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I am a fan of the Big Stone Gap series as well as some of her stand-alones and so I high hopes for this one. What a disappointment. The excessive attention to superfluous detail made me want to scream. I had heard that the book was very descriptive but I had no idea of the extent. Do I really need to know what every character in every scene is wearing? I was subjected in mind-numbing detail about everything I never wanted to know about the outfits these characters wore throughout the book. Do I care that Dad’s feet, “in black suede Merrils, rests on the lower bar of the stool” while her mother’s, “in dark brown calfskin ankle boots with a high wedge heel, dangle above the foot bar”? Does it add anything to the story? No. This ridiculous attention to detail continues with clothing. At a birthday party early in the book, a character can’t simply cry out “Happy Birthday!” No, she “…cries (Happy Birthday!) in her black sequin tank with matching silk georgette palazzo pants and a wide hammered-gold chain-link belt that drips down her thigh with a fringe of rhinestones. She wears strappy gold sandals…” The clothing description continues with each character at the party, even the men. And on it goes throughout the entire book. Unless you care about shoemaking (which I most certainly do not) be prepared to read in excruciating detail every single aspect of the business. Character development took a back seat to the descriptive prose so much so that by the end of the book I no longer cared what happened to any of them, I just wanted it to be over.

2022-09-01 18:45