The Book Woman’s Daughter
Kim Michele Richardson
Audiobook 10hrs, 29 mins
Published May 3rd, 2022
Blackstone publishing
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The Book Woman’s Daughter is the sequel to the bestselling historical fiction novel The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, which was published in 2019. I remember very much enjoying that one, but somehow missed this when it came out in 2022. I recently received an ARC for the third part of the trilogy – The Mountains We Call Home, and so decided to get the audiobook of book two so as to not read them out of order. I was initially deterred by the strong local accent of the narrator but got used to it, and was soon immersed the author’s rich storytelling style. While I’m a stickler for reading series in order, this one would work fine as a standalone.
Honey Lovett is the adopted sixteen year old daughter of Cussy Mary, the heroine of TBWOTC. She shares the rare genetic defect methaemoglobinaemia, which causes her mother’s skin to look blue, but to a much lesser extent. When her parents are arrested and thrown in prison in 1953 for violating Kentucky’s inhumane racist miscegenation laws, she is left alone and threatened with being placed in the brutal children’s workhouse as a ward of the state. With the help of friends, she negotiates a fragile freedom and takes a job with the reinstated Packhorse Library project, delivering books to remote communities in the Appalachian mountains on the same routes her mother covered years earlier. Honey loves the independence and being able to help other vulnerable women, but the threat of imprisonment by a vindictive social worker hangs over her – can she beat the system and make a life of her own?
As in the first book, the plot is based on real history – the Kentucky Blues and the Packhorse Library did exist and the author did a lot of research to bring their stories to life. I therefore got a jolt when I realised that this is set only 17 years before I was born, and yet the conditions people lived under, and the laws that controlled their lives, seem archaic. The misogyny, racism and casual cruelty are hard to read about, although typical of this genre. In particular, finding out what happens to poor Cussy – who was supposed to have a happy ending from the previous book, was disturbing, although it seems she returns as the heroine of the third instalment so hopefully we’ll get to see her triumph over adversity.
At the heart of the book are the relationships between Honey and the various female characters, some ahead of their time like Fire warden Pearl and miner Bonnie, others wise and kind like Retta and Amara.
There is a minor romance but happily it doesn’t take over the plot, and while the outcome is predictable, I enjoyed the ride. I’m now looking forward to reading the next book, although I’m glad it will be in ebook form: I frequently had to replay sections of the audiobook to understand what the narrator was saying – I normally like an accent appropriate to the setting, but Katie Schorr laid it on a bit thick for me, so would rather not listen to her again. 4.5 stars, rounded up.
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