Back Roads is a beautifully written character study of a 19 year old young man from a backwoods Pennsylvania town who is slowly coming to realize that he is predisposed to repeat the intergenerational dysfunction he grew up in. I had previously seen the film version which, while not outstanding, left me with an impression of great potential for the book.

The story is mostly told through inner dialogue that is remarkably more articulate and self-aware than might be expected of an individual at this age with limited education and really no positive influences. However, it is this very introspectiveness that makes the book worth reading, even as it deals with some shocking subject matter and the psychological unraveling of the protagonist as he wrestles with the hopelessness of his future.

Read as the second pick (letter B) of the alphabet book club

A sad story, but the writing was SO GOOD. I loved the use of capital letters throughout the book for words that you could tell Harley heard from lawyers or his therapist. O'Dell does a great job of building tension throughout the novel until the book's climax. Very well done.

Thanks for the book, G!

PS: The writing was so clearly what made this book great becuase the movie was nothing to write home about.

Using the words of one of the characters, this book is about a "decent, responsible kid who's had a really shitty life."

A young boy grows up with an abusive father who is killed by his mother. The mother goes off to jail, leaving him in charge of his three sisters. In the midst of it all, his small town dislikes the family because, like his Uncle Mike explains to him, it's like this: "From the moment the people heard, they made a choice. You and your sisters are either the children of a murdered man or the children of a murderer. If you're one you deserve sympathy. if you're the other you deserve hatred. But you can't be both because people can't feel both."

As the book unfolds, Harley remembers disturbing events from his past. He learns secrets and truths from his imprisoned mom. He falls in love and it becomes dangerous. There are so many things wrong with his family and the drama unfolds throughout the book.

The problem is it didn't unfold at the right moments or pacing for me. Sometimes it seems like O'Dell gave you a bit, and took it away, only to talk about something else, then give you the goods a little while later.

I was rooting for this one because the writing is so good and Harley as a narrator started off so well, but he was so unwell, that I couldn't follow him the way I wanted to. He told you what was going through his mind, then at times he wasn't sure what was going through his mind. He could talk about himself, but couldn't thoroughly explain what was going on with his sisters. And lots was going on. Maybe if his shrink had been a second narrator...

If you like dysfunctional and disturbing this is the book for you! Despite the overall sadness here there are moments of laughing out loud. Marley will be with me a long time. I usually read 3 or 4 books at a time and finishing this in 8 days is a testimonial to its riveting story line. I found myself favoring this one over my other current reads, and, honestly they are good books, too!

I couldn't put this book down, which is crazy because it is so disturbing. Harley is border line crazy due to his upbringing, but I found myself feeling for him. I highly recommend this book, be warned, it is very dark and disturbing at parts.

This is a dark and interesting tale! I love sinking deeply into a character's mind and that happens here with Harley. He's confused and disturbed and coming of age while raising his younger sisters. It's heartbreaking what they go through. This book reminds me of Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma, with similar themes of incest and older siblings raising younger siblings and trying to stay together as a family.

I highly recommend the audio version, which is narrated by the amazing and sincere-toned actor Andrew Eiden (who also read The Guardian Herd middle-grade series that I wrote!)

I'm not sure if this is YA or Adult, but there is adult content, just FYI for younger readers.

This book had it all. Heartache, heartbreak, humor, and horror. So much has been written about Harley, the main character of the book, things that make him out to be a horrible guy but the thing I found most evident about him was pretty simple. He missed his mom and longed for her presence in his life. Maybe not even his mom but "a" mom, any mom. When he asked the neighbor to meet him at the mining office he asked her to bring the stuff to make smores. Earlier in the book his little sister was talking about Callie making them smores and Harley almost seemed jealous. Through out the book all of Harley's demons and battles seem to stem from the fact that he resents not having a mom to do the things a mom should be doing. Not just for his sisters but for him as well.

This book is very well written and has many lines that are psychologically profound with regards to the characters.

"...I wanted her to tell me it was true. To tell me she knew about it. To speak the unspeakable. To prove the unbelievable. It would make dad more deserving of what he got. It would make mom more justified in what she had done. It would take away some of my own guilt. It would be all Misty's fault now. Mom hadn't killed him because he beat me...."

I read a review earlier from someone who said Harley was too messed up and "hick" to have that type of self inflection. I think a young man who has lead the kind of life Harley has lead is going to have a very astute ability to self analyze.

