Grammar lovers beware, you're in for a scare! This is an alternately bleak and hopeful portrait of Appalachia in the 1970's. Due to my own ignorance about the people and culture of this area at that time, I assumed it was earlier on. The schooling is dismal, the people run wild, and there's hardly any law to speak of. I've never met characters like these ones, and I probably never will. Some are easy to love, some are easy to hate, and some you just want to wrap in your arms and protect. There's many characters to keep track of, and I found almost all of them fascinating. The only thing that kept it from being a five star for me was some lagging around the middle, but it's a great read and a real departure from the books I usually enjoy.

Sadie Blue isn't the only girl with a rotten husband, but Roy may just be the worst. She married him after she became pregnant. They never really knew each other that well. Now they're going to have a baby... and Sadie is getting beat. She's married a cruel man and sees no way out, until a little light enters her life by way of the tallest woman she's ever seen. Kate Shaw has come to teach the children of Baines Creek... the ones who want to learn, anyway. She's intelligent, brave, driven, and (GASP!) a feminist. Most of the townsfolk have no idea what to make of her, but some are drawn to her. She just might make some changes to Baines Creek yet.

There are many other rich characters, but I'm not going to go into too much detail. The characters are the absolute heart of the novel. You'll despise some and learn to love others as their stories unfold from their own perspective. Almost all have experienced true sorrow in their lives, the kind of hurt many of us can't even imagine. A beautifully written tale about an unfamiliar way of life. I read this with The Traveling Sisters group and it incited a lot of debate and discussion. This would be a wonderful read for a book club.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and Sourcebooks Landmark, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.

Firstly thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for an ARC of this story in exchange for a fair review.

I found this to be a very thought provoking telling of life in a small town in Appalachia.
Each chapter is told by a different character, some nice and others not nice at all. I liked the character change, it keeps you on your toes and shows the story from different perspectives. I would be interested in getting to know some of the characters in more detail.
The story is very well written, once you get into the dialect of the area it really flows.
I would recommend this story and look forward to seeing more from this author.

What an enthralling debut novel from Leah Weiss. It’s the story of of Sadie Blue and the community she lives in which is very harsh. The story is told by different members of that community and between them they take the reader on a journey of life in Baines Creek. Sadie is at the center and features in every story. Leah is certainly an author to watch in the future

“If the Creek Don’t Rise” by Leah Weiss

Leah Weiss has written of a poor small town in Appalachia. A novel that is richly and honestly written. It is a story using present day first person and is told from the perspective of several main characters. In telling their present day stories, the characters also reach into their past to provide a fuller and more reliable history of themselves and their relationships with others. The characters are all so varied and flawed; so realistic and human. So well written.

This is an authentic read that brings forth the heart of Appalichia, the effects of a poor town where present day hooch, ginseng root, and mining are all means of trying to make a living. For some, it is via stealing. Whatever it takes to get by.

This novel addresses the stereotypes, truths, falsehoods, and the mysticism of small town life in an area that is not well educated or well spoken. The author has nailed the dialect of the area as well as their cultural and belief system. To cement this aspect, she introduces a character from “the city,” as a means of bringing forth the cultural, verbal, and even dress differences within the two areas of Virginia.

Leah Weiss has written a fabulous, meaningful, and captivating novel that will remind the reader of many well-written southern writers, making this a must read for so many.

Rating: 4.7
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"This high place is hard on folks who give in or give up. For those who stay, Baines Creek is enough."

In building this moving portrait of 1970s Appalachia, Leah Weiss manages to capture the voice and character of a fascinating region.

Told from the point of view of members of the Baines Creek community, each voice is a diverse note weaving into the one harmonious whole. As one of her characters says - here the author has written about the baby, not the bathwater. While the poverty is a background character in it's own right, the people are what we are focused on, and it's those people who ensure this becomes a story of hope.

One of my favorite books of the year - my sincere thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing a free copy in return for an honest review.

