The Ballad of Laurel Springs

by Janet Beard

From the internationally bestselling author of The Atomic City Girls , a provocative novel set in eastern Tennessee that “explores the legacies—of passion and violence, music and faith—that haunt one family across the generations” (Jillian Medoff, author of This Could Hurt ).

Ten-year-old Grace is in search of a subject for her fifth-grade history project when she learns that her four times-great grandfather once stabbed his lover to death. His grisly act was memorialized in a murder ballad, her aunt tells her, so it must be true. But the lessons of that revelation—to be careful of men and desire—are not just Grace’s to learn. Her family’s tangled past is part of a dark legacy in which the lives of generations of women are affected by the violence immortalized in folk songs like “Knoxville Girl” and “Pretty Polly” reminding them always to know their place—or risk the wages of sin.

Janet Beard’s stirring novel, informed by her love of these haunting ballads, vividly imagines these women, defined by the secrets they keep, the surprises they uncover, and the lurking sense of menace that follows them throughout their lives even as they try to make a safe place in the world for themselves. “This inspired story of Appalachian folklore” ( Publishers Weekly ) will move and rouse you.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Adult, Mystery, Music, Contemporary

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 19, 2021

About the author

Born and raised in East Tennessee, Janet Beard moved to New York to study screenwriting at NYU and went on to earn an MFA in creative writing from The New School. Her first novel, Beneath the Pines, was published in 2008, and her follow-up, The Atomic City Girls became an international bestseller in 2018. Janet's latest novel The Ballad of Laurel Springs was published in October 2021. Janet has lived and worked in Australia, England, Boston, and Columbus, Ohio, where she is currently raising a daughter, and working on a new novel.

Reviews

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve had The Atomic City Girls on my TBR since it came out, and I’m super excited I had the opportunity to read The Ballad of Laurel Springs, Janet Beard’s newest novel. What a gem of a hist fic read.

Grace is in 5th grade and seeking an interesting topic for her history project when she discovers one of her relatives stabbed his lover to death and a ballad was written about it. And that murder didn’t just affect one generation of Grace’s family. The trauma has been passed down to the women through generations, as well as the folk songs written about them.

Wow! This is such an original story about Appalachia folklore. I love that it takes place across generations, and the setting in the Appalachian mountains? Of course I loved that. This is a story of strong women, triumphing over adversity, and healing inter-generational trauma. Highly recommended for hist fic fans.

I received a gifted copy.

Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: I received a free copy of this book. In exchange here is my honest review.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one!! 🤗 It’s a generational format, each chapter progresses through different times/POVs. 🤓 But the majority of the stories were really intriguing. Worth reading, in my opinion! 👍

Thank you @goodreads @janetlbeard and @simonandschuster #goodreadsgiveaway

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard book to rate &/or review. It lives up to its title as song (ballad) lyrics are interspersed throughout.
It is a generational story of a family of Appalachian women in Tennessee.
Started out well enough in 2019 when Grace has to write a story for her family history project at school. Her Aunt Dee tells her the story of “Pretty Polly” (supposedly a log ago relative) and they listen to the song.
Having turned in the story it causes quite a fuss and Grace is told it’s not the kind of thing to be talked about.
Next the book turns back in history to 1907 and on.
Most of it is ok but there are some parts that I found quite distasteful. Not to say that things like that don’t happen in real life, but it felt denigrating to the women in some way as each one seemed to keep making the same bad choices and terrible mistakes.
Pretty Polly’s story (1891) is not revealed until the last chapter by which time I had lost track of who was related to whom anymore but still I had come to dislike everyone in this book.
This really should be 1-1/2 stars at best --- oh well.

[Chaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This lovely and engaging novel tells the stories of generations of women in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee. We start with a current-day girl, and then go backwards in time to the early 1900s, to the girl's great-great-great-great grandmother, then ahead a generation, and so on through the line of women in this small Tennessee town. The author focuses her story around a series of ballads original to the region, particularly one "murder ballad" that supposedly involves one of the female forbears of the characters. In fact, each chapter (with its focus on a different woman) is titled after another folk song, and the lyrics of the songs, interwoven into the chapters and stories, adds a nice depth and feel for the region, for the history of the place, and for the culture.

