Stork Bite

Such a touching, beautifully written story. Full of wonderful, rich characters.
Takes place over decades, starting in the early 1900's to present time, covering the intertwined lives of people in a small town.
It all starts out when 17 year old David is confronted by a Klansman, while out hunting, and David accidentally kills him. Scared for himself and his family, and ashamed, David leaves his family and strikes out on his own to face adulthood. As the story evolves, we learn of young David's fate.
I loved this story and was engaged in each and every page!
5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the Author and publisher for an ARC copy of this book.The opinions expressed are my own.

The title is eye-catching, causing curiosity in the reader. What is a "stork bite?" How can this novel be centered around this as a symbol? The reader finds that he or she is presented with questions--and answers--to some of life's conundrums.
Simonds' deceptively simple prose provides wisdom as well. The crisp, clear style could be compared to the underside of an elaborate tapestry, when turned, has come together to present the whole story as a beautiful canvas.
Set in the South during the early decades of the Twentieth Century, this novel develops and intertwines the lives of its characters to provide a satisfying plot--and so much more.

The story begins in the woods of the Deep South in 1913. While out hunting with his faithful dog, a young black seventeen year old named David Walker encounters a white man with evil intentions. When the man shoots David’s dog, he strikes the man over the head and accidentally kills him. In an effort to hide any evidence of the man, David must hide the car until nightfall when he can return to dispose of it. Before doing so David goes through the man’s car discovering that he is a member of the KKK. After disposing of all evidence of his crime, David leaves his home and his loving family equipped only with his grandfather’s rifle and the life skills his grandfather has taught him. David eventually comes upon a hardworking, farming family that take him in. David tells them his name is Tom. While in town, the family discovers that Tom is the boy on the missing persons poster. They ask no questions and continue to protect Tom’s identity.

Shreveport, 1927. Cargie a newlywed and Mae a young high school graduate, engaged to her high school sweetheart, are two young women of vastly different backgrounds that are trying to make their way in life to fulfill their dreams and to find their place in the world. Cargie has a clear understanding of who she is and where she’s going. Mae has a more difficult journey finding herself. The men in both of their lives strongly influence their decisions and life’s direction.

This story will captivate you and make you think about societal issues, the life decisions we all make and the consequences that we will live with because of them. Highly recommend! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Everything has to be reconciled eventually.

One quick split second decision/action happens. Story builds

What makes a good man a good man?

I read in 1 sitting, I was glued to this book until the final word.

Imagine living in a time and place where one accident shapes your entire life. David Walker was out walking with his dog when a Klansman drove past him. And that moment changed his life. Fearing for his family, he leaves. Never to be called by his own name again, he moves on.

This story is heart breaking and wonderful. The characters are interesting and believable, not contrived. Life was complicated and trying to escape trouble complicated it even more. This isn’t all sadness and tragedy however, there’s love, redemption and faith that ultimately gives David a life well lived.

Thank you to NetGalley, and author L. K. Simonds for allowing me to read this book. My unbiased review below is freely given.

I found Stork Bite the type of book I couldn’t wait to get back to. The three story lines were all good and engaging, and you are drawn into another time. You definitely ge to know the characters and to care about them.
The title left me with much to think about too, and probably many others will do the same. Lots of wisdom is imparted in these pages too. I absolutely loved reading this author and will look for more of her work.

Populated with rich characters, drawn with precision, this story intertwines the lives of David Walker, a young black man, Cargie Barre, a young married woman working at a dry cleaners in Shreveport, LA and Mae Compton, a young woman fresh out of high school and heading for college in the early 1900s.

Their lives didn't start out together, but because of a series of understandable and sometimes unfortunate events, they are thrown together. Life seldom works out the way we think it will, and this could not be more true for these characters and the peripheral characters who are also well-defined and important.

This story takes the reader through these lives, and what compelling lives they were! They weren't particularly heroic, although David Walker had his share of brave moments, but the characters all had normal but fascinating lives. I think it takes talent to write about a group of people and keep a reader interested from start to finish.

Highly recommended!

