Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell is best known for being one
of Oprah's book club picks a few years back. In my
opinion, most of her picks were quite good and many
were unique stories. Back Roads certainly fits into
the category of unique!
This is the story of a family of four children whose
mother shot and killed their father and is currently
serving her life term in prison. Which leaves 20 year
old Harley to raise his three younger sisters, Amber,
Misty and Jody. Of course, it's a daily struggle to
get them all to school, feed them, keep the house in
order and work enough jobs to pay the bills. As if
that's not enough, this family was NOT the Brady Bunch
before the shooting, there was abuse going on, which
leaves its lasting effects on all four children.
The characters’ plight in this story was compelling.
You really started to feel for this little family left
on its own. How would they survive? How would their
lives ever be normal? Their daily struggle to get
along with each other and to just be ok mentally, was
exhausting. You've got Harley who, because of the
abuse he suffered from his father, now has psychotic
tendencies and thoughts and he begins to look for love
in the wrong place—with an older married woman.
Amber who's 16 and who's ready to strike out on her
own with any boy she can find. Misty who's about 10
and struggling with who she is and what her mother
did. Jody who's only 6 and has all the questions in
the world about life and who needs security and love.
You can't help but feel depressed reading this book.
The flow of the story itself is very suspenseful.
There's a lot of mystery that surrounds this family
and its past, which will be revealed at the end.
That made reading this book not only interesting, but
entertaining. When some of the daily life and
struggle got mundane, you had the mystery about their
past that kept your interest.
When I first finished reading this book, I didn't like
it all that much. But after a few days' thought, I
think what I didn't like the most was that this book
was just plain upsetting. Don't be mistaken; this is
a serious and sobering look into a family whose lives
were destroyed by abuse. There was nothing uplifting
or happy. So, I do think it was a good book, just
don't expect it to be your normal happy ending. This
book is closer to real life.
