If The Creek Don't Rise takes place in a very small and remote Appalachian mountain community called Baines Creek in North Carolina. Taking place in the 1970's, many can't read, as education is fairly unheard of and severe poverty is considered normal among Baines Creek residents. We first meet Sadie Blue, who is 17, pregnant and newly married to her husband Roy Turpkin. She has only been married 15 days when she Roy starts hitting her and she knows she should her listened to her grandmother and other folks who told her to stay away from him. When someone new comes to town and gives everyone a new perspective, Sadie starts to believe there might be more to life then just being Roy's life.

This book is told from a variety of perspectives including Sadie Blue, her grandmother Gladys Hicks, Glady's next door neighbor Marris Jones, the local Pastor, Eli Perkins, as well as 6 other perspectives. I have only read one other book where I enjoyed this type of perspective, but it did work pretty well in this story. Although I wish I had been able to hear from Sadie's perspective a bit more. The language the book is written in is also fairly spot on to the Appalachia region where Baines Creek is located in the book. Anyone from or who has spent time there will instantly feel like they are listening to a neighbors conversation while reading this book. I haven't spent much time in the area, but it instantly brought back a lot of memories. The language might be difficult for some people to read, it did take me one chapter to adjust, but after that I really enjoyed it.

I really liked all of the characters in this book and because they live in such a small community, they are all so intertwined with each other. I love Glady and Marris and could easily see Glady sitting on her front porch in the evening watching the night roll in. All of the characters are well developed, even though we only hear from them each for one or two chapters. Although, again I would have enjoyed hearing a bit more from Sadie, otherwise it was a well written book with a pretty good ending. Thank you to the publisher for sending me an advanced reading copy of this book.

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to read this book. I struggled with the language and sentence structure of the book. I appreciated the in depth character development. In the end I felt that some characters that were introduced in the beginning had no follow up chapters and I wanted to read about how thing ended up for them (the teacher and the preacher). Overall, I felt the story was incomplete.

I received this novel via Advance Reader Copy (ARC) from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Netgalley.

This novel starts with the protagenist, Sadie Blue, talking to her dead father. Very young, naive Sadie's mother ran away shortly after she was born, leaving her with her weak father, who drank himself to death at an early age. Struggling with life and being forced to depend on her less than supportive, mean grandmother, Sadie is easy prey for local bad boy Roy Tupkin.

Falling pregnant, Sadie grasps at getting hitched, to become respectable in the eyes of the small town gossips. Poor Sadie has no idea what she's letting herself in for. Beaten by her husband, and deserted for days at a time, Sadie cannot depend on the local town, who turns a blind eye to her suffering. Scenes like this play out daily in remote Appalachia in 1970.

Into this bleak landscape, arrives Kate Shaw. Independent, strong-willed and very different to the townsfolk of Baines Creek, Kate has secrets of her own. The townsfolk are at once suspicious of and intrigued by her. So is the local preacher. Kate may just offer a way forward for Sadie. But will Sadie be strong enough to escape her pre-destined lot in life to make something of herself?

Woven into the story of Sadie Blue, the inhabitants of Baines Creek step forward and speak to the reader of their lives. I was transfixed reading the story. At first I wasn't sure of the year the story was set in. I was shocked to discover that the year is 1970. Reading this novel, I was simultaneously transfixed and immersed into both a different world and era. It is difficult to imagine living, let alone growing up in such a remote, desperate place, devoid of any hope, where beatings, incest and malnourishment are commonplace and where these traits can be handed down from generation to generation.

Stylistically, the novel was well written. The characters spoke in the local dialect, which I found hard to follow at first and made for a slightly slower read, but once I got used to the cadence of the speech, I found that this enhanced the story, rather than detracting from it.

Bravo!

Sadie Blue is 17 and pregnant by a man who thought loved her. She marries Ray and he starts physically abusing her immediately. The only support she has is her grandmother Gladys. Sadie needs to find the strength to leave Ray and realize she and her baby deserve so much more. This is a story told from many points of view, Sadie, Gladys, and various neighbors in the small town. It was a sad story but one filled with hope Thank you so to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me an ARC for an honest review.

I am going to ramble in this review. So if that isn't your thing just go on past it...

