First published 2016
The narrator and their siblings pack up again, leaving behind another West Virginia town in the 1950s. Their family never stays anywhere long enough to call it home. Each new place brings the same routine of finding their way around unfamiliar streets and making sense of new neighbors. But the real challenge comes from within their own house. One parent has recently embraced fundamentalist Christianity with the fervor of a convert. The children find themselves caught between their natural curiosity about the world and the increasingly rigid religious rules imposed at home. They push back in small ways, testing boundaries and questioning the beliefs being forced upon them. As they move from town to town, they discover that some things follow you no matter where you go. The tension between faith and freedom shapes their childhood in ways they are only beginning to understand.
Genres: fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, social-issues, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: West Virginia
Period: 1950s
56 pages · Paperback · CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform