morninglightmama 's review for:

Trampoline: An Illustrated Novel by Robert Gipe

3.0

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I kind of struggled following the narrative of this one, and I ended up putting it on hold a couple times to read other books, which did not help matters. When I finally got back to it, the second half or so flowed better for me. The protagonist, Dawn, isn't terribly likable, but it becomes abundantly clear that she doesn't like herself, and honestly, there isn't much to like in her life, either. The Appalachia she calls home is full of characters with drug and alcohol addictions, and attention to the law isn't much paid. Dawn's only potential role model is her aging grandmother, who is trying to get Dawn involved in her environmental activism to save the local mountain from coal blasting. The ending isn't as depressing as the rest of the book, but it's hard to see a ton of opportunity in Dawn's future.