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cathyleigh1's review against another edition
4.0
This is the first book I've read by this author, but now plan to read more. A wonderfully told story about the love between a father and son. It's also about a man discovering that his long-held beliefs have changed. Highly recommend.
madeline_cola's review against another edition
3.0
3/3.5 || i liked this book because of my personal experience with homophobia within the catholic church, but besides that, the writing did not impress me and i thought the book was a bit shallow. House tries to have the reader sympathize with a straight white pastor dealing with homophobia and i personally think the book would have been 100% better if the focus was on Asher’s gay brother, Luke, and his experiences with coming out, the backlash he experiences from the church and the community, and his personal journey after he leaves.
molly_dettmann's review against another edition
3.0
A preacher in a rural Tennessee town defends a gay couple discriminated by his church, goes viral, then decides to kidnap his 9-year-old son to find his estranged gay brother in Florida. Yes, that is the plot in a nutshell. I felt like the female characters were written pretty one-dimensionally. They either loved him or conflicted with him. I feel like the author did a good job of showing the rural church conflict our main character was dealing with well, considering that I felt like I was reading something set in 1950, but completely buy that it was set in post 2015’s Obergefell v. Hodges. I loved the son, Justin and while I have many thoughts about the dad, I wanted nothing more than this sweet and sensitive boy to get to play carefree and with a dog. I only read this because it showed up on this year’s AP Lit test but I don’t regret it. I appreciate the inclusion of more modern literature.
mhoffrob's review against another edition
5.0
HIGHLY RECOMMEND, with thanks to the author, Silas House, the publisher, Algonquin Books, and netgalley.com for the advanced reader copy.
Southernmost is a beautifully crafted and very well written contemporary novel. Asher Sharp is an evangelical preacher, born and raised in Tennessee, where he still lives with his wife and 9 year old son. When the Cumberland River reaches extreme flood levels, their community is ravaged by the waters. He spends days helping neighbors and his church members. The need of a gay couple, and his wife's unwillingness to house them, leads him to a personal crisis as well as a crisis of faith and career. As everything about his life changes, his love for his son and his sorrow for disavowing his own gay brother years before. Part coming-of-age story, part road story, and many parts redemption., this is a novel I thoroughly enjoyed and found extremely rich and satisfying.
Southernmost is a beautifully crafted and very well written contemporary novel. Asher Sharp is an evangelical preacher, born and raised in Tennessee, where he still lives with his wife and 9 year old son. When the Cumberland River reaches extreme flood levels, their community is ravaged by the waters. He spends days helping neighbors and his church members. The need of a gay couple, and his wife's unwillingness to house them, leads him to a personal crisis as well as a crisis of faith and career. As everything about his life changes, his love for his son and his sorrow for disavowing his own gay brother years before. Part coming-of-age story, part road story, and many parts redemption., this is a novel I thoroughly enjoyed and found extremely rich and satisfying.
cococorycollins's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Animal death, and Kidnapping
chloewithoutanh's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
aische24's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
jbmorgan86's review against another edition
3.0
I really wanted to love this book. The plot intrigued me: A holly roller preacher has a dilemma when he rescues a homosexual couple during a flood and attempts to welcome them into his house and into his church. His family, his congregation, and town ostracize him. He then goes out on a quest to find his long-lost gay brother (whom he shunned years ago) with his son. A reviewer compared Southernmost to the novels of Wendell Berry (one of my favorites). While there is some beautiful language and interesting God-talk (a nice little nod to Thomas Merton), this novel just had too many problems for me:
- To me, a protagonist must be likable. Asher, the protagonist of Southernmost, is anything but likable. He wants to give up judgment and embrace equality, which is admirable, but he just makes bad choice after bad choice throughout the novel. Is it out of ignorance or selfishness? I'm not sure. Whatever the case, he just comes off as petulant throughout.
- The catastrophic flood at the beginning of the novel sets the plot in motion. However, I feel like the readers are hardly given anything about Asher's change of heart and the transformation that goes on inside of him. In what seems like a few pages there's a flood, he takes in a gay couple, he is ostracized, he runs off with his boy. Then his time on the run seems to be stretched out. Asher seems to just walk away from everything too easily.
- Everything seems too perfect in this novel. I'm leaving this review spoiler free, but just know there are too many points in the novel that just seem totally unbelievable. Too many coincidences and tidy solutions. Also, a nine year old that loves My Morning Jacket? Jason Isbell on the radio (I'm assuming Asher didn't have satellite radio! Ha!)? Road signs that say "GOD HATES FAGS" (I've lived my whole life in GA, SC, and TN and don't think I've ever seen a road sign proclaim this . . . though, I've known people to believe that and proclaim it).
- House has a strange penchant for using "This:" and "Then:" throughout the novel.
- How many times do we need to be told that Asher's mouth was watering? We get it. He's hungry and thirsty.
- To me, a protagonist must be likable. Asher, the protagonist of Southernmost, is anything but likable. He wants to give up judgment and embrace equality, which is admirable, but he just makes bad choice after bad choice throughout the novel. Is it out of ignorance or selfishness? I'm not sure. Whatever the case, he just comes off as petulant throughout.
- The catastrophic flood at the beginning of the novel sets the plot in motion. However, I feel like the readers are hardly given anything about Asher's change of heart and the transformation that goes on inside of him. In what seems like a few pages there's a flood, he takes in a gay couple, he is ostracized, he runs off with his boy. Then his time on the run seems to be stretched out. Asher seems to just walk away from everything too easily.
- Everything seems too perfect in this novel. I'm leaving this review spoiler free, but just know there are too many points in the novel that just seem totally unbelievable. Too many coincidences and tidy solutions. Also, a nine year old that loves My Morning Jacket? Jason Isbell on the radio (I'm assuming Asher didn't have satellite radio! Ha!)? Road signs that say "GOD HATES FAGS" (I've lived my whole life in GA, SC, and TN and don't think I've ever seen a road sign proclaim this . . . though, I've known people to believe that and proclaim it).
- House has a strange penchant for using "This:" and "Then:" throughout the novel.
- How many times do we need to be told that Asher's mouth was watering? We get it. He's hungry and thirsty.
muchadoaboutliz's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
kyras's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0