is taking stock of her life. In the practical sense, she is writing an inventory of the house in which she lives. In fact, it is the house where she has lived her whole life, 80 years or so. As she lists the items, she reminisces and remembers time gone by. There is lots of drama that has taken place in her life, including a murder, an illicit affair between her mother and a black slave, a love child, and a sister who leaves home and is never seen until she turns up 60 years later, picking up where she left off. The author does a good job of creating some degree of suspense and intrigue, although there were times when the switch between time periods was a little disjointed. I read this on my IPad and found I needed to go back and check on names of characters, something that is easier to do with a paper book. I commend the author for an excellent dubut novel.

I tried several times to "get into this book. I never quit books, but after reading half of this, I've decided to give it up. The cover is fantastic and looks like a book I would devour. I hate that, that wasn't the case with this book.

This was a great read. It is about Judith, now an elderly woman, exploring her past primarily through the use of heirlooms from her home. A family drama hidden behind the stories of their antiques. A little slow going at times, but worth the effort.

It's 1989 and 70-year-old Judith Kratt decides to create an inventory of her household and its valuables; the pie safe, the copper clock, the Tiffany lamp. As she catalogues each item they trigger memories and stories, which she also documents. And secrets.

It's 1989 and 70-year-old Judith Kratt decides to create an inventory of her household and its valuables; the pie safe, the copper clock, the Tiffany lamp. As she catalogues each item they trigger memories and stories, which she also documents. And secrets.

Switching between her childhood as the eldest daughter of the most powerful white family in a small South Carolina cotton town, and present day where she lives in the family home with her black companion Olva, this novel is in turn a meditation on the significance of heirlooms and memory, and proof of the harm secrets can cause a family down the generations.

Judith's myopic (willful?) misunderstanding of current white attitudes towards the black residents of the town are damaging not just to Olva but also to Olva's friend Marcus and his daughter Amaryllis. But worse, they're dangerous and lead us to realise that Judith may not be the most reliable of narrators. When Judith's estranged sister, Rosemarie, reappears after more than fifty years, Judith's attitudes are challenged, family ties questioned and Judith's secrets exposed.

Even though the novel echoes the slower rhythms of the South, it is still well-paced and at times positively hums with tension. I don't think I took a breath during the description of the mechanic, Charlie's, last moments in town.

With echoes of Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Tartt's The Little Friend and Stockett's The Help, this is an exceptionally well-accomplished first novel. I can't wait to see what Bobotis writes next.

With thanks to NetGalley for enabling me to read this pre-publication.

An amazing first novel by Andrea Bobotis. She tells of a family, the Kratts. Daddy Kraft worked for a rich man in the cotton industry in a small town called Bound. An ambitious man who worked hard to ingratiate himself with his boss and eventually gets the boss’s daughter to marry him. So ambitious was he that he bankrupted his father-in-law’s business and became the towns leading merchant in the cotton industry. He built his wife Miss Judith and himself a luxurious house, sparing no expense. They had 3 children, Miss Judith (as she is known throughout the book, Quincy and Rosemarie. Daddy Kraft was a mean man who demanded respect. His children were afraid of him. Judith worked in a store he built, doing inventory, Quincy became his snitch, spying on everyone and providing Daddy Kratt with details of any misdemeanours he could search out. Even his mother was not exempt from his spying. The story goes back and fore in history, but one incident sticks in my mind that changed so many people’s lives. Daddy Kratt had a Tiffany Lamp in the store and when he decided to be the first to introduce electricity to Bound, the lamp was to light up. The events that took place after this occasion shape the book. You will enjoy Miss Judith and Olva who moved in with her and helped around the house. Highly recommend reading it..

Not until the end of the book did I understand the meaning of Ms. Kratt's list, how the things on this are connected to one another and how they are essential to Judith's story.
Two events, 60 years apart, are narrated here: the death of Judith's brother, Quincy, and the reunion of the two estranged sisters, Judith and Rosemarie. The narrator and main character, Judith, a 75 years old woman, buried in her family house for 60 years, decides to take inventory of the house. It seems that the stories of each object on the list are a bit forced upon us (who cares about a peacock hat never worn, the mannequins in Daddy Kratt's store or the butterfly tray, one of Kratt's family heirloom). The description of the objects on the long list, as well as the alternation between the two timelines, slows the reader down. You either enjoy or hate being led like this. I chose to sit back and enjoy it

A good storyline but it needed polishing up,especially the characters,more background information was needed to fully understand the story,and who was related to who.
The mother was not portrayed as well as dhe should have been and left the reader with a lot of unfinished questions.became boring after a while and could not keep the readers interested in finished the book.I found it hard going after a while.

Judith is an elderly woman in her 70's. She decides to make a list of her family heirlooms along with the story of each one. Of course, it's not that simple. The story alternates between 1929 and 1989 in a small town in South Carolina. As the story unfolds, family secrets are revealed, and other family members are introduced. The themes of race and family secrets run throughout the story. It's well written but slow, like life in the south. The characters are not all likeable. Judith is interesting then dull. She's like a neutral character. Overall, it's an interesting read but slow. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

“I supposed it was going to be a war of questions, and fatigued by the idea, I pretended not to hear her.”

I absolutely loved this book. The writing is excellent and Judith’s character was sharp, quirky and shaped by family history. She entertained me and she surprised me. The concept of creating a list of family heirlooms (with their stories) is perfect—I wanted to read more when I reached the end! I love lists, I love heirlooms and I love the stories. Judith’s list was woven beautifully among the family secrets, their history and life in the South.

I highly recommend The Last List of Judith Kratt. The first chapter is slow, but then the story picked up and was hard to put down. I didn’t want it to end and re-read the first chapter after I finished because I knew there were details I missed the first time.

Thanks to the publishers at Netgalley for the advanced reader copy for review.

When I first started this book, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. In the beginning, main character Judith is prickly, stuffy, standoffish, and hard to like. I really couldn’t take her brother Quincy- his constant sneaking around and watching made me really loathe him. But I stuck with it, and I am so glad I did. The book moves back and forth between 1929 and 1989 in the Southern country town of Bound. The Kratts have always been an influential family in town, but times have changed. The main bulk of the story happens in 1929, but it takes the events in 1989 to get the full picture. So there is an element of mystery mixed in with your historical fiction.
It was a pleasure to read this book. The characters, especially Judith, had emotional growth and realizations. Judith, for all her fussiness, is a character at the end that you can admire. It is a thought provoking book, on how much people lose from secrets and what we think we know, as well as what African Americans lost in the South during Jim Crow.
I very highly recommend this book.

I love it when an author stirs my emotions. Bobotis succeeded in this feat.

Daddy Kratt, Quincy not exactly endearing to ones heart. The eras the plot takes place demonstrates the ignorance mixed with twinges of disgust. The secrets and assumptions painted heartbreaking scenarios.

The plot was intricate and the characters drawn fully. There was a bit of suspense along with redemption. Bobotis demonstrates her way with words, easily manipulating words into brilliant prose.

The ending was fitting, a compliment to both plot and characters.

A compelling read, evoking and visceral. Looking forward to Bobotis next endeavor.

Andrea Bobotis has skillfully written an engaging and intriguing story. The characters are described in such a rich way that one quickly becomes invested in their dramatic struggles.
The novel is hard to put down. It builds, and twists sometimes shocking the reader with its secrets. Set in the South at a difficult time of our history, themes of race, rage, love and forgiveness carry one to ponder long after finishing this treasure.
Thanks to #NetGalley for the copy
[NetGalley URL]

I have to say I really didn’t enjoy this book. It was too slow for me and the story didn’t hold my interest. I stayed with the book until the end to give it my best chance but overall I was disappointed.

So… I finally decided myself to write this review. I found it a bit difficult to write because I didn’t know what to say about it, and not because I didn’t like it, on the contrary.
It is the story of an old lady who lives alone with a friend (I don’t know how to describe her with another word but it is more complex than just friendship) in a big house that she inherited from her father. A postcard she received decided her to make an inventory of all the precious objects in her house (precious by their monetary value or by their sentimental value). So, there are a lot of flashback about these objects and particularly on the year 1929 when a tragedy took place.
I love stories about family secrets and dramas, so this book was for me.
The rhythm is quite slow but the story is very intriguing so we are easily hooked. Moreover, it is well written.
It touches on themes such as family, racism (the story takes place in South Carolina between 1929 and 1989), friendship…
The characters are neither all black nor all white : they all have admirable qualities and hateful flaws.
I don’t know what to say anymore except that you have to discover it by yourself. It’s worth a look but I’m not sure it would be in everyone’s taste because it is not the kind of book that carries you away or make you feel things with passion. It’s a book to slowly enjoy, not to devour.

As always, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this proof in return for honest feedback.

Whilst it is not always necessary to like the main character, Judith's character was neither likeable nor dislikeable. She seemed to simply exist to carry the other side stories along and this made it quite difficult for me (as the reader) to really get immersed in the book. The use of the inventory / list was an interesting way to tell the story and something that I enjoyed, however this itself was a little repeatitive and in some places a bit slapdash. The book felt about 50-75 pages slightly too long and could do with removing some repeated elements in order to keep the story at a good pace.

Something I found slightly unnerving was the type of racism/racial elements with the piece, as a historical fiction I understand the use of some language that would no longer seem appropriate (it never was, but these were "the times") however quite a bit of it felt unnecessary and gratuitous.

Not for me sadly, but I look forward to seeing what Bobotis publishes next.

This is a wonderful story and the concept of an older woman doing an inventory of family heirlooms and writing a story for each item is unique and very unusual. Set in South Carolina alternating between 1989 and 1929, Judith is cataloging her families home. When her sister, Rose Marie, turns up some family secrets are revealed. Judith's best friend, Olva has served the family for years and knows the truth. I enjoyed the southern pace and the revelations from this old mill town. I really liked Judith, she is so alive and a force to be reckoned with. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a book I really wanted to like, but it just never quite got there for me. It is a genre that I read a lot, but this one was just missing something. The beginning was slow, the main character was mostly unlikeable and had weird quirks that were never really explained (and not really necessary,) and the surprise ending wasn't much of a surprise.

However, I did think that this book touched on some important themes...racism, abuse, how you can never quite get free of your past. I just wish it had done more with them at the end.