The Saints of Swallow Hill - Donna Everhart - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Donna Everhart

NARRATOR: Amy Melissa Bentley

GENRE: Historical Fiction.

PUBLICATION DATE: January 25, 2022

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A well-written historical fiction focussing on life in a turpentine camp in the years after the Great Depression. I would have enjoyed more layered characters but the historical elements are good enough to make this an interesting experience.

Story:

Delwood Reese (Del) is a cocky womaniser who gets caught by his own bad deeds and needs to escape from his current employer before it’s too late. He finds a job as a tree worker in a turpentine camp in Swallow Hill, Georgia, hoping to find a better future.

Rae Lynn and her kind but clumsy husband Warren run a turpentine camp together in North Carolina. When Warren’s blundering goes a step too far, Rae Lynn is forced to escape her home. The only place she can think of is Swallow Hill.

And thus the two narratives of Del and Rae Lynn come together, depicting in gritty detail the life in the turpentine camps. It is a journey of personal redemption and professional horror.

Most of the story alternates between the perspectives of Del and Rae Lynn. The story is written in a 3rd person omniscient narration.

Where the book clicked for me:

👌 While I knew a little bit of cotton and sugar plantations which mistreated Blacks, I had had no idea about turpentine camps. For those who enjoy factual details in their historical fiction, this book is a treat. Every aspect of the camps and the harsh living circumstances in them is fleshed out remarkably. The living conditions in those camps were gut-wrenching and the book shows the truth as is. The historical details seem well-researched.

👌 When there is a male lead and a female lead in a fictional story, there is a great chance that there is a romantic connection between them. This book is no exception. Where it goes on a different path is in how this romantic connection proceeds. I liked how the relationship “developed” naturally as the chapters progressed.

👌 Del, Rae Lynn, Warren, and to a certain extent, Cornelia (the wife of the camp’s commissary owner), are well-sketched characters with layers to their personality. These four characters hold the book on their shoulders and make the story what it is. While I didn’t appreciate a certain character trait assigned to Cornelia (it initially felt like a needless addition to create a complication in the story and felt very abrupt when it first appeared), the story does make good use of this trait later.

👌 While Rae Lynn’s character stays true to the time period of the story, she is still not a typical historical heroine. She is courageous, and her attitude in times of trouble is quite unlike the girls one normally reads about in historical fiction.

👌 Unlike usual such historical narratives which narrate the story from the perspective of the upper class Whites or the Black slaves, this book chooses to narrate it from the point of view of the lower class Whites, This view from the mid-point of the social structure serves as an interesting insight into how life was for people of this background, and also depicts their attitude towards the Blacks, who were even lower than them on the societal rung.

👌 The initial chapters seem a little slow and I wondered where the story was going. But once the momentum began, the story kept a pretty good pace and didn’t get boring for me at least in terms of the events occurring through it.

Where the book could have worked better for me:

⚠ Except for the four characters I mentioned above, the rest of the characters are very uni-dimensional and stereotypical. There are no layers to them, and their behaviour stays predictable throughout. I prefer more grey characters than hackneyed black or white ones.

⚠ The ending is too perfect and ties everything neatly with a ribbon and a pretty bow on top. The epilogue felt like a step taken too far. I would have preferred a somewhat more realistic ending, with some ends sealed and some on the way to closure.

The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook clocks at 12 hours 13 minutes and is narrated brilliantly by Amy Melissa Bentley. Her accent is spot on, her character voices are impeccable, and her enunciation is perfect. I enjoyed her performance thoroughly. While the initial 3-4 chapters become a little confusing in the audio version, it doesn’t take time to figure out the plot. So I would definitely recommend the audiobook.

If you want a story about two plucky individuals who tried to face the problems of life head on and individually, and you want a historical fiction that stays away from over-used topics such as WWII and instead throws a spotlight on an unseen part of history, do give this a try. Regardless of the somewhat flat secondary characters, it is worth a read.

My thanks to Tantor Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “The Saints of Swallow Hill”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.