n  “One day you’re that guy who’s happy he managed to survive high school and get that almighty piece of paper, and you’re thinking you might try to get a job at Redi-Mix concrete where your dad’s worked since the beginning of time. And at least you’ve got a family you can stand even if they are all sisters.

One day you’re that guy, and the next day you’re assigned to a social worker and a therapist and given the choice of either being a LEGAL ADULT with three DEPENDENTS or an ORPHAN with NOBODY.”n

With his mother in jail for killing his abusive father, Harley Altmyer is an orphan with the responsibilities of an adult and the fiery, aggressive libido of a teenager. Just nineteen years old, he’s marooned in the Pennsylvania backwoods caring for his three younger sisters, whose feelings about him range from dependence to loathing. Harley develops an obsession with the sexy, melancholic mother of two living down the road. He wants Callie Mercer so badly he fears he will explode. But it’s the family secrets, the lies, and the unspoken truths that light the fuse and erupt into a series of staggering surprises, leaving what’s left of his family in tatters.

Let me first say that this book was one of the most emotionally grueling I've read in a while.

Back Roads is a dysfunctional coming of age story. A wild, vicious, scary ride. Harley is a sensitive, angry, overwhelmed, confused adolescent. I spent the last half of this book praying for him to be okay and for his family to make it somehow. The Author does an amazing job constructing a story that is so wrought in severe psychological pain.

This is a story that at its very core is about a mother who fails to protect her children. Abuse abounds. Resilience, not so much.

Highly recommended but not for those who are offended by vulgar and violent scenes.

His mom is in jail after she killed her husband. So Harley's got full responsibility to his three sisters who are quite a handful. The eldest finds solace making out with boys in their living room couch.. The second one couldn't be moved and the youngest is alarmingly as sweet as syrup. These girls need guidance from a woman, in my honest opinion, but all they got is Harley who isn't particularly happy nor charmed with the setup. But he's got no choice but to be the man in the family, and man, he needs all the boost he can get, especially with that lovely mother he's recently got his eyes on.

Now if only he can give sympathy to his siblings without thinking of strangling them one by one. And if only his mother didn't fired up that gun.....

I bought this book almost 10 years ago when I learned that this was part of Oprah's Book Club. I thought, if Oprah liked it, I guess I would too. But as I read the pages one by one, I got this inexplicably sick feeling about Harley and the way he treated his sisters. I couldn't point my finger on it, I just knew it was giving me the creeps. A week later, I realized I've been stuck at the same chapter for a couple of days and couldn't bring myself to proceed. So I abandoned this book and left it on my box of DNFs. :(
Now my sons found my old stash and I saw this book, like it's begging me to read it. So I decided to reread it. Now I realize why I wasn't able to finish this book before. It was about a dysfunctional family struggling with a series of unfortunate events that befell them. But this aint' magical like the other book - no, Back Roads is gritty, dark, brutal, savage. My mind couldn't handle it then, honestly, i still can't, but I did it! I'd like to think that I am now more mature and open-minded and so I was relieved when I finally finished reading this book. My mind exploded into small pieces, you'd be picking my brains scattered on the floor.

This.Is.Mindfuck. Is it HEA? How I wish! Ugh. This is still giving me a headache. I wonder how Oprah managed to finish it.

Incredibly beautiful writing.

What the actual fuck? This family is all sorts of fucked up. You can’t help but love Harley but my God is this book a haunting thrill ride. This book is tragically beautiful and often disturbing. The way it’s written captures you from the very beginning. Just as you imagine you’ve got it all figured out, you’re wrong all over again. Every twist, every turn... my reactions were grand. I found myself wanting to put the book down based on such taboo topics but the urge to know the TRUTH just gets the book back in my grasp. The gradual development of these characters was fantastic. You almost forget you’re reading a book, like you’re there watching it all unfold. Fantastically disturbing yet brilliantly written. It was an intriguing adventure I hope to never go on again.

This book started out pretty fast, and I enjoyed the author's storytelling technique. However the unrelenting bleakness of the story just wore me down. One of the reviews on the cover said : "A page turner, gritty...funny,... sexy,. It was a definite page turner, but it was like watching a train wreck and not being able to turn away. It was gritty enough for me to feel like I needed to bathe after reading it. I do not find anything funny or sexy about murder, sexual and physical abuse, not to mention incest and insanity. If you enjoy reading books that are bleak, sad, sorrowful and with no happy ending in sight, this is the book for you. Although I don't believe every book should have a happy ending, I read mostly for entertainment, and this book was not at all enjoyable for me.