This debut novel has everything a reader wants: well-detailed characters, interesting setting, unexpected plot twists. Leah Weiss has created characters that touch emotions, whether it's Sadie Blue and her wife-beating husband, her cantankerous grandmother or the unexpected strength of a new, yet older school teacher. All the characters come together in the rural and mystery-laden backwoods to fuel a novel that's rich, honest and gritty. Readers will find themselves drawn to know more about the characters, and Weiss feeds that hunger with well-developed back stories. The characters literally jump off the pages as they try to come to grips with how the past (superstitions) and the present (knowledge) to create a stronger community.

How I loved 'If the Creek Don't Rise'! I couldn't believe that this was Leah Weiss's first novel. It is beautifully written and carefully crafted, so that I felt every word was carefully chosen and nothing was wasted. The characters felt so alive to me, so real and present. I loved the way the book was written from the point of view of different characters, so that we saw some of the same events from different perspectives. I can't recommend this book highly enough. I hope Ms. Weiss will be writing another novel soon.

Sadie Blue's story grabbed me from the very first sentence and would not let me go until I reached the breathtaking conclusion. With each chapter narrated from the point of view of a different character, readers get an ever-widening view of Sadie's life in Appalachia in the 1970s. For fans of Olive Kitteridge, Bastard Out of Carolina, and Kentucky Straight.

In a small town in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina, a newcomer with a mysterious past comes to educate the youth of the town and ends up learning many new things, herself. Kate is a teacher who was terminated from her previous position but travels to Baines Creek to work as the town teacher. Sadie Blue is a young woman who becomes pregnant to a man who is cruel and controlling of her. Roy and Billie were abused as youngsters and take out their frustration on Sadie and other women. Eli Perkins is a preacher who wants the best for his community but his sister, Prudence, is as mean as Eli is kind. Weiss tells each character's story in a fair and impartial way. She leaves no stone unturned and lets readers know that there are often untold reasons for crimes as heinous as spousal abuse and murder. Oftentimes, that reason is simply poverty and a hopelessness that one will never escape it.


I really enjoyed this book for its brave honesty and Weiss' refusal to allow fear or discomfort prevent her from telling hard truths about life. The characters are perfect. It is easy for the reader to see the story from all sides when reading If the Creek Don't Rise. The stories were often hard to stomach. These are painful accounts from a world that many live in but few in society wants to admit really exists. When I was reading it, I felt as if I was reading a story set in the mid-1800s but soon realized that I was reading an almost-modern tale of a town who has yet to become modern. I learned a lot about Appalachian culture from reading this book and I think anyone who enjoys southern fiction or women's fiction will love this book.

I liked this book but there were several characters whose stories weren't fully told. I wanted to know more about them. The book had an interesting story line, I just thought it could have been better.

WOW! This book blew me away. Powerful storytelling and I loved the characters. I hope that the author does a sequel! I fell in love with the characters and their back stories!

A debut novel set in the Appalachian region of North Carolina, a place I find enchanting. It was Christy meets Cold Mountain, and if you get those references, you're probably on your way to get this book right now. I instantly felt a connection to the characters of this book, and enjoyed learning about how each one saw their world, even seeing particular happenings in the book through the lens of various individuals. A well crafted novel.

absolutely loved this. the voices ring clear - the pure as well as the evil ones. the poverty. hope, strength and spirit of these downtrodden Appalachian souls was so compelling.

Some books you just read, escape, and enjoy until they're finished. Other books, they have this way of getting under your skin, staying on your mind, crawling around inside your head as you move on with your life. If the Creek Don't Rise is just that kind of book.

It was difficult to read in so many ways, yet completely impossible to put down. All in turns it broke my heart and gave me hope. Shattered my faith and gave me reasons to believe.

"I prayed hard to the devil cause my prayers to God won't never answered."

While this is set in the past, it isn't a far off past. It's one that my mother lived through, filled with places that are set in my home state. Following a group of rural people, it isn't a far removed fantasy, or a tragic piece of history. It's still raw and unhealed, with time only barely softening the edges.

"Times like these I wonder if I ever been happy. From the start there's been a film of dingy on my days. I've always done woman's work; man's work too. Woke up with work to do and went to bed before it got done. I see some folks walk easy and carry peace on their shoulders, but I been chained to a iron life."