Back when I was in the fourth grade we had an English teacher who dumped a box of books out one day and told us to read them and do book reports. I ate that up with a spoon and did my best to read them all. The thing is...I read one that I have never stopped thinking about. It was set in the Ozark mountains featuring what some people called a witch. It completely nailed the "mountain living" that I remembered my grandmother talking about. It was a big old chunk of a book, so only a couple of the kids including myself read it. I've never forgotten it and it's drove me nuts because I would love a copy of it. This book reminds me of that. And it's high praise.
It's going to be hard to top this book as my book of the year, if it even happens.

Authors have been trying to write the whole "hick-lit" thing in the last few years. I admit that it's my favorite genre that I think I've ever read. But this. This is freaking perfection.
The story centers around a very young, pregnant girl named Sadie Blue.
Her grandmother raises her after her mother takes off right after her birth and her daddy ends up drinking himself to death. (Her daddy is far from perfect) So I think Sadie latches on to the first thing she thinks is good in life. And that was in the form of Roy.

Roy beats the heck out of Sadie starting from what seems like the minute she marries him. But this is Appalachia in the 1970's. A husband does what he wants to with his wife and the small mountain town turns it's head.
There are women in these hills whose men beat them because they misconstrue Ephesians 5:22-23 as saying they can. They twist God's holy words: "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife.".

You would think this sounds like a typical hick lit story. You are so very, very wrong. Told from multiple viewpoints this story will stay with me forever. You have the preacher and his sanctimonious sister, the new teacher that has come to the mountains to start anew, Sadie herself, the local witch woman Birdie and even the hateful Roy and his sidekick since birth Billy.
This book is Appalachia as I knew it as a child. Don't read it and look down at anybody that lives or lived in this area. As a matter of fact, if that's your mindset just don't even bother picking this book up.
Outsiders see Appalachian poverty as something to be cut out. The good with the bad. They send volunteers to save you from yourselves....
"Do you know the saying, 'Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater?'
The teacher in her don't give me the time to say so, when she adds, 'Well, you write about the baby while everyone else is writing about the bathwater.'

Exactly.

This book was the exact measure of perfection in my eyes. I'm thankful that I was able to read it. Appalachia may have changed a bit since the story was set, but this book is it's heart.

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
PS I used my favorite photographer of all times images in this review. Sally Mann's photos also do what this book does. (Portrays Appalachia in a light that might make you a bit uncomfortable but you will never forget it.)

What marvelously poignant storytelling. 1970's Appalachia is what most would call a 'god forsaken' place; a dot on the map. But, to the people that have settled there for generations it's home and carries its own rules for survival. "This protracted scene in primitive Appalachia—in the throes of another angry storm that refuses to end, when political assassinations and civil rights battles and the birth control pill change tomorrows down below—is timeless and tiring." This is a bitter sweet story of finding hope when there is little light.

First off, I want to thank Sourcebooks and Netgalley for this arc. I'll start off with my brief overview, my dislikes, my likes, and then my personal thoughts.

This is a book about Sadie Blue and the people surrounding her in Appalachia. I believe it was set in the 1970's in North Carolina's mountains. It's about her life and what became of it. However, there were multiple characters who gave their point of view about Sadie Blue.

What didn't I like about this novel?
1. I didn't care for Billy or Roy. Those parts could have been excluded.
2. I would have liked to see it in third person.
3. Not much else.

What did I like about this novel?
1. The author captures rural Appalachia quite well, and she did her homework. I can appreciate the way she brought these characters to life.
2. I liked how the author formed her plots. She nailed it. I don't believe this author could have written a more successful novel.
3. I love how she showcased a weak character and made her strong in the end.
4. Loretta Lynn.
5. She captured the business of moonshine in the mountains and how they guard the business of moonshine in the mountains.
6. She included the coal mine industry and showed what it was like.
7. This book gave me a range of emotions: anger, sadness, and laughter.
8. This book has enchanted me from start to finish.

What are my personal thoughts?
I can see the Grandmother's perspective with Sadie. Sadie does have to fight her own battles for herself. There are many secrets that were left unsaid and I appreciate the author for leaving it unsaid. Everyone has secret closets. Nobody, not even the pastor is exempt from those closets. I love the twist with the teacher. My favorite character would have to be the witch doctor/writer/crow enchanter. To me, she was the strongest character in the book. She knows herself well and because of her, she sort of aided in Sadie's strength to believe in herself. Such an awesome character! We need more books with strong women role models. The author knocked it out of the park on this one, and I can't wait for this book to be released. Great job!