*4.5 stars
This book got me good!! It was very dark and disturbing and almost hard to read at points but still kept my attention all the way through. Would highly recommend. Also, the movie adaptation is good and follows very closely to the book which was nice.

I have to admit that the blurb is deceiving this time. From the blurb, you wouldn't be able to tell how great the book is without at least reading the first chapter, it just pulls you in and you'll wanna find out more. Back Roads is about a 19 year old boy named Harley Altmyer who has to take care of his three younger sisters after their caring mom has been sent to jail for killing their abusive father. The book is not about how he's surviving in life though, but about love as well, as a key point to the book is that he lusts for a mother of two down the road of his home. As the story progresses unbelievable things seems to progress and the shocking truth is revealed at the end, the truth about the father's death. At first to me it seems like the book has no point, it's just talking about some crappy life of a kid who's suffering because he's at lost of parents and that he has to live on his own while taking care of his 3 sisters, yet there is more to it that meets the eyes. This book reminds me of the Catcher in the Rye as how the situations are differently yet the main character have the biggest issue with everyone else in the book. Either way i think this was one of the best books i read in my life, I recommend it to everyone.

*Warning!!* This book is pretty mature, don't read if you can't handle grusome description or sex scenes or incestuous themes.

This is not an easy read, but it is compulsive. O'Dell keeps one at a knife's edge. Just when you think you have it all figured out another twist is revealed. It is a very assured debut novel.

Another reviewer said the main character is 'unlikeable', but I think that is rather harsh. He is severely conflicted, and can one blame him? He certainly has my sympathy and admiration because he is trying his best to keep his family going under very difficult circumstances. Yes, he makes mistakes, but he is only 19.

I don't want to say more and thereby ruin the plot for someone else. Suffice it to say that it is a very well written book which make me look forward to reading more of Tawni O'Dell's books.

Waaaay too much family dysfunction for me.

The TRUTH is the TRUTH sucks sometimes. People are the only ones who care about that. The only difference between me and Elvis [the dog] isn't my ability to face or deal with or deny it. It's that I let it bother me.

Wow, what a complete mind trip. I read this for a reading challenge - which means I knew NOTHING about it and just jumped it. At first, I thought it was a little dark.

I had no idea. The twisted turns and leaps this story takes blew me away and I predicted none of them. Oh, sure. I had some ideas, but never knew what this was about. The mystery as you weave your way through the story is almost overwhelming. You know something is coming you just don't know what. Very well done, well crafted.

I have said it before and I will say it again "damn these first time bitches!" Tawni O'Dell wrote one hell of a story as her first novel,way to go!

I would recommend this to anyone, which normally with a story this dark I would be reluctant or would warn about the subject matter,but this is so well done.
Harley is a 19 year old boy, who has to take care of his three younger sisters,Amber,Misty and Jody, after their mother has been sent to jail for killing their abusive father. Harley works 2 jobs and has no friends and has not seen his mother since she went to jail.

The moral of the story in this is that parents (especially mothers) need to protect their children,O'Dell even points out that this basic rule is apparent in the animal kingdom and should be respected and followed. When it is not the result is that children are messed up and messed up kids do messed up things and any of those messed up things you can think of happen in this book.

They are making a movie of Back Roads,Starring Andrew Garfield and Jennifer Garner,I think this is fantastic casting and I really don't care for Garner normally, but I think she will be perfect as Callie.I don't know if I would enjoy seeing this as a film thou, reading it is somthing different all together.

Quick Thing : I wear glasses for distance so if I am in the car or watching a movie I have them on otherwise not so much. Apparently I may need to wear them more. I carried this book around for a few days(over a week) and then my five year old said
"theres is a naked lady on your book"
I said "no theres a birch tree I think"
on further inspection that is a naked lady on my book and not a tree ...bloody hell. All the progress I thought I making with respectable book covers is out the window and wasn't even aware. Awesome.

This is my take on Oprah books: really bad things happen to people who are already suffering from other bad things and the end is never a happy one. In fact, they're often icky endings.

Woody loaned me Back Roads and I read through it in one sick day last week. The story is told from the point of view of Harley, a 19 year old boy, whose Mother is in prison for killing his Father. Harley's left with raising his three younger sisters.

There's abuse, murder, incest, adultery, mental illness...yep, a perfect Oprah book.

I have to admit I was thoroughly engrossed while reading this. I sympathized with Harley and it was painful to see what was happening to him and around him. Of course, it being an Oprah book, I wanted to take a shower after I was done to get the Ick feeling to go away.