Bottom line...I liked the book because of all the psychological nuances that were there to be explored. I think this is an excellent Book Club book because it leaves the reader wanting to discuss it long after the last page has been turned.

#Cuatroymedio

This book introduced me to a new author and I'm very surprised that I had not heard of this
book before now as it was published 20 years ago. All I can say is, wow, I'm so happy that
I finally read it.
Tawni O'Dell's writing in this book is by far some of the best I've read and it literally shook me to my core. I'm an absolute sucker for an unreliable narrator and this story was all that and more. There were moments when I was confident that I knew everything that i needed to know to judge a character and then, pow, O'Dell hit me in the head with new information that i did not see coming and I nearly dropped my juice box and fell out of my chair.
The character development in this story is so spectacular it was impossible for me to not be
completely emotionally invested in each person. I loved them. I couldn't stand them. My head was
spinning with each new bit of information.
I'll admit the subject matter was messy but that's life. It happens. All of the members of this
family were profoundly damaged but they were incredibly layered and had so much substance, substance that they didn't even see in themselves but as a reader you could see it in them because of O'Dell's skill in writing.
Harley was so gentle and loving and yet he was completely broken. I wanted to reach into the pages and hug him. You could see glimpses of who he might have become given the opportunity, but sadly, opportunity was something this family did not know. Harley was far more intelligent than some reviewers believed but it was there, written all over him.
This is the type of book that has the ability to stick with you long after you set it down and I'm ok with that because I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to any of the characters yet.

On a side note, it wasn't until after I read the story that I noticed it had been a book from Oprah's book club. I'm actually surprised that this book was one of her selections.
As stated above, the book is 20 years old, if you have not had the opportunity to read it yet, I highly
recommend it. It is powerful, disturbing, raw, and a phenomenal story.

Wow. I started this book as a palette cleanser without realizing how much of a twist it would turn out to be. I’m dealing with some strong emotions and I can’t believe how the end really grasped the concept of trying to figure out life during those heightened emotions.

What a sad but beautiful ending. My heart breaks for these characters and everything they went through. Tawni Odell has such a talent for writing. I can’t even begin to grasp how this book made me feel. I will definitely need to read it later on in life. I think my perspective and feelings will be very different.

What a beautiful novel.

I'm conflicted. The book was a page turner. Tawni O'Dell has a fine writing style, great sense of plot development and character construction, for the most part. She does a great job of creating the mental world of a troubled, young adult and his experience of sexuality. Has an interviewer ever asked her how she developed this skill? Were it not for some serious flaws I would have given it a five star review. I like the metaphor of Callie Mercer stripping his father' coat off of Harley before one of their sexual encounters.

O'Dell really took me inside the mind of a man child who suffered abuse from his father and could only express emotion through fantasies of violence which he struggled to control. But she lost me in chapter 17. Without giving away plot details that will erode the suspense which is essential for enjoyment of this novel, Callie Mercer's behavior is not that of a mature woman with a frustrated marriage and a developing affair with a younger man. It is a young man's wet dream. I laughed out loud when Harley drives to her home on a dark and stormy night. We get it Tawni. Brilliant. But when Callie's husband tends to a children's squabble while his scantily dressed wife runs out into the rain with Harley to his truck and she lays out for him to collect his birthday present, I lost my sense of reality. I thought it would have made more sense if Harley had been hallucinating. It seemed as if O'Dell had been writing with one outcome in mind, lost the thread of her story and changed the ending. Or at that point had not yet developed her ending. The last third of that chapter added nothing and could have been deleted. That would have made a significantly improved story.

This is a story for adults, complete with detailed descriptions of hot, sweaty sex. The plot is engrossing; it will hold the reader's interest. It's solid entertainment.

n  nBack Roads

Back Roads serves as a reminder of the atrocities that can surface for innocent children when damaged by the corrupt adults in their lives.

Tragic and devastating characters make this twisted and deplorable tale so absorbing. I am haunted by the truth and the realism in their stories.

From beginning to end, Harley is a mysterious and destructive figure whom I can’t quite decipher, partly because of his lack of self-understanding, and partly because I can’t fathom one man/boy’s ability to adjust.

Seeming to leave no stone unturned, abandonment, abuse, incest, and infidelity are but a few issues Tawni O’Dell unravels.