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mnboyer 's review for:
The Quickening
by Michelle Hoover
Be prepared, there are spoilers throughout this review and I'm not hiding them.
This book has a lot of darkness and family drama, which I was not suspecting based on the cover and the inside blurb. My friend Deb Cook passed away and left several boxes of books behind for me, and I'm just now getting around to reading them. This book has a gorgeous cover and so I decided that it would be a nice light read about farming, friendship, and a hint of the Great Depression. Well, it is a lot darker than that so be prepared!
Enidina (Eddie) and Mary are two farm wives that live on nearby farms in the middle-of-nowhere, Midwest, USA. The work on the farms is hard and the two women handle it differently. Eddie is a woman that's always been used to work, and so she does a lot of labor on her farm, whereas Mary is more content in town and does seemingly little on her farm. At first, you would think that the two women are going to enter a friendship when Mary comes to introduce herself to Eddie but that really isn't the case. The two women tolerate each other (at best) and sometimes they cross into each other's lives to be helpful, but sometimes not so much.
Eddie is married to Frank, and the couple seems to get along fine, but I wouldn't classify them as a deep love connection. One thing Eddie wants to do is have children but she suffers through several miscarriages. Eventually, the couple does end up with a pair of twins (Donny and Adaline) but they aren't the healthiest of children, it would seem.
Mary and Jack, on the other hand, don't have trouble conceiving. The only real problem occurs when Mary ends up sleeping with the head of the church (oops) and gets pregnant. Of course, Jack knows, but for some reason stays with her. This child is their youngest, Kyle.
There are many dark tidings on the farms. During the Great Depression, the government decides to go to farmers and "ask" them to slaughter their pigs to drive the meat prices up. This makes absolutely no sense... the entire country is starving but slaughtering pigs seems like a great answer to things. Jack loses his mind and runs over to Frank's farm and cuts up several piglets and a sow. Frank has to put them down. Don't worry, Jack makes sure to involve his young children in the massacre (yes, I say massacre, because bashing pregnant sows with sticks doesn't seem humane at all) at his home. Disgusting. But the government hands them some cash.
Mary sleeps with the head of the church, yet continues to act godly and great. She thinks she is amazing and is constantly coming over to Eddie's house to stir up trouble. Once when Frank is sick, she feeds him chicken instead of broth, assures Eddie that's normal, but when a doctor comes he definitely blames Eddie for the chicken. Mary also tries to convince everyone they need to be baptized...not like it keeps you faithful to your husband, but whatever.
Eventually, both families have children and they all play together. Kyle has a crazy horse that he and Donny decide to try and ride. Once Donny is on the horse, Kyle whips the horse, which goes crazy and then ends up essentially trampling and killing Donny. Kyle runs home. Eddie holds her dead son, has a temporary mental snap, and sets some fire to their dried corn crops. Adaline sees this from her bedroom. Kyle, at home, says what happened and his father walks outside and shoots the horse. Later, Frank says that this wasn't necessary, and perhaps it isn't. The moral of the story is this was an ACCIDENT and kids shouldn't be left alone with horses (broke or otherwise, because things happen!).
The town, like most small towns, starts talking. Kyle is to blame and everyone knows it. Yet Mary, the ass that she is, goes to the church and plays the ace in her sleeve. If the pastor doesn't tell everyone that Kyle isn't to blame, and that perhaps Eddie scared the horse, she's going to tell everyone that he impregnated her. And in a crazy turn of events--which you cannot believe happened/happens to people but the church does this--the church members get together and tell Eddie and her family they're not welcome in town anymore! They suggest they leave. Crazy!
This is all over an accident that, of course, was an accident. With some explanation and heart-to-heart conversation this could have been fixed throughout the town. Sure, it was terrible. But again...accident.
Instead Adaline and Kyle run off together, with Adaline heavily pregnant. So the joke is really on Mary because she ends up alone. She's pissed that no one has 'thanked her' for everything that she's done but she's absolutely insane (maybe even certifiable if you ask me) because she's just ruined things for so many people.
Sigh. This was dark, but it was well-written and straightforward. I needed this book in my life! It is one that is going to give me nightmares (pig murder) but it is one that I'll cherish and not soon forget. Thank you Deb, this was a good one!
