Kinfolk - Sean Dietrich - ★★★★.½

AUTHOR & NARRATOR: Sean Dietrich

GENRE: Southern Historical Fiction.

RATING: 4.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A heartwarming Southern historical fiction. Loved the characters, the plot, and most of all, the writing. How have I not read anything by Sean Dietrich before?!?! Much recommended! Check the triggers though.

Story Synopsis:

1972. Sixty-two-year-old Nub Taylor is known for all the wrong things in his small rural hometown in southern Alabama. He does menial blue-collar jobs, drinks and smokes too much, doesn’t go to church, and lives his life without any sense of responsibility, and is close only to his cousin Benny. To be fair, he does feel remorse about being estranged from his daughter Emily, but it seems too late to salvage that relationship.

When fifteen-year-old Waffle House waitress Minnie enters Nub’s life in an unexpected manner, he finally feels like he has a purpose. But unknown to them both, this new bond will soon be in danger from an unexpected source.

The story comes to us from the third person points of view of Nub, Minnie, and Emily.

Bookish Yays:

💖 The central characters: Nub, Minnie, Benny, and Emily. Such a disparate quartet, and yet, each so convincing, realistic, flawed, and heartwarming. The author handles character development in the most satisfactory manner. Rarely would you see me rooting for an alcoholic character, but Nub is just hug-worthy!

💖 I loved how the characters aren’t stereotypical despite having characteristics that could have made them clichéd. Their personality traits are, in many ways, contrary to the image their physical traits would generate in our minds.

💖 The prologue is stunning! As I have mentioned myriad times before, I love prologues that create a firm foundation for the main story rather than simply regurgitating a scene from towards the end of the book. This is how prologues should be used in fiction!

💖 The story tackles quite a few themes, all of which are handled well. Not going into details as many of the themes are spoilers.

💖 Music has a very important presence in the story. As a music lover, I found these elements a pleasure. Learning about ‘Grand Ole Opry’ was delightful!

💖 Without getting into spoilers, Emily’s pov offers us an interesting insight into fear, stress, acceptance, and hope in case of a medical emergency. Her track becomes a tad too simplistic at times, but it fits the tone of the book.

💖 The historical references are brilliant. Though I am not as savvy about US history as a US reader would be, I still relished the insights offered by the writing without its getting judgemental or political.

💖 The writing is stunning. Everything is so vividly described that I had no trouble picturing the characters as well as the setting. I relished the author’s prowess with words. His metaphors were especially apt. If this had not been an audiobook, I would have highlighted quite a few quotes.

💖 There is enough of witty banter in the conversations, especially when Nub is involved. I actually laughed aloud multiple times while listening to the book.

💖 The title is perfect for this story about found family. After all, who are your kinfolk? If a blood connection necessary? Is blood really thicker than water? Can there be any hope for reparation in a dysfunctional family? ‘Kinfolk’ represents the central theme excellently.

💖 There are Christian elements in the story, but the plot never gets preachy. I also enjoyed the humorous comments about the judgemental attitude of some religious people – so true! (Note: This isn't Christian fiction in the 'clean' sense as some of the triggers don't fit with the genre.)

💖 The author’s note: the icing on the cake! Loved the personal insight!

Bookish Nays:

💔 I would have liked some more detailing in Sug’s arc. His was the weakest track in the book. On a related note, the mafia-style thuggery felt somewhat out of place in the narrative. I didn’t buy how the bad guys went after you-know-who-if-you-read-the-book instead of their main target. That part was silly and unconvincing.

💔 The climax went a teeny-weeny bit over the top in its action and was too perfect in its finish.

💔 It is odd how Emily’s son has barely any role to play in the narrative. Given that his mom, grandmom, and granddad have so many interactions, his being missing from every key interaction is tough to accept.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 9 hrs 44 min, is narrated by the author himself. I am usually not a fan of authors narrating their own books, as many of them don’t enunciate the books properly. But there was no need to worry this time. I hadn’t known that the author is a known podcaster, popular as ‘Sean of the South’.

It took me a while to get used to the gruff voice of Sean Dietrich, but once my ears were attuned to his tone, I enjoyed his narration to a great extent. In many ways, he is the perfect choice to read this book aloud. He intonates well, he provides the right emotions, he doesn’t go overboard trying to make each character sound distinct, and best of all, he even sings the few tunes in the book! (This might not work for all listeners, but I like it when narrators sing the verses instead of merely reading them poetically.)

That said, I would recommend this audiobook only to experienced audiobook listeners. As readers, you might have seen how a single chapter sometimes comes from the close third-person perspective of various characters. In audios, this gets tricky to keep track of, especially if there isn’t a sufficiently long pause before the switchover between characters. In ‘Kinfolk’, there’s hardly any pause before the narration jumps characters, so things get a bit confusing at times. (I was listening at just 1.25x. The problem might have been even worse for those who zoom through audiobooks at 2x and above.)

If you think you might get muddled up hopping across the characters without warning, stick to actual reading. This is a narration issue and not a writing issue.

All in all, a strong positive experience for me despite the presence of some intense content and some farfetched scenes. I loved the handling of the characters and the premise in this story about getting second chances at life and family. I would love to read more by this talented author.

Strongly recommended to historical fiction fans, literary fiction readers, and Southern fiction lovers. Do check out the content warnings online as there are quite a few. Despite the strong triggers, the overall effect is still feel-good.

My thanks to Harper Muse and NetGalley for the ALC of “Kinfolk”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.