Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - The Saints of Swallow Hill

Rae Lynn Cobb is an amazing woman who is widowed and heads for a turpentine camp buried deep in the vast pine forests of Georgia during the Great Depression. She arrives posing as a man “Ray”, although the owner Peewee thinks she’s a prepubescent male. He still gives her a job. At these camps, they were paid in scripts which were could only be used at the commissary and to pay your housing. The commissary owner Otis Riddle is a horrible guy who makes sure the workers stay in debt. He also has a problem he’s hiding snd takes out his frustrations on his browbeaten wife, Cornelia. Delwood Reese is also at the camp as a worker. The evil boss Crow is the most horrible racist, lowlife, sexist, cruel, and black-hearted low-life. At the camps, if they didn’t meet quotas, they were punished with being whipped or put in a sweatbox. It was horrible. These poor people are working so hard doing what needed to be done to survive. Parts were heartbreaking. There’s a little boy, Georgie, who Carrie’s the water for them and to think they treated him and others like slaves still. The book was amazing but the very end frustrated me because it does this fast forward and wraps everything up. Readers that want complete closure will love the ending though.

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challenging emotional informative reflective 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

4.25

The Saints of Swallow Hill is historical fiction set in the American South during the Great Depression. Much of the story is set in a turpentine camp in Georgia. I had no idea the turpentine industry existed so was fascinated to learn about it via this book.

Delwood and Rae Lynn arrive at the camp around the same time. Both are trying to escape from their pasts, and manage to get on the wrong side of Crow, a racist, bullying foreman and also Otis, owner of the camp’s commissary. This novel is told from their alternating points of view as they try to survive and make better futures for themselves and others.

I got off to a rocky start with the book. The opening chapter included too many of Del’s sexual exploits for my taste. Thankfully the section isn’t lengthy and it does play an important role in setting the plot in motion.

I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the book. I was soon absorbed in the plot and rooting for Del, Rae Lynn and later Cordelia, all gritty characters with interesting backstories who were presented in a nuanced way. The villains of the story were portrayed in a more one-dimensional manner, but I cared not a jot, being content to rail against their bullying and cruelty. The North Carolina pine forest and the workings of the turpentine camp were really well drawn. All my senses were engaged and it was easy to imagine myself transported there, to picture events unfolding around me.

One aspect of this story that particularly caught my attention was the working conditions in the turpentine camp and elsewhere. The lack of care paid to workers’s safety was startling. It was impossible not to notice the connections between slavery, the sharecropping system and the operation of the turpentine camps - foremen with whips, cruel inhumane punishments, payment in scrip which could only be spent at the camp commissary, which of course carried overpriced goods meaning workers were always in debt to the company and thus unable to leave its employment.

Highly recommended for historical fiction fans who love a unique setting, an absorbing storyline, and characters they can root for.

Many thanks to @netgalley for the audio ARC.

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