This book has a lot of darkness and family drama, which I was not suspecting based on the cover and the inside blurb. My friend Deb Cook passed away and left several boxes of books behind for me, and I'm just now getting around to reading them. This book has a gorgeous cover and so I decided that it would be a nice light read about farming, friendship, and a hint of the Great Depression. Well, it is a lot darker than that so be prepared!
Enidina (Eddie) and Mary are two farm wives that live on nearby farms in the middle-of-nowhere, Midwest, USA. The work on the farms is hard and the two women handle it differently. Eddie is a woman that's always been used to work, and so she does a lot of labor on her farm, whereas Mary is more content in town and does seemingly little on her farm. At first, you would think that the two women are going to enter a friendship when Mary comes to introduce herself to Eddie but that really isn't the case. The two women tolerate each other (at best) and sometimes they cross into each other's lives to be helpful, but sometimes not so much.
Eddie is married to Frank, and the couple seems to get along fine, but I wouldn't classify them as a deep love connection. One thing Eddie wants to do is have children but she suffers through several miscarriages. Eventually, the couple does end up with a pair of twins (Donny and Adaline) but they aren't the healthiest of children, it would seem.
Mary and Jack, on the other hand, don't have trouble conceiving. The only real problem occurs when Mary ends up sleeping with the head of the church (oops) and gets pregnant. Of course, Jack knows, but for some reason stays with her. This child is their youngest, Kyle.
There are many dark tidings on the farms. During the Great Depression, the government decides to go to farmers and "ask" them to slaughter their pigs to drive the meat prices up. This makes absolutely no sense... the entire country is starving but slaughtering pigs seems like a great answer to things. Jack loses his mind and runs over to Frank's farm and cuts up several piglets and a sow. Frank has to put them down. Don't worry, Jack makes sure to involve his young children in the massacre (yes, I say massacre, because bashing pregnant sows with sticks doesn't seem humane at all) at his home. Disgusting. But the government hands them some cash.
Mary sleeps with the head of the church, yet continues to act godly and great. She thinks she is amazing and is constantly coming over to Eddie's house to stir up trouble. Once when Frank is sick, she feeds him chicken instead of broth, assures Eddie that's normal, but when a doctor comes he definitely blames Eddie for the chicken. Mary also tries to convince everyone they need to be baptized...not like it keeps you faithful to your husband, but whatever.
Eventually, both families have children and they all play together. Kyle has a crazy horse that he and Donny decide to try and ride. Once Donny is on the horse, Kyle whips the horse, which goes crazy and then ends up essentially trampling and killing Donny. Kyle runs home. Eddie holds her dead son, has a temporary mental snap, and sets some fire to their dried corn crops. Adaline sees this from her bedroom. Kyle, at home, says what happened and his father walks outside and shoots the horse. Later, Frank says that this wasn't necessary, and perhaps it isn't. The moral of the story is this was an ACCIDENT and kids shouldn't be left alone with horses (broke or otherwise, because things happen!).
The town, like most small towns, starts talking. Kyle is to blame and everyone knows it. Yet Mary, the ass that she is, goes to the church and plays the ace in her sleeve. If the pastor doesn't tell everyone that Kyle isn't to blame, and that perhaps Eddie scared the horse, she's going to tell everyone that he impregnated her. And in a crazy turn of events--which you cannot believe happened/happens to people but the church does this--the church members get together and tell Eddie and her family they're not welcome in town anymore! They suggest they leave. Crazy!
This is all over an accident that, of course, was an accident. With some explanation and heart-to-heart conversation this could have been fixed throughout the town. Sure, it was terrible. But again...accident.
Instead Adaline and Kyle run off together, with Adaline heavily pregnant. So the joke is really on Mary because she ends up alone. She's pissed that no one has 'thanked her' for everything that she's done but she's absolutely insane (maybe even certifiable if you ask me) because she's just ruined things for so many people.
Sigh. This was dark, but it was well-written and straightforward. I needed this book in my life! It is one that is going to give me nightmares (pig murder) but it is one that I'll cherish and not soon forget. Thank you Deb, this was a good one!