When I began the book, I knew it was set near my home. However, I didn't pay attention to the decade. I would have sworn for the first half of the book it was set during the Great Depression. Then I remembered where it was set and let the shock of 1970 settle in. I loved reading this book. It changes point of view quite frequently, but if you pay attention, it does not ruin the continuity of the story. I loved all the characters you were supposed to love, but I think I either loved Birdie or Miss Shaw the most. Every mountain community needs a Birdie and a Miss Shaw. I had no problem with the dialect, but it helps when you grow up with it. It was a good testament to the poverty, yet self-sufficient existence of Appalachia. It was fairly real, despite some of the far-fetched behaviors of some characters.

This review is going to be a bit gushing because I was completely blown away by this book – I absolutely loved it. I’m split between finding it hard to believe that this is Leah Weiss’s first novel and shouting, Leah, why did you wait so long? Did I mention that I adored this book?

There are a number of different narrative voices but they are each distinctive and convincing in terms of characterisation and tone.

The central character in the story is Sadie Blue. The reader is immediately drawn to her – not much more than a child herself, pregnant and saddled with a no-good husband who beats her up for the slightest reason:
‘Fifteen days has gone by since that piece of paper got signed. Roy beats on me pretty regular cause nobody stops him. I thought we got married for a mighty reason. I thought I was special to him. I musta made it all up, cause none of it’s true.’

Despite all she suffers, Sadie’s resilience is incredible as she looks for a way out - any way out - of the situation she finds herself in. Channelling the voice of her dead father and her singing idol, Loretta Lynn, she finds the strength to do this.

Sadie is just one of the incredible female characters the author has created. There’s Gladys, who also endured marriage to an abusive husband until his death in an accident, and finds herself alone and every day a struggle but still carries on because she knows no other way.

‘Life’s too shitty. For a old woman, it’s more shit that I can shovel. I can’t remember if I ever had a choice but to put one front of the other and walk the line on a rocky road to nowhere.’

Gladys has secrets that she thinks nobody knows but her friend, Marris, knows different. Marris, a widow, is a lovely warm character who looks out for the less fortunate in Baines Creek.

In case you’re thinking all the male characters are bad and the female characters good, the author redresses the balance with Eli Perkins, the preacher, and Prudence, his sister. Eli feels an immediate affinity with the new schoolteacher, Kate Shaw, an older woman who left her previous position under a cloud but whose passion for teaching shines through.

‘Kate is a magician, a pied piper who has absconded with our children’s hearts. Mine too.’

Eli recognises in her a kindred spirit, someone who is prepared to fight against the low expectations of the townspeople for their children, who can be ‘an ally to instil hope and possibility in my good people’. However, as an outsider and single, independent woman, Kate attracts the malicious attention of Prudence, made resentful by her harsh upbringing in a familyof several generations of preachers.

‘Everything I did was coated with the Lord’s slippery words. I almost drowned in verse. I learned to breathe underwater was what I did, being the daughter of an Eli.’

The close of the novel sees Sadie Blue’s story return to centre stage as she draws on all her strength of will to bring about a change in her situation.

This book will stay with me for a long time – even more so because of that devastating final line. I’m not sure my review can do justice to this book but I’ll just say that if you love southern fiction, superlative writing, a compelling storyline and wonderful characterisation, please search out If the Creek Don’t Rise. I just hope Leah Weiss doesn’t wait as long to publish her next book.

This book claims to be about Sadie Blue, a poverty stricken country girl from Appalachia North Carolina. This story is not about Sadie Blue. It begins with her and ends with her, but the bulk of the book is taken up by the teacher, Kate Shaw, and her struggles to fit into this town. I'm not saying the story was bad. It wasn't. It actually got better the farther into the book I got. It just wasn't about Sadie Blue.

This book deals with poverty in Appalachia in the 1970's. Kate Shaw comes to this mountain town to teach, and discovers a whole new world. The town is stuck in time, with no real advancements, and they even have their own "language" a southern dialect so foreign to me that I found myself having to Google some of the words. I live in the Kentucky Appalachia, for crying out loud and I still had a hard time reading the dialect. This lead me on a research kick that last for several hours. Reading about the poverty so close to my home that I was completely unaware of. It still exists today, just a few county's over from my own. I was baffled. I simply couldn't wrap my head around how a town could get so stuck in time. Upon researching, I learned that I had heard some of this Appalachian dialect before, from my own family growing up. Some of it was still new to me, however. I did not know that a "cathead" means a large biscuit or that a "poke" is a bag.

