Review: The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh

 

 

Here's the summary from Netgalley:
The town of Henbane sits deep in the Ozark Mountains. Folks there still whisper about Lucy Dane’s mother, a bewitching stranger who appeared long enough to marry Carl Dane and then vanished when Lucy was just a child. Now on the brink of adulthood, Lucy experiences another loss when her friend Cheri disappears and is then found murdered, her body placed on display for all to see. Lucy’s family has deep roots in the Ozarks, part of a community that is fiercely protective of its own. Yet despite her close ties to the land, and despite her family’s influence, Lucy—darkly beautiful as her mother was—is always thought of by those around her as her mother’s daughter. When Cheri disappears, Lucy is haunted by the two lost girls—the mother she never knew and the friend she couldn’t save—and sets out with the help of a local boy, Daniel, to uncover the mystery behind Cheri’s death.

What Lucy discovers is a secret that pervades the secluded Missouri hills, and beyond that horrific revelation is a more personal one concerning what happened to her mother more than a decade earlier.

The Weight of Blood is an urgent look at the dark side of a bucolic landscape beyond the arm of the law, where a person can easily disappear without a trace. Laura McHugh proves herself a masterly storyteller who has created a harsh and tangled terrain as alive and unforgettable as the characters who inhabit it. Her mesmerizing debut is a compelling exploration of the meaning of family: the sacrifices we make, the secrets we keep, and the lengths to which we will go to protect the ones we love.

This is the kind of book that sucks you in immediately.  Lucy is still shocked and upset by the murder of her friend Cheri, who disappeared months ago.  And she's determined to to find out what happened.  As the reader, so was I. 

McHugh paints the small Ozark town where Lucy lives so well, so vibrantly, that I completely felt like I was living there.  It's got that small town atmosphere, everyone knows everyone else's business, and that kind of plays a role in the story as well.

I really loved how we get the story not just from Lucy's perspective, but from a whole bunch of other minor characters.  You get so many different personalities, so many different stories.  But it doesn't get overwhelming, it actually helps to tell the story.

My only complaint about this book (and it's a small complaint) was that I thought it ended too quickly.  I wanted more!  I wanted to stay with Lucy and Daniel and everyone else for a little bit longer.  Did anyone else feel the same way??  I mean, I really enjoyed the book, I loved the feel of the book, and then it ended and I wasn't ready for that.

Have you read The Weight of Blood?  What did you think?  Let me know in the comments or on Twitter.

Title: The Weight of Blood
Author: Laura McHugh
Date of Publication: March 11th, 2014
Number of Pages: 320
Genre: Fiction
Source: Netgally