As a local, picking up this book is such a novelty at first, seeing all the places you know talked about on the page is quite an unusual thrill for those of us from our little county. It's not always a pleasant experience though, as sometimes it forces you to hold up a mirror to a murkier side of small community living that many may find uncomfortable confronting.
As you read it won't be long before you notice the writing structure is unlike anything you've read before. There are no full stops or commas here but one long sentence after another punctuated by forward slashes instead. To me this just enhances the fact that the whole story plays out over one sweeping weekend, whisking you along with it.
The story itself is so layered with different contexts and themes that it was only on my second read that I really appreciated all these different parts of the whole story.
The writer is able to seamlessly weave them all together into the one premise that marks them out as a skilled storyteller, that you don't notice being taken on this ride. These themes of race, family separation, sexuality, inequality, loss, grief and desperation are tough subjects to tackle but crucially there are moments, glimmers of hope, that things can get better...hopefully before it's too late.