Long Bright River

I wasn't expecting to start and finish this inside of 24 hours, but here I am. I absolutely loved The Unseen World; this was wholly different, but tough and touching. Great for fans of The Wire.

This was the first book I received through Goldsboro Books book of the month club. I am not so familiar with the authors works, but I was pleasantly surprised with the book. The story centers around a pair of sisters and the different directions their life took when surrounded by poverty, drugs and corruption. Both of them are somewhat damaged by the experience, but in very different ways. The cycle of poverty and abuse amplified by substance misuse is powerfully told.

The writing itself is entertaining and easy to read, pulling you into the story. The book is told through the eyes of one of the sisters and there is a real sense of vulnerability behind the scenes. The power of the story comes from the sense of how difficult it is to break out from the lives that the characters live. The story is viscerally real and uncomfortable in the way that you can sense there is a reality to these people's lives that too many people actually live.

The main protagonist (Mickey) has on the face of things got it all sorted despite her having lost her mother and been raised somewhat reluctantly by her grandmother. She has a job as a policewoman and a son. Her sister (Kacey) on the other hand has properly fallen off the wagon is a prostitute and a habitual drug user. The underlying threat comes from a series of murders of prostitutes in the town and Mickey's desperate search for her Kacey. But it is more than just a police procedural and more about the relationship between the sisters.

“If the layout of Center City—all right angles and symmetry—is evidence of the staid and rational minds that planned Philadelphia, Kensington is evidence of what happens when intention is distorted by necessity.”