I recognized the speech, because it was akin to the speech I grew up hearing from my Mamaw. The author captures that deep southern twang, the kind that comes across sounding ignorant even when it carries oh so much wisdom. I grew up in a world where woman's work was never done, and when there wasn't a man to do, they did for themselves. Not that women can't do now. Oh, but we can. There was just something a little more exhausting perhaps about having to do it all in a n age that refused to recognize you as an equal person. It's a great way to compare just how far we've come, and how far we have to go. How much those who are still struggling need our help.

"The good and bad of me is that I see blessings most every day in every way. Even when it's a speck that shines in a great see of sad."

So much sadness. The children, who deserve more. The parents who don't know how to offer more. Then the main characters, who are stuck with their lots in life and trying to decide if it's better to rebel, to dare ask for more. Or easier just to live it while they can. So much depth in the characters, they could have been my neighbors, my family. I knew them. I was them. When it all came to an end, I wasn't dissatisfied, just empty. It was too much and not enough all in one. It's hard to distinguish this as a happy ending or sad ending because there were no magical happy ever afters in a time and place that made them lucky to even get an ever after. It left me with a contentedness, a satisfaction. Yet still, just like Sadie, I want more.

"I look at this tin can of a trailer that don't look bad in the dusky light. I straighten my back, lift my chin, and call out in a strong, strange voice I claim as mine."

The blurb was correct on this very entertaining book. I did get way down deep with my feelings for the characters and the setting of this book.

I really feel as though the author did a great job with the characters and making me feel as though I was really there in those hollers and mountains. The dialect used for the characters just really brought it all together.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Sad that the women had to "take things into their own hands" to get rid of their problems.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

This book had a lot of interesting characters, set up in the backwoods where outsiders are discouraged from entering.

I liked the depth of characters in this book however where it fell short for me was where the story never really resolves itself. The book just sort of ends and while there is a sort of resolve to the main character, all the side stories never really get told.

I have never read anything like If the Creek Don’t Rise by Leah Weiss before and I mean this in a good way. The story turned out to be different from what I was expecting. One thing that set it apart was the narrative style. The story is set in Baines Creek, a small, mountain town in North Carolina. The town was a character in itself. It was the kind of town where all residents knew each other. What I didn’t understand though was the education sector in the town. It sounded like there were no schools apart from the kindergarten where the kids learned. I thought this was a bit odd though a minor detail.

The book is about the residents of Baines Creek told through multiple narrations. Each POV is told in about only two chapters. However, the stories are interwoven so that the only thing that changes is the narrator. At first, the style was frustrating. I wanted to hear more from some of the characters like grandma, Gladys and Sadie but then new narrators kept being introduced. It took a while to adjust to the changing POVs but once I did, I ended up really enjoying the narration. By the way, apart from the narrators, the author used a different dialect in some of the dialogue to reflect the setting.

This being a character-led story, readers get to really know each of the MCs. I think my favorite one was Sadie because I sympathized with her. She was a lovely girl, unfortunately married to an abusive monster. I liked how she was friendly, her love for Loretta’s music and in general, her kind, gentle spirit. I was frustrated by her inability to leave her husband although I did understand why. I liked her auntie, Marris and grandma, Gladys and the teacher, Kate. Even the herbalist, Birdie, was a delight to read about and so was Pastor Eli. Okay, I liked most of the characters. Some I really disliked though like Roy (Sadie’s abusive husband) and his sidekick, Billy. The reverend’s sister , Prudence, was kinda mean too. The author did a fantastic job with the crafting of characters such that all of them felt familiar by the end of the book. I got to know them and form attachments with some of them and I enjoyed the fact that we got to hear their side of the narration.

The writing of this story was done well. I found it addictive even though this wasn’t a suspenseful read like what I usually go for. However, I was invested in the story and the characters and for a while, I got lost in Baines Creek. The ending was twisted, unpredictable and perfect for the story. I think that this book will appeal to readers of character-driven stories and Southern Literature. If you like small town settings then I suggest that you take a trip to Baines Creek.

Only 15 days into her marriage to Roy Tupkin and Sadie Blue is already regretting it. Baby or no baby, she never should have married a man who beats her for no reason other than singing along to the Loretta Lynn song she loves — and that's not even the worst of it. But Sadie Blue is not the first or the last woman in Baines Creek to deal with a no-good husband. If The Creek Don't Rise, by debut novelist Leah Weiss, paints a fascinating, gripping portrait of the interconnected and often unseen ways people help each other get by in this remote Appalachian town.

Like her granddaughter Sadie Blue, Gladys also had one hell of a husband (but she ... did something about her Walter). And then there's her neighbor Marris who's always dropping by help with a pie or the dishes or unexpected cleanups. Together, these two women know they can't force Sadie Blue to quit her marriage, but they let her know she'll have a place to turn to.

It's the arrival of Kate Shaw, the new teacher from down in the valley, that gives Sadie Blue an idea that there's "a special life" for her that doesn't involve Roy — or maybe it's something darker, maybe it's the disappearance of the mysterious Darlene. After all, everybody knows that no-good Roy and his "shadow" Billy Barnhill had something to do with that girl vanishing.

Weiss steadily builds the tension to an ending you knew was coming — and, let's be honest, probably hoped for — yet it still arrives as a sudden, powerful shock.
The very real threat of danger to all these women — Sadie and Kate, especially — is like a black cloud hovering over the story. Surly and distant Prudence Perkins, sister to the town preacher, thinks: "Even being four, I wondered who defended us girls. I was too shy back then to ask. Now I know — it's nobody." But it's not always nobody. It's women like Marris or teacher Kate, or preacher Eli Perkins, who is relentlessly dedicated to serving his neighbors, especially Sadie: "I've been planting seeds a long time to help her believe in herself," he says at one point. And it's "crazy" old Birdie Rocas, who knows the healing power of the plants and other secrets of the mountain.

In Baines Creek, it's the women who don't have that network of support who run into real trouble — the missing girl, Darlene, or the mothers of bad boys Billy and Roy, whose tough and unforgiving circumstances, we're given to understand, turned these boys into men who can't love even when it comes to a girl like Sadie Blue. Or Gladys.

While If The Creek Don't Rise is Sadie Blue's story, Weiss tells it through the perspectives of those who help — or hurt — her, delving deeply into each character's point of view and backstory and creating a different, perfect voice for each character. Layer upon layer of perspective reveals what happens to Darlene and Sadie Blue, and provides an immersive and deeply emotional reading experience — especially satisfying for readers who love richly drawn characters and a strong sense of place.

Weiss steadily builds the tension to an ending you knew was coming — and, let's be honest, probably hoped for — yet it still arrives as a sudden, powerful shock. It's a shock that lingers, leaving you thinking about what it means to be a strong woman — and what it means to escape.

If the Creek Don’t Rise is a glimpse into the remote Appalachian culture. The dialogue and the character development, pull you in and make you feel like you are a part of it.

The main character is Sadie Blue. Sadie is pregnant, and has been married for 15 days to Roy Tupkin. Everyone in town knows that Roy is bad news and now with the beatings that are occurring regularly, Sadie knows it too.

The story is told through the eyes of several characters, Sadie tying them all together. Most of the characters know what is happening to Sadie, but they dob’t want to get in her business. They are hoping that she will decide for herself to leave Roy and then they will be there to help her.

There are several interesting characters. A fresh voice comes from Kate Shaw - a new teacher that has just come to town. The town goes through teachers quickly and no one expects her to stay.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book. I thought the writing was excellent and the character development really made the book shine. Growing up with physical violence in my own childhood, made this book hit a little too close for comfort. I almost stopped reading it, but I’m glad I kept with it. The ending was perfect.

I received an ARC of the book.

a big 5 stars! Weiss takes us on a wonderful journey in a fictional North Carolina holler in the 1970's. It's so creatively told with many narrators who weave together the story of Sadie Blue, a pregnant teen with a new husband who beats her regularly. It's all about the characters, so if character studies aren't your thing this one isn't for you. I intentionally read it slowly, just 1 chapter at a time to make it last as long as possible... Not that it wasn't a captivating read because it is but I knew I wouldn't find another book like this for a while and didn't want it to end.
If I could think of a flaw it would be that I am left wanting to know so much more about each and every one of the characters, I would have liked the book to be twice as long just to get to know everyone a little better, but I think that's a good flaw.

I highly recommend to all lovers of Southern Fiction