Le sang des cieux

The Woolsack Family #1

by Kent Wascom

Traduit de l’anglais (États-Unis) par Éric Chédaille. La cession de la Louisiane à l’orée du XIXe siècle, récit d’un monde beau et sanglant. Ce récit fulgurant raconte à la première personne les tribulations du jeune Angel Woolsack. Après avoir tué son père, Angel fuit le Missouri en compagnie de son frère adoptif, Sam. Descendant la vallée du Mississippi, ils prêchent la bonne parole, pratiquent le vol à main armée, fréquentent les maisons closes, puis s’établissent en Floride occidentale, alors terre espagnole. Pris dans les bouleversements historiques qui touchent ces États du Sud, la situation des personnages oscille entre faste et tragédie et nous plonge dans tout un pan de l’histoire américaine. Par la vigueur de la langue, qui ne nous épargne aucune violence, et par l’énergie et l’inventivité de son écriture, Kent Wascom parvient à renouveler brillamment la tradition du récit du Sud et de l’Ouest américains. Le monde pittoresque, loin des clichés, est plein de vivacité. Portrait d’un jeune homme qui cherche sa place au sein d’un monde neuf et violent, Le Sang des cieux est une épopée moderne, autour du mythe de la frontière, qui rend compte de l’énergie et de la sauvagerie, de l’esprit pionnier et de la ferveur religieuse d’un pays en formation. Un roman sombre, puissant, aux multiples facettes, parfaitement réussi. « Wascom est un véritable artisan. Chacune de ses phrases, longues et sinueuses, charrie la couleur, l’odeur du sang, des os, de la sueur, et la virtuosité archaïque de sa langue. » ― Boston Globe

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Literature, Historical, Westerns, 19th Century

528 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 2013

About the author

Kent Wascom is the author of The New Inheritors, Secessia, and The Blood of Heaven. He was born in New Orleans and raised in Pensacola, Florida. The Blood of Heaven was named a best book of the year by the Washington Post and NPR. It was a semifinalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and longlisted for the Flaherty-Dunnan Award for First Fiction. Wascom was awarded the 2012 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Prize for Fiction and selected as one of Gambit’s 40 Under 40. He lives in Norfolk, Virginia, where he directs the Creative Writing Program at Old Dominion University.

Reviews

[Patrice Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Blood of Heaven by Kent Wascom is an historical fiction novel set in the time when America was young. Our narrator Angel Woolsack flees his home after having an altercation with his jouneying Preacher-father. This life-changing moment sets him on a journey at finding himself and place during the same time America is doing the same. We journey with Angel and his band of brothers as they fight to carve out their own piece of the pie in territory occupied by the Spaniards, French, Native Americans, and others. Their journey covers distances between West Florida, Natchez, New Orleans, and Mississippi. There is a lot going on in this novel so don't blink or you could miss something.

Upon opening The Blood of Heaven, it's instantly gripping. Our young Angel is telling of the time he spent in his father's company preaching about the word of the Lord. There are strong religious themes happening in this novel at every turn. They kill, live, eat, and pray in the name of religion. It's often reminiscent of the many crimes that have taken place in the name of religion. But given the period (early 1800s) and Angel's upbringing, it's clear why God is mentioned on almost every page.

Wascom really brings to life the characters in this novel beginning with Angel. Often times it's easy to forget that he's not much older than his 15 year old wife Red Kate. We witness the growth of a boy into a man in a dramatically short time span. As the novel progresses his actions become the antithesis of his name (irony) that I sometimes found it hard to relate to him.

I will note there is a lot of violence in this novel. The novel takes place 20 years after the Revolutionary War and before (during) the Lousianna Purchase. It was a drastically changing landscape that didn't always have the laws to support the plethora of crime. Democracy was a very new thing and this novel best showcases those trying times.

Overall, I think Kent Wascom will be a voice many will enjoy hearing from given this debut novel. I really enjoyed this book with all its guts and gory. I recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction and debut hunters. I look forward to seeing what's next for Kent Wascom.

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ugly people, Ugly story

When I first started reading "The Blood of Heaven" I thought of Faulkner. Wascom writes with a Southern cadence. He also borrows some of Faulkner's themes such as greed justified in order to become or stay one of the haves. As in Faulkner religion is used to justify heinous crimes such as slavery, robbery, and murder. There are damaged children and physically as well as emotionally and spiritually deformed adults. The heroes are hookers and criminals. This is an ugly story about ugly people.

The unrelieved violence comes close to McCarthy's "Blood Meridian". Unlike McCarthy and Faulkner however the beauty of Wascom's language only slightly mitigates the infernal nastiness of this story. There is no redemption. Violence swamps the story and comes close to ruining it; in fact maybe it does though I defy readers to stop thinking about this book once they've finished it. It still haunts me. I'll seek out Wascom's next book because he's obviously a talented writer however I'll do so with the hope that he finds meaning beyond pure hatefulness for his creations.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this historical fiction novel.

[Jaime Boler · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are looking for a substantial read, I highly recommend two historical epic novels that may, at first glance, seem very dissimilar yet share many characteristics.

In elegant, lucid prose, fiction newcomer Kent Wascom brings the frontier, in all its violence and disorder, to stunning life in The Blood of Heaven. Wascom follows Angel Woolsack, from his early life as the son of an itinerant preacher to the bordellos of Natchez and the barrooms of New Orleans to the bayous of Louisiana where Angel meets schemers and dreamers. Rich with detail and characterizations, The Blood of Heaven revisits an early America where fortunes and men were made and great risks were taken.

Wascom is not yet 30, but he infuses his story with a wisdom, awareness, and clarity well beyond his years. As Angel and others carve out a rough-hewn existence in early nineteenth century America, we see them seizing their place and even plotting to overthrow a sovereign government. Through it all, Angel’s hold on us never wavers but intensifies. The Blood of Heaven proves Wascom is a trailblazer whose brilliance is not a one-off but a true and rooted fact.

Chinese-American author Bill Cheng takes on the African-American existence in Mississippi in his epic odyssey Southern Cross the Dog. Cheng focuses his narrative lens on Robert Chatham, a black man in his 20s who believes he is cursed. He has good reason for his thinking.

Cheng contrasts the tenderness of falling in love for the first time with rising flood waters that heralded the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the catastrophe that destroyed Robert’s home and changed his life forever.

In Southern Cross the Dog, Robert’s journey takes him from a refugee camp to a brothel to a job clearing land in the name of progress. With an evocative setting, Southern Cross the Dog is a testament to a man’s will to live and to the distance he will go for friendship and love as he must carve a place and an existence free of bad luck and curses.

Full of meaning, The Blood of Heaven and Southern Cross the Dog feature strong main characters who undergo odysseys and take us with them on their incredible journeys. These are magisterial and resonating stories steeped in astounding settings and peopled by the most intriguing and charismatic characters. Equally memorable and equally fascinating, these novels put their authors on the literary map.

[Alison Hardtmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of Angel Woolsack, who came to an isolated and poverty-stricken community in 1776. He's alone with his father, his mother having died, and his father is a fire and brimstone preacher who disciplines his son by making him swallow live coals. Things only become more bleak and bloody from there, as Angel runs away from home, forming a partnership with two brothers, and taking their name as his own as they seek first to survive, through preaching and robbery, then to create a new country, called West Florida, with the help, they hope, of the American leader, Aaron Burr.

Kent Wascom has created a violent world, where the only way to survive is to embrace cruelty and to strike without mercy. This isn't a comfortable story with a happy ending, but it is riveting and blood-soaked, if that's what you're in the mood for.

[Lyn (Readinghearts) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kent Wascom's aptly named debut novel, The Blood of Heaven comes with a ton on accolades from the publishing world, as well as large numbers of reviews singing it's praises. It has been called "a startling debut" and Kent Wascom an author with "the kind of talent rarely seen in any novelist". The amount of positive press surrounding this novel, the fact that it is historical fiction, and that it is set in the American South before it WAS the American South, all peaked my interest. When I began to read, I sat down ready for a treat the likes of some of my favorite historical fiction epics like James Michener's Hawaii, or Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind. Unfortunately, for me, this book did not live up to my high expectations.