The women's stories are varied, with each women experiencing her own trials and tribulations, conflicts and problems inherent to the time, place and culture. However, I loved how the author repeated certain plot elements and points from one chapter to the next, echoing the other women's tales.

What I did not like so much was the (necessarily) too brief and shallow look at each woman's story. It seemed that just as I was getting interested in a storyline, the author cuts off the tale to switch to another timeline and another woman. That is the drawback when painting this many portraits (9 in all!) in an average-sized novel. The author tries to connect the women together, particularly when a woman from a previous chapter is still alive and connected in some way to the woman of the current story, but I still felt cheated of a more in-depth story.

[Leo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story just went over my head. I really liked it in the beginning with the murder ballad and mystery of the family. However the plot completely slipped from me. I got confused why different things got intrudused witouth feeling like the other things was finished. Maybe I lost my focus on it

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspired by the tragic folk song "Pretty Polly" about a teenage girl murdered by her lover.
Set in Southern Appalachia, the book begins with ten year old Grace who learns that her family history includes a four-times great grandfather who murdered his girlfriend by stabbing her. The event was memorialized in the ballad "Pretty Polly". So begins a long history of women who struggled as wives and mothers, enduring hardships and poverty. Yet they each felt a deep connection to the mountains and their Appalachian roots and heritage. Spanning multiple generations, each woman's story was connected to the land and the haunting mountain ballads.
I love novels set in the south, particularly the Appalachian area, and this spoke to my heart.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ten-year-old Grace is thrilled when she learned that an old mountain folk song about a man who murders his lover, was supposedly based on the murder of her great, great, great aunt. The book then rewinds back to the beginning and slowly, we learn that the women in Grace’s family left her a legacy of bad decisions, all revolving around men, desire and Laurel Springs, Tennessee. I was enthralled from page one.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received my copy free through Goodreads Giveaways.

I read this nearly straight through - the stories were engaging and I just couldn't put it down.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was attracted to this book because it takes place in Tennessee outside of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but it starts before there is a National Park. This book takes us from 1891-2019. Grace is doing a school project about her family history. She learns there are some bad things in her family's history but no one wants to talk about them. This book then takes us way back and we learn the stories of her ancestors. Each story is connected to an old ballad. The stories all take place around Laurel Springs. I have hiked to Laurel Falls so I kept picturing that in my mind. There is murder, rape, adultery, and so much more. It makes you think of the secrets families hold on to and do not tell future generations.

"I don't have to agree with them about everything to like them."

[Tammy Buchli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done and evocative multigenerational novel. Given the number of different perspectives, Beard did an excellent job keeping each protagonist and timeline distinct. All of the women were not likeable, but they were all complex, interesting and relatable. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy for my review.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ballad of Laurel Springs reads like a collection of interrelated short stories rather than one cohesive novel. It focuses on the lives of women in one family over several generations - one family, but not necessarily direct descendants, so it made keeping track of who-was-who a bit difficult. (A family tree somewhere in the book would have been quite helpful.) The action takes place in eastern Tennessee in a small town near what eventually becomes the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A particularly interesting aspect of the book was how the town changed over the years (the blacksmith shop that became a gas station, etc.) and how some families were displaced from their land to make way for this park. The commentary on the effects of tourists was also spot-on and added some texture to the tale.

While I enjoyed the descriptions of the area, I found the tale disheartening. It was mainly women doing stupid things / making mistakes in their lives because of men or men doing violent things to or because of women. There is a recurring theme of “murder ballads.” Some of these women made really bad choices, even with the limited options some of them had. And one of the more modern ones made a really bad choice that just made me shake my head. There are lots of family secrets in this book, most of which are kept secret, so the next generation cannot learn from them. Indeed, the book starts with a 10-year-old in 2019 writing a report on an event that supposedly happened a number of generations before but that somehow reverberated with the current generation. By the time I reached the end of the book, I had to go back and re-read the first chapter for clarity.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book, although I was quite late in reading it. I bounced between the ARC and the published audiobook, courtesy of my public library. All opinions are my own.

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of my family hails from Eastern Tennessee. I’ve always loved listening to the hill songs, the melodies and use of banjo/dulcimer/fiddle always haunts me. But I never truly gave notice to what the lyrics were about. Until I read this book.

Each chapter focuses on a different woman in a loosely connected family that all traces back to an act of violence back in the 1890s. Each chapter has its own voice, focus, and background folk song. Pearl’s chapter reminded me of the movie “Songcatcher”.

Given that this was written by someone born and raised in East Tennessee, it was written respectful of the people from that region. Too often Appalachia gets painted as an inbred, racist monolith and that isn’t the case. (See the documentary “Hillbilly” for further delving into that.)

I enjoyed this novel for all the above reasons (and more), but can understand how some readers might not take a shine to it, also given all the reasons above.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a free copy to review.

[RoseMary Achey · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engaging multigenerational novel with Appalachian myths, legends and ballads woven through the story. The novel covers over 120 years and eight generations-so there is not a great deal of depth in any one generation. I felt the author did a good job with the flow, but wish some of the stories had a bit more detail. They were good, I was invested and wanted more.

Beard does not quite have the Appalachian dialogue perfected like Ron Rash or David Joy. This would be a great book for a book club in the Knoxville-Western North Carolina area…read the book and then take you book club on a field trip to Laurel Springs. What fun!

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gets one star for making me think about how tourism has affected the families of the Smoky Mountains and one star for reaffirming the fact that family secrets can negatively impact generation after generation. Although the ballad theme was interesting, I got tired of reading the same lyrics over and over. There was nothing happy about this book, which sheds a negative light on the people of the mountains. I would rather have read about some redemption and strength of women, instead of about several women in one family tree being worn down and not living up to their potential because of a man.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Janet Beard’s latest novel, The Ballad of Laurel Springs, brings the generations and secrets of an Eastern Tennessee family to life, intertwining them with the region’s traditional ballads and blues. Although reading like a series of short stories, the book closely links each of the family member’s lives, sometimes reintroducing characters at different stages of their lives while focusing on another family member.

Beard captures readers’ interest from the book’s opening sentence, as ten-year-old Grace narrates: “Aunt Dee told me about the murder.” Grace’s family history project is due soon to her language arts teacher. Grace’s mom has helped with the family tree, and her grandmother has sent photos, but without a family story, the project remains incomplete. When Grace asks her mom’s younger sister, Aunt Dee replies, “We got stores for sure, Gracie. . . . One of our ancestors killed somebody.” Suddenly, Grace learns the story of her great-great-great-great grandfather Will who killed his girlfriend, and hears the family legend that “Pretty Polly,” a traditional ballad, commemorates the murder. This is only the beginning of the first story, titled “Pretty Polly,” and focusing on Grace in 2019.

Next comes “The Wife of Usher’s Well,” set in 1907-1908, and centered around Grace’s four-times great-grandmother, Pearl, the younger sister of the murder victim Polly. Now an adult, Pearl is married and of mother of several children. However, Pearl’s narrative is less about her family than about two teachers who arrive on the mountain to open a new mission school and about how Pearl comes to wonder if her deceased sister’s friend, Violet Nickson, might be a witch.

Pearl and Abel’s son Jake plays an important role in stories three and four. “The Wayfaring Stranger” opens in 1925 with its narrator, Miriam—Pearl’s daughter-in-law—providing another attention-grabbing opening line: “My husband returned from the dead in 1925.” Believed a casualty of World War I, Jake reappears with no explanation of his whereabouts since the war. Not until the fourth story, “Careless Love Blues,” set in 1937, does another member of the extended family learn the story Jake still has not told his wife Miriam.

Story after story, gradually moving forward through time, Janet Beard reveals this Eastern Tennessee family’s secrets, every connected to the music at the heart of local culture. In the last story, the author circles back to 1891 and to the voice of Polly, the murder victim, to Grace’s four-times great grandfather Will, to Polly’s friend Violet, and to the ballad “Pretty Polly.”

In her acknowledgments, Beard speaks of being “raised on the songs and stories of the mountains.” Her vivid accounts dramatize regional life as experienced by young Grace’s ancestors and family members, particularly the women, whose lives seem inextricably woven into the haunting and tragic traditional music.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster for an advance reader copy.

[DAB-E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fasinating book that covers from 1891 to 2019 and the changes that occur over time and generations. I enjoyed seeing the ballads throughout the book, many which I have heard but sometimes with slightly different lyrics. Each chapter tells about a different character from a different generation and shows the connections between them. It discusses the changes in a small community as well as how things stay the same.

I wish the book had a copy of a family tree to keep track of all of the people and generations. This would have made it even better.

[Diana N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book follows the story of "Pretty Polly" through many generations. Each person in the family chain along the way tells their own life stories. This book felt like a bunch if short stories linked together through the family bond. I enjoyed the journey through time, but it felt very slow during several parts. I am glad that the end brought the story back to complete the circle so to speak.

[Dima · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read the whole book, but had to write down names to keep it all straight! I think there were too many story lines, many of which deadended.

[Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Novel received from Goodreads.com First Reads Giveaways

This novel begins with a child in 2019 writing a family story about the "murder songs" of old Appalachia. The songs were always about a woman being murdered and the man who did it not paying a price, as if the woman meant nothing. Author, Janet Beard, was genius in her decision to spotlight 7 different women in that family whose lives were decided by the men around them. The novel is difficult to read in parts because we all know a woman who___________. Fill in the blanks" got pregnant out of wedlock, fell in love with a no-good man, drank too much, etc. The through line is that each woman made choices because she felt as though she couldn't choose anything else.

I really enjoyed this book. It's not very long. Each woman has a different story and is connected to the woman and after her. The "murder songs" play a part all the way through the novel. The Appalachian setting played a huge part in the story as well. Laurel Springs played a role in the story of each woman. This is unlike any other book I've read.

[Jill Shunk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This (for all intents and purposes) series of short-stories reflect not only a family's history, but that of the town. Each narrator has her own unique voice and story, but it is interesting to see what bits carry over to the subsequent generations and how "family secrets" oftentimes are simply family history that is downplayed, unshared, or are projected assumptions of younger generations. Would make for a great bookclub discussion...

[Claire Talbot · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like the mountains of Appalachia and the old ballads and folk songs - this book is for you. The book begins with ten year old Grace working on a family tree project, and trying to get an interesting story about her ancestors from her favorite babysitter - her mom's younger sister, Dee. Dee tells Grace the story of "Pretty Polly" an old ballad that tells the tale of of a young mountain woman murdered by her lover - whom Dee claims is an ancestor. After Grace presents the project to her mom and her class, she realizes that there are family secrets that she does not know about. The story then rewinds to the generation of Polly - and starts with the story of her sister, Pearl. Each chapter represents a certain woman in the family, and is named after a ballad. We go from 1907 to 2019 in this book - I loved the stories, and trying to find the connections in the hill families to each other. A family tree in the book would have been very helpful - I tried to draw one myself! I listened to each ballad on Youtube to try and get a sense of atmosphere as I read each chapter - one of my favorites was Johnny Cash's version of "Wayfaring Stranger". Within each story you find a woman who has loved, made terrible decisions, and pays a price for it. With the author being from Tennessee originally, I felt the characters were authentic, and well fleshed out. It was also interesting to see the Great Smoky National Park come to life in the pages, and realize the price that some families paid for our national park. The setting of Laurel Springs is very important in the story - from Polly's murder, to each generation of women - each having something important and life altering occur there. The book ends with a "reprise" of "pretty Polly" so you do find out what happened to her on that fateful day. Themes of racism and violence are also part of the story.
I savored this book on a rainy Sunday - thank you to the author for providing a Advanced reader copy to review.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book

[Christy Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Janet Beard writes an intriguing book full of stories of Appalachian women from the 19th Century to the 21st Century in her latest book, "The Balland of Laurel Springs". The book centers around the various things that happen to many young women at Laurel Springs. The novel is fiction but time and space take the reader thru the evolution of the area around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The hardships of earlier times and the change in the lives that surround that area are many However, as the book illustrates in its many characters and their interrelationships life remains difficult for the women of the area. Laurel Springs is one of the common denominators of the main characters as they meet there thru three centuries. Another common denominator in the book it s the music passed on thru generations of those who pioneered and settled the area. An interesting book and one that speaks to women in particular. Ms. Beard is a new writer on the best seller scene and this book shows a maturation of her literary talents. The characters are well developed, interesting, and interlinked. Janet Beard tells a good story. Thanks to #NetGalley#The BalladofLaurelSprings for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happened to Polly? Polly's the subject of a mountain murder ballad that runs throughout this tale of the women in a family in Southern Appalachia. The novel starts with your Grace in the present and then moves back to 1891 and the story of Polly's sister Pearl, then forward to Pearl's daughter, and so on, to include one young girl who is related as the result of an extramarital affair. Each woman is vivid, each experiences more pain than they deserve, and Beard has used them effectively to show how change came to the region. Everyone is linked in some way and I'll admit that I had to pause at the beginning of several chapters to remember how they fit in (and in one case, it wasn't clear for a bit). Several secondary characters (Violet for example) span the more central stories. The device worked beautifully for me because it's how a sprawling family works. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Terrific characters and wonderful storytelling, AND, you will eventually read Polly's story.

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book started out very promising and while I enjoyed most of the individual stories, it was hard to keep up with who was who and who was related to whom as the story progressed.

By the end of the book, I had completely forgotten the first chapter and its main character and had to go back and skim it again just to remember. That shows how convoluted the story became as time went on.

I had higher expectations for this book than it delivered. I loved the idea of a multi-generational story of a family of women in Appalachia. The premise was intriguing and could have been great if properly executed. There should have been a more clear and direct line between the characters, especially later on in the book. I'm still not sure how the youngest character is related to the rest at all.

The one good thing is that the end of the book explains one of the biggest questions running throughout the book. So there's that.

A bit disappointing but not a terrible read, just one that did not live up to its full potential.

[Jerrika Rhone · Rating 2 out of 5]

38% Done: For me, this book has nothing to do with murder ballads and what not. The story is about the secrets that are kept in this isolated and poor community. I like how the story is woven through families and generations. I also like how the point of view comes from the voices of the women on the mountain.

53% Done: Reads as a string of shorts and they seem to be getting more ridiculous as the years pass along. I'm pretty sure I know where each story is going as soon as it starts. Good narration.

DNF @ 83%: It just goes on and on and on and on and on

[DeAnna · Rating 3 out of 5]

🏞The Ballad of Laurel Springs🏞

Set in the Appalachian mountains of Eastern Tennessee this is a story of generations. Each chapter is told from a different decade and a different woman’s voice, starting in the early 1900’s and ending in the early 2000’s. The story begins with a song, a folksy tune about a girl that met her end at the hands of her lover. This song, amongst others, is shared from generation to generation and weaves its way through the lives of the people that live in Laurel Springs.

Because each chapter is different in character and time period, this book feels a lot like a collection of short stories set mostly in the same place. I enjoyed the stories and found them interesting but would have liked to connect to the characters more but the short time I spent with them in each chapter didn’t really allow that.

Maybe this was intentional. The music and lyrics became their own character in this book and it was the folklore that really drove each individual story. The songs are haunting and sometimes violent, unlike the sweet bluegrass songs I grew up listening to my grandparents sing and perform as I grew up. What was familiar to me is the way music tells a story and how that story gets passed down from one generation to another. I think this is what interested me the most about this book.

There’s mystery, historical importance and haunting characters in this book. It releases today if you’d like to pick it up 📚

Thank you to @gallerybooks and @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3/5 ⭐️ I liked it.

[BethFishReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the mountains of Tennessee, this book follows the lives of several generations of women from the early 1900s into the 21st century. One common thread through time was the story told in the folk song "Pretty Polly" and the nearby Laurel Springs, where the murder outlined in the song took place.

Generally, this is a "men do women wrong" -- again and again -- kind of book.

The audiobook was read by Jennifer Jill Araya, Andi Arndt, Robin Eller, Angel Pean, Candace Thaxton, Megan Tusing, and Nancy Wu. I thought the performances were solid.

Thanks to the publishers for the review copies (digital, print, and/or audio)

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t believe this book doesn’t have higher reviews. I loved the way this was written by having a current story and then going all the way back several generations with each chapter being a connection to the previous chapter. It was fun following along how Tates Valley changed through the generations. And, it all wrapped up nicely, full circle, the last chapter. I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

[Erica-Nate Gosser-Marrero · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
I really enjoyed this book. It recalls a family blood line of sins and accomplishments from 1891-2019. It was an interesting story that showed the mistakes of one generation can follow another generation. The female characters all had their own ups and downs but they were highly interesting characters. This book was very different than most books I read.