LK Simonds story of life choices and consequences forced or voluntary spans a century that begins in the early 1900's when a young man's defensive actions result in the death of a Klansman. In this era, no matter the circumstances, his actions will result in his death and leave his family a target too. With few options available to him, he will make the death look accidental and disappear from the area. As he travels from his home and loved ones, his choices will land him on a farm where he will prosper and find a home.
At this point, the book breaks into another section set in the early 1930's where we meet a young woman who knows exactly what she wants in her future and sets out to get it. She will accomplish more than most women, much less women of color, were able to during this era.
And then comes the third leg of this journey. This young woman will break the rules of what is "normal" for a woman of her class and move into the life of petty crime. Her personal growth will find her leaning into a tougher criminal life and wondering how she got there.
These three "stories" are individual, yet connected. You will not see the connection until the ending chapters so puzzled you will be. Four distinct sections will join at the end of the century.

Each section of this book could easily be it's own novella but they gain significance when you see how our young runaway ends in the same story as our petty criminal. It's a great story leveled up by their shared history.

Stork Bite is a story that satisfies in a way that few others have. It covers racism, racial inequality, war, love, family, birth and death. There is a wisdom that resonates from the pages that I didn’t really understand until after I finished reading it.

The first thing a reader will probably notice about this story is that the author knows how to describe things. The first scene is set in the Louisiana boonies. There’s a country road, a lake, an old canoe on the shoreline. There were mosquitoes. “A breeze lifted the curly gray beards hanging from the bald cypress.” Wind and rain appeared, and the smell of a train. Before I realized it, I was fully immersed in the scene - and in the story.

The story covers quite a length of time for some of the characters. With one character, the story starts in 1913 when he was seventeen years old, and we find that same character in his 90’s before the story ends. The long time periods allow the reader to really see what becomes of the characters, as well as the results of their life choices.

The racism and prejudice in the story aren’t specifically discussed in detail, yet they are very much there. The interesting thing, however, is that we get to experience them from both sides: from the minds and dialogue of both blacks and whites.

Speaking of dialogue, Simonds did a fantastic job with the slang. It was just enough for the effect, without going overboard. I think it added a great deal of authenticity to the story. Further, since the story covers so many years, the author seemed to be especially mindful of using the proper slang in the proper time.

Stork Bite touches on all the emotions and all the senses we have. At times, the emotions are very raw, and we can’t help but empathize.

I enjoyed reading this story very much, but it wasn’t until after I finished that I fully understood its impact. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the true concept of story.

This was a new author for me and a book that I don't think I'd have picked up on my own. When I saw that it was Southern fiction, I decided to take a chance -- and I am so happy that I did. This novel was a beautifully written look at three main characters and their lives and their families lives from 1913 - 2012. I connected with all of these characters early in the novel (one more than the others) and felt like I knew them to the point that I cried at tragedies in their lives.

David was my favorite character in this book. In 1913, in Louisiana, seventeen year old David was walking to a lake to fish, and was stopped by a man who planned to harm him - David is black and the man he killed was a member of the KKK. David knew that if he was caught, he would be killed and if he went home, his family would be in danger...so he decides to 'disappear'. After he camps for several months, he walks away and finds a small farm in the middle of nowhere. He stays to help on the farm and becomes part of the family.

In 1927 in Shreveport, we meet two women who are totally different. Their only connection is that Cargie works at a dry cleaning store and Mae is the niece of the owner and lives with her aunt and uncle while she goes to college. In some ways they are the same - they both wanted to grow beyond what was expected of them growing up but they both took totally different paths. In this part of the book, we get a look at both women's lives -- Cargie as she works and then is unsure of her life plans when she gets pregnant. She has a very supportive husband who helps make her dream of continuing her job come true. Mae has left her fiancé in a small town and arrived in Shreveport to attend college. After a year, she gets involved with another person who is very different and her life plans totally change. The longer the reader travels in the lives of these characters, the more familiar they become and the more invested we are in their lives.

This is a book about family and redemption, racism and justice.... But most of all it's a story about love. If you enjoy historical fiction mixed with an emotional view of family in transition, you don't want to miss Stork Bite.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

"A body had to remember to take people as they came, individually, instead of lumping them all together in a bunch."

