The Waters Author:Bonnie Jo Campbell A master of rural noir returns with a fierce, mesmerizing novel about exceptional women and the soul of a small town. On an island in the Great Massasauga Swampâan area known as “The Waters” to the residents of nearby Whiteheart, Michiganâherbalist and eccentric Hermine “Herself” Zook ... more »has healed the local women of their ailments for generations. As stubborn as her tonics are powerful, Herself inspires reverence and fear in the people of Whiteheart, and even in her own three estranged daughters. The youngestâthe beautiful, inscrutable, and lazy Rose Thornâhas left her own daughter, eleven-year-old Dorothy “Donkey” Zook, to grow up wild.
Donkey spends her days searching for truths in the lush landscape and in her math books, waiting for her wayward mother and longing for a father, unaware that family secrets, passionate love, and violent men will flood through the swamp and upend her idyllic childhood. Rage simmers below the surface of this divided community, and those on both sides of the divide have closed their doors against the enemy. The only bridge across the waters is Rose Thorn.« less
I could not even make it through Chapter 1. 25 pages in and I had enough of the writing style. It was all over the place and went off in tangents that did not add to the story.