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American Ghost
An engrossing novel inspired by a true event about unresolved family history and racial tensions that threaten a Florida community.
With American Ghost, Janis Owens offers an evocative southern novel continuing in the tradition originally established by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and brought into the new millennium by writers like Karen Russell and Kathryn Stockett. Inspired by Owens’s extensive research on a real lynching that occurred in the 1930s, American Ghost is a richly woven exploration of how the events of our past can haunt our present.
Jolie Hoyt is the daughter of a Pentecostal preacher living in small-town Florida. Disregarding her family’s closet full of secrets and distrust of outsiders, she throws caution to the wind when she falls in love with Sam Lense, a Jewish anthropology student from Miami in town to study the region. But their affair ends abruptly when Sam is discovered to have pried too deeply into the town’s dark racial past and he becomes the latest victim of violence. Years later, Sam and Jolie are brought together again, and as they resolve the mistakes of their early love, they finally shed light on the ugly history of Jolie’s hometown.
A page-turning blend of romance and historical gothic, American Ghost is a triumph—the novel that this outstanding Southern author was born to write.
With American Ghost, Janis Owens offers an evocative southern novel continuing in the tradition originally established by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and brought into the new millennium by writers like Karen Russell and Kathryn Stockett. Inspired by Owens’s extensive research on a real lynching that occurred in the 1930s, American Ghost is a richly woven exploration of how the events of our past can haunt our present.
Jolie Hoyt is the daughter of a Pentecostal preacher living in small-town Florida. Disregarding her family’s closet full of secrets and distrust of outsiders, she throws caution to the wind when she falls in love with Sam Lense, a Jewish anthropology student from Miami in town to study the region. But their affair ends abruptly when Sam is discovered to have pried too deeply into the town’s dark racial past and he becomes the latest victim of violence. Years later, Sam and Jolie are brought together again, and as they resolve the mistakes of their early love, they finally shed light on the ugly history of Jolie’s hometown.
A page-turning blend of romance and historical gothic, American Ghost is a triumph—the novel that this outstanding Southern author was born to write.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2012
44 people are currently reading
2581 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 216 reviews
October 29, 2012
I actually had to go and check with Wiki to find out what the cracker culture in Florida was all about. This was a very interesting, extremely well written and easy to read story. The character development was wonderful and this is one of the few books that I can say I liked almost every character. Inspired by a true event, a horrible lynching, relatively late in the 1930's, this book highlights the cracker culture of Southern Florida, their superstitions and strong family clans. Shows how much past events can affect the future and how everyone's views of the same event can differ. Loved reading the story of Joe and Sam and loved how Jolie talked and thought of her father. I highly recommend this book, it was a wonderful combination of history, family ties and mystery.
June 30, 2012
When mob cruelty happens now and is broadcast on the news worldwide, it is difficult to comprehend how a group of people could all have lost their sense at the same time and that no one would have stopped the horrible from happening before things got so completely out of control. As Janis Owens points out in her novel, American Ghost, the results of what amounts to human cruelty have the power to haunt generations to come when the deed is so gruesome and terrible and a whole tribe of people work hard to cover up the awful.
This story explores racial tensions and the fallout in a town that to simply call it rural is missing the mark completely. The best part about well written historical fiction is that the reader is drawn into a story and learns about places and facts and historical details in mesmerizing ways. American Ghost is a terrific read for someone who would like to learn a little something about Cracker culture in Florida in the form of a great story.
This story explores racial tensions and the fallout in a town that to simply call it rural is missing the mark completely. The best part about well written historical fiction is that the reader is drawn into a story and learns about places and facts and historical details in mesmerizing ways. American Ghost is a terrific read for someone who would like to learn a little something about Cracker culture in Florida in the form of a great story.
November 16, 2012
I did not care for this book at all. I could not get into the characters, by the end of the story I realized it was because they were just caricactures and stereo-types. I still don't know what the real plot of the story was. Was it finding the 'fangers', or who shot Sam, or the Hoyts gloating at the lynching, all the above, none of the above??? It had potential to be a really great story about this area of the country, but it wasn't focused and the characters were neglected.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 23, 2012
This book is not what I expected, but something else entirely. I would not be surprised if this book becomes an American classic. I highly recommend this novel. An excellent read!
December 23, 2015
I hate to compare this book to blockbuster success, but it evoked the same emotions I felt when I read The Help. It's a book about Southern hypocrisy, but that's not what makes me compare the two. When I bought The Help, I was simply looking for something good to read and saw it at Costco. I hadn't heard anything about it and there were few reviews. I bought it hardback version. It's the kind of book that sneaks up on you and you realize you should have gone to bed hours ago.
Like the previously mentioned book, the story is intriguing but not its strongest point. The strongest point is the character development as each one brings a unique chemistry to the mix. The lines they each deliver at the right moment enveloped me right into the book. The book needed the Jewish Sam Lense, the mixed blood of Jolie and Carl Hoyt with all their kin, and Scandinavian style Lena with her bikini tops and devotion to Jolie and Carl. The story needed the aging sisters and their slow shuffles to get the eggs or change for a twenty. Uncle Ott was somewhat of a mystic in his smaller statue while older brother Ray was a mythic giant with his cast eye and humility in preaching.
The central theme is the mystery regarding the lynching of a black man from the turpentine camp in 1938. Horrific crimes were committed that night and when the details are revealed, it did turn my stomach. The book is loosely built on a historical event in the backwoods of Florida, the last documented collective lynching quite late in American history. This is where the hypocrisy sneaks in as the Hoyts claim to be white folk but a pedigree search quickly reveals their Irish blood making a lot of babies with native Indians then intermarrying. But ask them about the Injuns that live in the woods and they will give a true look of puzzlement.
The backwoods town of Hendrix, where the crime first began, is a well written story of collective secrecy, guilt and shame. It is a society that holds their ancestor's sins close to the chest and sabotage themselves from true betterment which is the case of Jolie, although there were extenuating circumstances that occur that facilitate her self sabotage.
There are a bunch of stories going on in the book and spanning seventy years. The lynching is a secret because those who perpetrated the violence (beyond the first killing, which was of a shopkeeper in the camp), are respected members of society, such as it is. Sixy years later, their children are still trying to keep their game face on. But one black worker lost two of his fingers in the scuffle and his sons, now elderly, enter the ring in an entreaty to retrieve their daddy's "fangers." The middle two. But that only brings up the guilt of the town which is a bad thing. And another newer act of violence that Jolie never solved. Better to carry the secrets and never mention them than to bring them all to light and discover the crimes are not enough to carry through the generations, you see.
The story is intriguing. The characters are unbelievably real and well fleshed out. The writing style is succinct yet beautiful. I ended up writing down words that struck me. I know them in context but on their own, they are just fun to say like sonorously, anathema, vaudevillian, purloined, cacophony, sanguine, temerity, anachronistic.
Excellent book that I expect to see a lot more of in the next couple of years.
Like the previously mentioned book, the story is intriguing but not its strongest point. The strongest point is the character development as each one brings a unique chemistry to the mix. The lines they each deliver at the right moment enveloped me right into the book. The book needed the Jewish Sam Lense, the mixed blood of Jolie and Carl Hoyt with all their kin, and Scandinavian style Lena with her bikini tops and devotion to Jolie and Carl. The story needed the aging sisters and their slow shuffles to get the eggs or change for a twenty. Uncle Ott was somewhat of a mystic in his smaller statue while older brother Ray was a mythic giant with his cast eye and humility in preaching.
The central theme is the mystery regarding the lynching of a black man from the turpentine camp in 1938. Horrific crimes were committed that night and when the details are revealed, it did turn my stomach. The book is loosely built on a historical event in the backwoods of Florida, the last documented collective lynching quite late in American history. This is where the hypocrisy sneaks in as the Hoyts claim to be white folk but a pedigree search quickly reveals their Irish blood making a lot of babies with native Indians then intermarrying. But ask them about the Injuns that live in the woods and they will give a true look of puzzlement.
The backwoods town of Hendrix, where the crime first began, is a well written story of collective secrecy, guilt and shame. It is a society that holds their ancestor's sins close to the chest and sabotage themselves from true betterment which is the case of Jolie, although there were extenuating circumstances that occur that facilitate her self sabotage.
There are a bunch of stories going on in the book and spanning seventy years. The lynching is a secret because those who perpetrated the violence (beyond the first killing, which was of a shopkeeper in the camp), are respected members of society, such as it is. Sixy years later, their children are still trying to keep their game face on. But one black worker lost two of his fingers in the scuffle and his sons, now elderly, enter the ring in an entreaty to retrieve their daddy's "fangers." The middle two. But that only brings up the guilt of the town which is a bad thing. And another newer act of violence that Jolie never solved. Better to carry the secrets and never mention them than to bring them all to light and discover the crimes are not enough to carry through the generations, you see.
The story is intriguing. The characters are unbelievably real and well fleshed out. The writing style is succinct yet beautiful. I ended up writing down words that struck me. I know them in context but on their own, they are just fun to say like sonorously, anathema, vaudevillian, purloined, cacophony, sanguine, temerity, anachronistic.
Excellent book that I expect to see a lot more of in the next couple of years.
March 17, 2013
Jolie Hoyt is a small town girl, her father is the Pentecostal preacher in Hendrix, Florida. Sam Lense, from Miami, is doing research that takes him to Hendrix. While he's there Sam and Jolie fall in love but are forced to abandon their happily ever after when Sam digs too deeply into the local history. Years later Hollis Frazier and his brother Charlie travel to Florida in search of a missing piece of their family's history, all four of them are brought together in an effort to set a small piece of the past to rights.
This novel explores parts of the South's violent past and racism. And I think I may have liked it more as an audio book, I'm not sure that I understood the tone as the author intended it. There was a certain quality that I would call "not quite funny, not quite cute but trying to be" and I never liked those portions of the dialogue or narrative.
Here's an example as Sam appreciates they qualities of Jolie's beauty: 'He left nothing out, but rejoiced to the heavens in her little feet, her long legs, her green eyes, the moistness of her lady parts and the absolute Cadillac-quality of her breasts.' I found the description a turn off and there were other similar phrases and dialogue that had the same quality to them, which I didn't care for.
There was also an inconsistency in character in both the male and the female protagonist. Jolie was portrayed as an upright, shy proper girl who was afraid to get her ears pierced but at one point she is flipping the bird to all of her cousins at Thanksgiving dinner. Sam is a serious and earnest man researching the past, at one point as he is thinking to himself, he's calling his family as dumb-ass idiots. Neither event or description was in keeping with the personalities of these characters.
There were other things that didn't ring true to my ears, some relationships seemed to progress too fast, certain things that were said weren't very believable and the prank that Jolie's brother plays on Sam didn't feel at all authentic. Each time there was an inconsistency in character, an off-key remark or an event that was unrealistic, it took me out of the story and made me think about the author's ability as a writer, I do not like thinking about an author unless it's to wonder at their incredible skill and genius. This could have been a great book, the story itself was interesting, it just wasn't told very well.
Rosewood was referred to repeatedly but was never explained. I'm happy to look up information when I'm reading a novel but the references included in the story would have been more meaningful for readers if the importance of what Rosewood was had been explained in the narrative itself. From Wikipedia: The Rosewood massacre was a violent, racially motivated conflict that took place during the first week of January 1923 in rural Levy County, Florida, United States. At least six blacks and two whites were killed, and the town of Rosewood was abandoned and destroyed in what contemporary news reports characterized as a race riot.
Some of the details in this story made my head hurt and took my breath away, the true history of our past should be preserved so we understand where we've come from. While I didn't care for this novel I admire Janis Owens for writing about the horrors that we harbor in our not so distant past.
This novel explores parts of the South's violent past and racism. And I think I may have liked it more as an audio book, I'm not sure that I understood the tone as the author intended it. There was a certain quality that I would call "not quite funny, not quite cute but trying to be" and I never liked those portions of the dialogue or narrative.
Here's an example as Sam appreciates they qualities of Jolie's beauty: 'He left nothing out, but rejoiced to the heavens in her little feet, her long legs, her green eyes, the moistness of her lady parts and the absolute Cadillac-quality of her breasts.' I found the description a turn off and there were other similar phrases and dialogue that had the same quality to them, which I didn't care for.
There was also an inconsistency in character in both the male and the female protagonist. Jolie was portrayed as an upright, shy proper girl who was afraid to get her ears pierced but at one point she is flipping the bird to all of her cousins at Thanksgiving dinner. Sam is a serious and earnest man researching the past, at one point as he is thinking to himself, he's calling his family as dumb-ass idiots. Neither event or description was in keeping with the personalities of these characters.
There were other things that didn't ring true to my ears, some relationships seemed to progress too fast, certain things that were said weren't very believable and the prank that Jolie's brother plays on Sam didn't feel at all authentic. Each time there was an inconsistency in character, an off-key remark or an event that was unrealistic, it took me out of the story and made me think about the author's ability as a writer, I do not like thinking about an author unless it's to wonder at their incredible skill and genius. This could have been a great book, the story itself was interesting, it just wasn't told very well.
Rosewood was referred to repeatedly but was never explained. I'm happy to look up information when I'm reading a novel but the references included in the story would have been more meaningful for readers if the importance of what Rosewood was had been explained in the narrative itself. From Wikipedia: The Rosewood massacre was a violent, racially motivated conflict that took place during the first week of January 1923 in rural Levy County, Florida, United States. At least six blacks and two whites were killed, and the town of Rosewood was abandoned and destroyed in what contemporary news reports characterized as a race riot.
Some of the details in this story made my head hurt and took my breath away, the true history of our past should be preserved so we understand where we've come from. While I didn't care for this novel I admire Janis Owens for writing about the horrors that we harbor in our not so distant past.
March 24, 2013
Although I enjoyed the first half of American Ghost, mysterious, romantic, full of secrecy and unspoken family drama, the second half, was confusing and increasingly muddled. It was difficult to sort out all connections, (uncles, cousins, neigbors...) and mostly, I really did not get the gulity, pressure, or whatever that Jolie was carrying entire her life....
December 20, 2012
I’m going to start with a warning that if you’re looking for a spooky novel, American Ghost, by Janis Owens, is not it. Many people on other sites have posted that they were under the assumption that this was a ghost story. However, the type of ghost Owens writes about is not traditional but historical.
American Ghost takes place in the American South, but I wasn’t entirely sure in what time period until after the first few chapters. Sam Lense is a college student who has come to Hendrix, Florida under false pretenses. He tells the people he meets that he is researching Native American tribes of the area when really he is investigating an ancestor’s murder at the hands of Henry Kite. Kite was executed for his crime long ago, along with most of his family, in such a heinous way, that the modern-day people of Hendrix do not wish to speak of it. Sam meets Jolie Hoyt, who comes from a family that is very well-known for all the wrong reasons. Did the Hoyt family have something to do with this lynching? Sam soon realizes that digging into the secrets of Hendrix could be extremely dangerous.
Some readers have compared this book to The Help, but in my eyes, there is no comparison. To me, the present-day characters in American Ghost were not fully fleshed out enough to the point where I cared enough to continue reading about them. However, the historical aspect of the novel makes it worth reading and remembering that it wasn’t so long ago that this actually happened in America.
MY RATING - 3
See this review on 1776books.net...
http://1776books.blogspot.com/2012/12...
American Ghost takes place in the American South, but I wasn’t entirely sure in what time period until after the first few chapters. Sam Lense is a college student who has come to Hendrix, Florida under false pretenses. He tells the people he meets that he is researching Native American tribes of the area when really he is investigating an ancestor’s murder at the hands of Henry Kite. Kite was executed for his crime long ago, along with most of his family, in such a heinous way, that the modern-day people of Hendrix do not wish to speak of it. Sam meets Jolie Hoyt, who comes from a family that is very well-known for all the wrong reasons. Did the Hoyt family have something to do with this lynching? Sam soon realizes that digging into the secrets of Hendrix could be extremely dangerous.
Some readers have compared this book to The Help, but in my eyes, there is no comparison. To me, the present-day characters in American Ghost were not fully fleshed out enough to the point where I cared enough to continue reading about them. However, the historical aspect of the novel makes it worth reading and remembering that it wasn’t so long ago that this actually happened in America.
MY RATING - 3
See this review on 1776books.net...
http://1776books.blogspot.com/2012/12...
February 5, 2013
AMERICAN GHOST by Janis Owens is a fine and serious novel; don't believe Amazon's categorization of it as a Romance Novel. (Faulkner's THE UNVANQUISHED is a romance novel by their standard.) This review quote is closer to the truth: "This compelling novel begins as a love story...but it turns into a thrilling, multilayered mystery and a fearless look at the tragic delusions of American racism." (San Antonio Express )
Owens does as good a job as I have ever seen laying out the complex stew of race, class, and kin that so shapes life in the rural deep South. Much of this is done through the eyes of an Anthropology Grad student from UF, an "Outsider" trying desperately to understand the world views of "Insiders." Like all of us, Owens struggles to fairly present the bizarre amalgamation of Calvinism, Universalism, and Spiritualism that is Southern rural white religion,and like most of us she finally just says, "there it is." Highly recommended.
Owens does as good a job as I have ever seen laying out the complex stew of race, class, and kin that so shapes life in the rural deep South. Much of this is done through the eyes of an Anthropology Grad student from UF, an "Outsider" trying desperately to understand the world views of "Insiders." Like all of us, Owens struggles to fairly present the bizarre amalgamation of Calvinism, Universalism, and Spiritualism that is Southern rural white religion,and like most of us she finally just says, "there it is." Highly recommended.
May 8, 2013
This was a good, fast read, one of those books I didn't want to put it down. It is loosely based on some seriously ugly Southern history. It is a little bit romance, a little bit historical, a little bit suspense/mystery. Every bit of it feels Southern. The dialogue and settings felt very real to me, the characters were likable, fairly complex, and the unwinding of what happened really happened held my interest. I think it would have been 5 stars if there hadn't been quite so much foreshadowing. By the end, when it was time for the big "reveals" I already felt like I knew what had happened/was going to happen. There was a lot of time-shift in the novel and I think in parts it worked for plot development/suspense and at other times worked againt. I will definitely be reading more by this author. And that is perhaps the most telling factor - I KNOW I liked a book when I want to read more of the author's books.
March 13, 2013
I liked this book a lot, but I had one problem with it. At times, it seemed as though the setting was two different eras. I almost felt that it was originally written as a story taking place in the 1960s, but then the author rewrote it to the 1980s so that she could move forward 15 years and have the Internet serve to move along the plot. It was like some of it hadn't been updated enough to reflect the change in era. I know that's a bizarre theory, but it was the best explanation I could come up with for the occasional cracks that seemed to let an earlier time shine through.
September 25, 2012
With American Ghost, Janis Owens has joined the exalted ranks of Eudora Welty, Harper Lee, and Carson McCullers as a leading voice of Southern Gothic literature. With her story teller's mastery of southern dialect she creates characters as true as the North star and a plot as potent as a fine Mint Julep. Owens probes our southern soul, picks at the scabs of our collective guilt, and leaves you reeling long after the final page.
April 19, 2013
Highly recommended! Not what I expected at all - the title is somewhat misleading although once you finish the book you understand why the author chose that title. It was so well written, with richly drawn characters and a solid, historically based, plot. I love reading books where the characters come alive in my imagination so quickly, and where I am drawn in to their stories so immediately.
May 7, 2023
A thoroughly enjoyable southern gothic tale that's a good blend of romance and mystery. It reminded me of Where the Crawdads Sing, though I might have liked this premise better. It was more rooted in historical context and didn't devolve into a mediocre courtroom drama.
Loved the first section recalling Sam and Jolie when they were young; I was pretty captivated there. And I enjoyed the way the writing played out as if an old family member really was retelling a crazy family history. The setting was really vivid and, as a bit of a history nerd, I liked all the diving into the town and the lineage of the main family. It's all the supporting info you'd get if this were to be made into a podcast, so I'm glad it was included here.
Main downside, this started to sag a bit heading into the third act, becoming more tedious than tense. What could have been really dramatic final events felt ultimately underwhelming, and I'm not sure whether it was my expectation or desire for drama. But it seemed like the quick conversations that resolved things made the *decade* of conflict feel really pointless. Also, adult sam was kind of a dud. Jolie is a badass though.
An engaging read though, especially on a sticky summer evening when you can really imagine that west Florida setting. Glad I picked it up!
Loved the first section recalling Sam and Jolie when they were young; I was pretty captivated there. And I enjoyed the way the writing played out as if an old family member really was retelling a crazy family history. The setting was really vivid and, as a bit of a history nerd, I liked all the diving into the town and the lineage of the main family. It's all the supporting info you'd get if this were to be made into a podcast, so I'm glad it was included here.
Main downside, this started to sag a bit heading into the third act, becoming more tedious than tense. What could have been really dramatic final events felt ultimately underwhelming, and I'm not sure whether it was my expectation or desire for drama. But it seemed like the quick conversations that resolved things made the *decade* of conflict feel really pointless. Also, adult sam was kind of a dud. Jolie is a badass though.
An engaging read though, especially on a sticky summer evening when you can really imagine that west Florida setting. Glad I picked it up!
April 11, 2019
I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of this book but the second half left me scratching my head. It felt like someone else had written it, the initially strong characters unraveled and the plot was so convoluted I lost track of who did what to whom. I still don't know what happened to Sam or why and to be honest I don't care, he annoyed me by the end and I was happy to finally finish this book.
August 15, 2021
This would not ordinarily by my "kind" of book - romantic, boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, etc. etc. BUT - set in my area, based on a true event, well-written, pretty good plotting, a bit of mystery, and one of the most wrenching descriptions of lynching I have ever read (not sure if that's a positive, but it's an exceptional bit of writing) - all of that sets it a bit apart. Not a waste of time, and there's some education involved, also.
April 6, 2013
I read this well-reviewed book primarily because it centers around a actual lynching that took place in 1934 in Marianna, Florida, the hometown of a friend of mine. I don't know enough about the facts of that lynching to know or comment on whether this fictional account has any accuracy. What I *can* talk about is the book as a novel. Janis Owens writes extremely well. I was especially impressed by how she compressed actions into a few well-chosen words. Her ability to do this helped propel the plot, which I found spellbinding through the first three-quarters of the book. She also set herself an ambitious project, attempting to describe the lives of mixed-race people living in the Florida swamps and their relations with turpentine workers and plantation owners alike.
I don't think she was entirely convincing about the locale. She wanted to portray the swamp dwellers from Hendrix and the city dwellers in Cleary as being from different worlds, but they seemed to be in closer contact than Hendrix's secrets and marginalism would require. She also had trouble depicting realistic characters. In particular, her protagonist is the daughter of a Pentecostal preacher who is described early in the book as being very straight-laced and repressed, but who later spouts profanity and shoots people the bird. I know that characters, like people, can change and grow, but these kinds of changes did not ring true and there was no explanation for why she might have changed in this manner. Similarly, the man who hires her to work in a floral shop and later has her take over his mansion plays a multitude of roles in her life, not one of them persuasive. The entrance of two black brothers searching for their father's missing fingers in the second half of the book also seemed improbable and they themselves were not particularly convincing, though their appearance did work as a plot device. At the heart of the novel is a mystery about who in her extended family might have participated in or even initiated the lynching and who shot her lover. Though Owens did a good job of making me consider some of the major characters as likely suspects, finding out who it really was turned out to be a disappointment, as he was not a major player in the earlier part of the book. I felt that the book had a lot of promise, but didn't quite achieve its goals.
I don't think she was entirely convincing about the locale. She wanted to portray the swamp dwellers from Hendrix and the city dwellers in Cleary as being from different worlds, but they seemed to be in closer contact than Hendrix's secrets and marginalism would require. She also had trouble depicting realistic characters. In particular, her protagonist is the daughter of a Pentecostal preacher who is described early in the book as being very straight-laced and repressed, but who later spouts profanity and shoots people the bird. I know that characters, like people, can change and grow, but these kinds of changes did not ring true and there was no explanation for why she might have changed in this manner. Similarly, the man who hires her to work in a floral shop and later has her take over his mansion plays a multitude of roles in her life, not one of them persuasive. The entrance of two black brothers searching for their father's missing fingers in the second half of the book also seemed improbable and they themselves were not particularly convincing, though their appearance did work as a plot device. At the heart of the novel is a mystery about who in her extended family might have participated in or even initiated the lynching and who shot her lover. Though Owens did a good job of making me consider some of the major characters as likely suspects, finding out who it really was turned out to be a disappointment, as he was not a major player in the earlier part of the book. I felt that the book had a lot of promise, but didn't quite achieve its goals.
January 24, 2016
3.5 stars. Rounding up because it doesn't deserve to be rounded down. :-)
I'll admit I was leery to start. The main female character, Jolie Hoyt, is chronologically a contemporary of mine...graduating high school in the 90's, etc. But her speech patterns (and those of her friend Lena and even the love interest Sam Lense) are a throw-back to earlier decades. The discrepancy between the stated decade and these speech patterns threw me, even with the realization that the town of Hendrix is meant to be something of a throw-back to earlier and less enlightened times.
It took me a few chapters to settle in...but once I did...the story owned me.
It walks a fine line in the realm of category, not quite a romance but not quite NOT a romance. It's a more subtle exploration of self-importance, I think. Yes, yes, and race relations, bigotry, history, etc. But I was caught up in everyone's sense of self-importance. My love, my history, my dreams, my family. As with most romance-type books, I just wanted to scream for people to talk to each other...but unlike most of those books, I truly got why each person wouldn't, couldn't, etc. If you talk, you open yourself (and those you love) to scrutiny, to judgment...no one dares hope for understanding.
And it wasn't just in relation to the romance aspect...this was an exploration of an insular community, suspicious and unwelcoming...and an exploration of how others see that community (equally suspicious and unwelcoming in return).
And, in the midst of this, we have this history...a terrible story of a lynching from the 1930's. We have this melange of guilt and shame, love and pride within this community. We have a new generation growing up in the shadow of a terrible thing, unable and unwilling to disavow the prior generation but no longer able to defend what was done. And it becomes such a mythic thing...no one even really knows all of what happened anymore. No one will talk. The talismans have vanished but are not forgotten...
and it's a fascinating glimpse into what I'm sure is representative of various pockets of American society...and an even more interesting vision of what's necessary to move on to something better.
I found the book engaging, the characters like-able (agree or disagree with them as you will) and the ending one of hope.
I liked it.
I'll admit I was leery to start. The main female character, Jolie Hoyt, is chronologically a contemporary of mine...graduating high school in the 90's, etc. But her speech patterns (and those of her friend Lena and even the love interest Sam Lense) are a throw-back to earlier decades. The discrepancy between the stated decade and these speech patterns threw me, even with the realization that the town of Hendrix is meant to be something of a throw-back to earlier and less enlightened times.
It took me a few chapters to settle in...but once I did...the story owned me.
It walks a fine line in the realm of category, not quite a romance but not quite NOT a romance. It's a more subtle exploration of self-importance, I think. Yes, yes, and race relations, bigotry, history, etc. But I was caught up in everyone's sense of self-importance. My love, my history, my dreams, my family. As with most romance-type books, I just wanted to scream for people to talk to each other...but unlike most of those books, I truly got why each person wouldn't, couldn't, etc. If you talk, you open yourself (and those you love) to scrutiny, to judgment...no one dares hope for understanding.
And it wasn't just in relation to the romance aspect...this was an exploration of an insular community, suspicious and unwelcoming...and an exploration of how others see that community (equally suspicious and unwelcoming in return).
And, in the midst of this, we have this history...a terrible story of a lynching from the 1930's. We have this melange of guilt and shame, love and pride within this community. We have a new generation growing up in the shadow of a terrible thing, unable and unwilling to disavow the prior generation but no longer able to defend what was done. And it becomes such a mythic thing...no one even really knows all of what happened anymore. No one will talk. The talismans have vanished but are not forgotten...
and it's a fascinating glimpse into what I'm sure is representative of various pockets of American society...and an even more interesting vision of what's necessary to move on to something better.
I found the book engaging, the characters like-able (agree or disagree with them as you will) and the ending one of hope.
I liked it.
February 20, 2017
Loved every word! Janis Owens speaks my language. Based on a true story in my necklace of the woods.
October 9, 2012
Received as an ARC from the publisher. Wonderful story and fascinating characters. The characters may be "rednecks" by their own admission, but there's an emotional depth to them that the stereotype overlooks. A White Jewish grad student comes to a very small Florida town to "study" the ancestry of its residents. Along the way he falls in love with a young woman whose father is a minister. He's really there to learn more about a lynching and torturing of a Black man that took place in 1938 after the man shot and killed a store owner--the student's great-grandfather. The townspeople in that year also killed the shooter's whole family. Our pasts are always with us, and it certainly determines who we are.
April 23, 2013
I picked up this book because it looked spooky. Was it? Not really. It certainly captures some of the most horrible crimes of our past century. But I was definitely mislead by the "ghost" in the title. And the spooky cover. It turns out the ghost in the title is the ghost of history and family secrets. Does something that happens to your parents direct your own life? Can you rise above their sins? I think this novel does an OK job of exploring these things. The writing style was kind of hit or miss for me--at times I wanted the author to give more detail to flesh out what was happening. Overall, I give it a 3 out of 5.
April 13, 2013
The "ghost" in the title is a metaphor for past secrets in this novel. On paper, this book had everything that one could want in a novel, historical basis, murder, romance but unfortunately, this book fell a little flat. I struggled to understand the motivation behind the actions of the characters and did not really feel connected in any way. I read to the end to find out who the shooter was, but even that conclusion was anticlimactic. I will give Owens credit for drawing a vivid picture of backwoods Florida and the ugliness of southern racism, but this book could have been so much more.
June 11, 2015
the author' s voice is very genuine in its southern tone and she is a convincing storyteller
after reading all of the glorious positive press about this book I was genuinely disappointed that. I really felt little empathy for these characters after the "incident" that occurs and tears them apart and away. to me there never appeared to be any realistic emotional and intellectual resolution to what happened.....and I continued to read to its conclusion thinking that would happen. so this story ended up leaving me empty and for that reason I wouldn't recommend it to another reader.
after reading all of the glorious positive press about this book I was genuinely disappointed that. I really felt little empathy for these characters after the "incident" that occurs and tears them apart and away. to me there never appeared to be any realistic emotional and intellectual resolution to what happened.....and I continued to read to its conclusion thinking that would happen. so this story ended up leaving me empty and for that reason I wouldn't recommend it to another reader.
January 10, 2013
I have really mixed feelings about this book. Although the story was interesting, I found the writing to be dry to me. I didn't get invested in the story. Especially the fact that this was based off a true story and a topic of deep interest, this should have been a "can't put down" to me. Unfortunately, I found myself skimming parts to get it completed.
June 22, 2013
this book, based on actual events, blew me away. i literally couldn't put it down. there's one scene so vivid and disturbing that it still haunts me. it's somewhat of a departure from owens' previous books (her writing is much like marjorie kinnan rawlings), but a great way to start if you haven't discovered this wonderful Florida writer yet.
December 8, 2012
Love southern USA fiction...this is an especially good one.
December 22, 2012
A little of everything--race, gender, history, romance... loosely based on an actual event in Marianna, FL, which we drive through on our way to the beach. Compelling story.
March 7, 2013
My kind of book! Loved it.
June 20, 2017
This is an often powerful look into a close knit inbred rural North Florida community by a local southern writer (Owens lives in Newberry, Florida and is a former pupil of Harry Crews and, at the time this was published, a protegee of Pat Conroy).
The story involves a graduate student from a completely different culture (I am going to avoid including any of the interesting/juicy details of his background here as Owens artfully reveals them drip by drip over the first half of the book) who comes to town to do research on both the family's history and an infamous lynching that took place in the town years ago. In the process he and one of the local girls fall in love and.... well, let's just say Romeo and Juliet got off easy.
The first half of the book is very powerful and has a very authentic and frightening feel (I too live in this part of the World), but the second half relies on a series of coincidences which, while they make the story, detracts from the authenticity the book begins with.
Overall, a great read, especially for those who like Southern writing including Southern Gothic.
The story involves a graduate student from a completely different culture (I am going to avoid including any of the interesting/juicy details of his background here as Owens artfully reveals them drip by drip over the first half of the book) who comes to town to do research on both the family's history and an infamous lynching that took place in the town years ago. In the process he and one of the local girls fall in love and.... well, let's just say Romeo and Juliet got off easy.
The first half of the book is very powerful and has a very authentic and frightening feel (I too live in this part of the World), but the second half relies on a series of coincidences which, while they make the story, detracts from the authenticity the book begins with.
Overall, a great read, especially for those who like Southern writing including Southern Gothic.
June 14, 2018
Southern fiction comes to Florida & digs up the past meets the real and sometimes ugly past in this book based on true events. Out past Tallahassee, in the sister towns of Cleary & Hendrix, the past lies low, but never dies. For Sam, from Miami, who's grandfather was one of the victims, to the Frazier brothers from way out west, who were sent away from there as young boys because of what happened, & who's father was a victim, to Jolie, at the center of it all, because her family links them all when it comes to the quest for closure, this tragic tale of violence and the search for answers is a mad page turner. It sucks you in from the beginning, & in the end, the cast of characters is redeemed by the bonds of love, friendship, & family.
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