This book is from the view point of several different characters, each having a turn at their part of the story. I particularly liked the chapter about Prudence, though she was the most deplorable character in the book. It's insightful and it seems outdated, but it's not, apparently. I would recommend this book to anyone that was interested in the Appalachian lifestyle. However, you should know that towns like this are very isolated and while it's not a common occurrence, it does happen. Towns like this still exist today, and this book opened my eyes to that.

I feel beyond lucky to have received this ARC by Sourcebooks Landmark in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book I truly want everyone to read. It is an ODE to women, the strength of women, the suffering of women and how they are much more affected by the lack of education than men are.
It is brilliantly written by a woman. The story is reminiscent of ‘The Glass Castle’, ‘Crooked letter, Crooked letter” or “Same kind of different as
me”.
Set up in rural North Carolina in the 70’s , Sadie Blue is pregnant, marry too young because she wants to be ‘legal’ and quickly gets knocked around by her new husband: bad boy Roy Tupkin.

Contrary to traditional story telling, the author is using all the character around young Sadie Blue to tell us about her, to lead us through sadie’s story. On the journey we learn about Sadie’s grand mother Gladys who raised her, about her aunt Mary Harris Jones, about Priest Eli Perkins and his sister Prudence, about the new teacher in town Miss Kate Shaw, about Roy and his sidekick Billy Barnhill and about the mystical Birdie and her crow.
In the small Appalachian village of Baines Creek everyone is connected to each other and plays a pivotal role, though a chain of events, into Sadie’s Blue unforgettable story.

This is Leah Weiss’ debut novel, which is really hard to believe.The whole story is masterfully crafted until the last sentence.
A well deserved 5 stars which I very rarely give out !

An unusual story that rings of truth. It took me a little time to get into it but once I got hooked it was hard to put it down. A surprise ending.

I really tried to get through this book. Really did not enjoy it.

An exceptional book with believable, relatable characters. Wow, what an ending. I'm hoping for more from this author so that I can continue to follow the characters I got to know. A must read!

5 Stars.
If The Creek Don’t Rise is a stunning and extremely poignant character study of life in a North Carolina mountain town. Most of these characters have heart and they make you care right off the bat. For the life is hard fought in Baines Creek. No one has it easy. And evil lurks in this small Appalachian town, causing its residents to ban together to take care of their own.

Sadie Blue is seventeen, a newlywed and pregnant. She has been married for fifteen days. To a man named Ray Tupkin. When she met him, he seemed sexy, mysterious and fun. Once she married him, Sadie realizes he was none of those things. He was abusive, mean and he has no love for Sadie whatsoever. Within the first few weeks he beat her within inches of her life and Sadie realizes the depth of her mistake. Now she just has to figure out how to fix it. Sadie might not have much, but she has friends. Lots of them. Including Marris Jones, a woman who takes care of everybody. Marris cooks for half the town, bringing food and comfort to those in need. Her best friend is Sadie’s Granny, Gladys whose life has also been plagued with difficulties. She is a widower. Roy, Sadie’s husband, reminds Gladys of Walter, her deceased husband, who Gladys is glad to be rid of.

Baines Creek is a town where hearing about town gossip is the often the most exciting thing to happen. That is, until Kate Shaw, the new teacher arrives. Kate never thought she’d like living alone or be able to endure the isolation of living there. She was wrong. There are however, lots of people who dislike Ms. Shaw, including Prudence Perkins, a mean spiteful woman who hates life. But there are lots of people who like her and keep an eye out for her, including Preacher Eli Perkins (Prudence’s brother), Birdie Rocas, an ancient medicine woman, Jerome Biddle, a harmless man who does odd jobs around town and Ms. Sadie Blue. Shortly after her arrival, Kate immediately becomes enmeshed in her students’ wellbeing’s and in the town-folks’ lives, especially Ms. Sadie’s.

If The Creek Don’t Rise is a character-driven novel, with a cast of individuals that leap of the page. These characters are real, their pain, their suffering, their loss. You feel it. Each chapter is narrated by a different person, yet the author, Leah Weiss, expertly navigates each chapter and is able to distinguish between each character extremely well. This novel contained several standout characters and strong females: Kate Shaw, a woman who, at first is out of her element; Marris Jones, a kind amazing woman who takes care of everybody; Birdie Rocas, an extremely smart and spiritual woman; and last but certainly not least, Ms. Sadie Blue, who faces the ultimate danger, and finds strength in her friends, never giving up hope.

