A review by molly_dettmann
Southernmost by Silas House

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.