Stork Bite by L.K. Simonds teems with life and death; choices and consequences; guilt and mercy. In 1913 in Louisiana, seventeen-year-old David Walker accidentally killed a white man, a Klansman at that, and had to make a choice: go home to his family and confess his crime or stay away and stew forever in remorse and regret. This story spans from 1913 to 2012 and is told in hauntingly georgous prose.

Many lives move forward and intertwine across Stork Bite, and discovering the connections across the pages is as entertaining as it is heartbreaking. Through war, prohibition, bootlegging, marriage, and living life to the fullest before crashing into mortality, Stork Bite leaves no emotional stone unturned. Giving out too many details and throwing down spoilers would be so easy and a shame because the threads securing the characters and plot lines together must be revealed slowly and experienced and savored. While racism is a looming antagonist throughout, it does not completely define the overall story. Instead, Stork Bite is defined by love, hope, success, and forgiveness across that chasm between black and white and even across that great divide between men and women.

Characterization, relationships, and outstanding description are the driving forces of Stork Bite, and L.K. Simonds knows how to mine the deepest sentiments and thoughts and then breathe life into each character, one by one. The story builds in due time, and the characters often meld together or brush against one another through the years, bobbing and sometimes sinking in the wake of their choices and the general snares of living.

Stork Bite is a literary treasure that awaits any reader ready to plunge into the mystique of Louisiana throughout the twentieth century and settle deep into the ordinary yet precious lives of unforgettable characters that will nibble at the edges of conscious thought long after the story has finished. The ending will break your heart yet give you hope that love will always triumph and soar higher than anything else on earth and in heaven.

I am so sorry it took me so long to read this book. I read it in one sitting. Best book I’ve read in a long time. The characters are all wonderful and what a story! Love a story that makes me cry. Can’t wait to read more by LK Simonds.

"Stork Bite" by L.K. Simonds is a truly wonderful novel that transports the reader to Louisiana during the reign of terror of the Klu Klux Klan, and then to the dangers and excitement of the Prohibition Era, and after. The characters are interesting and believable, and I found myself both cheering them on and cringing at their bad decisions.

The story opens with a murder and the murderer's decision to run away from home in order to protect his family. The book then moves on to the stories of Cargie and Mae, two very different women living very different lives. I was at first unsure of how the two different storylines connected, but the author wrapped it all up so beautifully in the end,

This is not a light read. The characters' trials and triumphs will elate you, break your heart, and make you angry. The author does not hold back when dealing with the racism and sexism that were a large part of this country's past, and indeed, are still major influencers of its present.

"Stork Bite" is historical fiction at its best! Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the privilege of reading a digital copy of this fabulous book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in return for my honest review.

L.K. Simonds has written a truly beautiful book in Stork Bite. Spanning decades, her character development of David, Carrie and Mae shows remarkable talent.
A split second decision changes David’s life forever. Cargie is a smart young black woman determined to make it as an accountant in a white man’s world. Mae is a teenager very much unsure of what she wants out of her life.
As their entwined lives unfold we see courage, determination, the owning up to mistakes and forgiveness.
And love. So much love.

Loved this novel. Very well developed story of a young Black man in the Jim Crow south who, due to a terrible twist of fortune, feels he must flee his loving family and all he has known to save his life and to keep his family safe. It is also the story of an intelligent, independent, and feisty woman making her way in the world despite the double deficits of being both female and Black. Both characters are well-developed and extremely likable and admirable and causing the reader to care about both of them and sooner or later will come to understand their connection to one another.

This book stole my heart. Seldom does a book grab your attention and your emotions from the first pages.

Spanning some of the most volitale and historic times in our past - the book follows a young black man throughout his life. David/Jacob/Thomas's evolves from a sheltered young man that happens across a man full of hatred to finding love with an amazing woman and people they meet along their way.

Each character is so we'll developed you feel a connection to them. The story is so well written - like you are there with them.

Great story - great book!

I absolutely loved this book. Incredible history of racial discrimination spanning a century. . We are introduced to David, a young black man out hunting with his dog in 1913. . He encounters a Klansman and the situation is dire. David sets out on a journey to protect his family and in return changes his and so many others destiny. Wonderful character interactions, loved all the internal dialogs. You will smile at times and definitely cry, a must read!

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. All opinions in this review are my own.