This is a quick, fast-paced, easy read and is a book I can’t recommend highly enough. If The Creek Don’t Rise is a book with heart my friends. That’s all I can say. And the ending? Loved it.

Congratulations to Leah Weiss on a fabulous debut.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and Leah Weiss for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 3/15/17.

*Will be published on Amazon on 8/8/17.

Set in the 1970s in a small settlement called Baines Creek, this is mainly the story of Sadie Blue, a 17 year old Appalachian girl in an abusive marriage. Told from multiple points of view including Sadie herself, the preacher and his spinster sister, her grandma who survived her own abusive marriage and the new school teacher Kate who befriends her. The town may be tiny but the kindness of some of it's inhabitants is huge as they try to bring a bit of comfort to those in need. Not to say that all is sweetness and light here because there are certainly some characters I loved to hate! Many characters also have their own back stories going on which add a lot of heart and drama to this mesmerizing story.

Holy crap! This book was good! From the 1st page to the very last, you're sucked in. I could have easily read this book in a day, but like a good meal, i wanted to savor and appreciate the goodness of this book. You immediately fall in love with woman-child Sadie Blue. Her innocence, timidity and strength have you rooting for her the whole way through. All the characters are fully and thoroughly developed to a point where you can visual and "hear" them clearly. I enjoyed how the book is told in alternating POV...it ties the characters together and the book together as a whole , but at the same time, let you see who the character is individually and how they contribute to the story. Definitely a book I will recommend and read again . Solid 5 stars!

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Set in Appalachia, this is more than historical fiction. It is culturally and emotionally driven. From family secrets to marriage dynamics. Sadie Blue, love the character name is married to Roy. He likes to speaks with his fists. We will just leave it at that. As we venture through the story we learn about her parents, her Grandmother and the questions that begin to represent themselves to Sadie. I couldn't put this down! Powerful! I will say you have to get used to the dialect, but it won't hinder the story. In fact, it puts you right there on the mountain.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Also, warning, this review DOES contain spoilers.

Start to finish, this book was beautifully written. Leah Weiss deserves credit for weaving a beautifully told tale that captivates readers, allowing them to appreciate and sympathize with the people of Appalachia.

However, there were a few parts of the novel that just felt a little... unnecessary. At the end of the copy I received, the story is framed as being about Sadie. And while that does feel true, there is a significant portion of the novel dedicated to Kate Shaw (the teacher), Eli (the preacher), and Prudence (Eli's sister who tries to get rid of Kate). This storyline, revolving around Eli falling in love with Kate, a woman who is in a relationship with another woman (from the fragments I can gather), and Prudence using a letter from Rachel to try and get Kate run out of town. This story is never returned to; instead, Kate is roped back into Sadie's story when she loses the baby. That's fine and good... but what happens to Kate? What does Prudence do? Does Eli find out about Kate?

The end of the novel just felt too tidy. The story goes from Roy and Billy disposing of Darlene's body. (Darlene is a sex worker in town who Roy falls in love with and starts paying attention to instead of beating Sadie, which is nice, but then he kills Darlene because he doesn't have anymore money to give her and surprise, he finds out Darlene isn't exactly as into him as he thought) to Sadie deciding to finally kill Roy. She makes some hemlock poison, mixes it with Roy's moonshine, and then... it turns out Billy shoots Roy while they're hunting. Ok. Cool. That's...? Simple.

She then tells Billy to take Roy's moonshine, obviously with the intent to kill him. Again, that's cool, but it's just a little too easy, isn't it? Someone does the work for her and the novel just ends.

We don't find out about Kate and Rachel; we don't find out about Prudence and what she does; we don't find out about Eli. We never see Marris or Gladys again, or Birdie, or anyone else. These characters just disappear at the end of the novel and we're expected to believe that the story was only about Sadie all along. No, the story was about ALL of them, so all of the storylines need to be wrapped up.

It's frustrating to get to the end of a novel that truly had me enraptured... only to find the last page is the last page and not everything is done. Sadie got her ending, but what about everyone else? What about the family that Sadie went to see in the store, whose son had been injured in a mine? What happened to him? There are so many pieces of information we are given that are never followed up on and from a reader's standpoint, that's just sloppy storytelling.

The book is beautifully written, truly. The story was enchanting. But I feel in the end, Weiss perhaps lost steam and decided to end with Sadie. Which is her choice, ultimately, but it doesn't feel like the right one.

It was a great read. I feel the character development was good and I would recommend to friends.