The main part of the book takes place in the area of the Louisiana Purchase and West Florida at the time when the land was mostly owned by the French and Spanish. It is the story of the birth of this area of America as the new country pushes to acquire the land in question, and a group of renegade settlers try to form their own country under the leadership of Aaron Burr. I have to admit, I have not read a lot about the founding of this area of the US, and therefore, there were a lot of things in the book that intrigued me and left me wanting more information. That, in a way, is one of the disappointments that I found in this book. The story was very ambitious, including many story lines, but not really doing justice to any of them. A few less pages and a bit more focus on one or two of the story lines would have allowed me to get more involved in the story.

On the whole, I found the flow of the book hard to follow. Wascom's writing had brilliant moments, but more often, I found it disjointed and harried. The book is told from the viewpoint of the main character, Angel Woolsack, in a linguistic style that was popular in the 1880s. Perhaps this unfamiliar linguistic style was part of the problem, but I was never really able to get into the rhythm of the character's story telling voice. In addition, the voice of the main character, and therefore the book, was very harsh. There was a lot of graphic descriptions of fighting, death, bodily functions, etc. which just didn't endear me to the main character, or any of the other characters for that matter. I will readily agree that the life of these people was not the "genteel" life of the planters and plantations, and as such, the main character's voice was appropriate, in the end, my inability to identify with the characters made it all the more difficult for me to get involved in the story.

The funny thing is, as disappointed as I was in this story, there were parts of the story that I enjoyed. The bond between Angel and his wife, Red Kate, which stood the test of time and weathered so many hardships, was a plus. In addition, I was intrigued by the politics that went into defining the future of this area of the country, and the fact that a group of renegades, lead by Aaron Burr, tried to put together a revolution in West Florida is something I would like to read more about.

All in all I would say that, although there were parts of the book I enjoyed, overall this was not the book for me. As I read it, though, I kept thinking that this would be the perfect book for either of my adult sons, my father, and many other people who like the rough and tumble, down and dirty, no sugar coating stories of the frontier. In addition, the flashes of brilliance throughout the book lead me to believe that Kent Wascom has a bright future. He definitely has already captured an audience for his story....it is just a group that does not include me.

[Taylor Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE BLOOD OF HEAVEN is a raging storm of a novel, crackling with hellfire and the thunder of hooves, written by a man swelled with the (un)holy power of the Word. We're given the bloody testament of a nation that nearly was, and I'm simply staggered by the ferocious talent of its author. Wascom is nothing short of a blessing for the rest of us--we believers in Faulkner and McCarthy and Gay--and I can’t wait for what’s to come.

[Jo Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The son of a fire-eating Baptist preaching his way across the post-Revolutionary backwoods, Angel Woolsack has learned his father’s trade well. In fact, his father has literally put fire in the boy’s mouth: Angel’s punishment for wayward word or deed is chewing a live coal from the campfire. The lad frees himself from his father’s grasp with a shovel across the deranged man’s head, tries the perilous life of a highwayman, and then tumbles to western Florida. That blood-soaked land is already a bone of contention with Spain and France, but Angel joins Aaron Burr’s plot to tear that region away from the fledgling United States and form a new country.

Kent Wascom’s novel distills the United States’ frontier history into potent moonshine: political machinations, fire and brimstone religious revival, a turbulent love story, the agonies of slavery, and the drawing and re-drawing of our country’s boundaries with blood.

This is an amazing debut. It roves from Natchez to Indiana and to New Orleans like the Odyssey staged in a revival tent and narrated by Elmer Gantry. Wascom’s vivid imagery transfixes, leaving me like a bird watching a snake creep closer, unable to look away lest I miss one delicious detail. We will all be hearing from Kent Wascom again, and the sooner the better. I completely recommend this book to everyone, and hold onto your hat, because it’s a heckuva ride!

[Paul Lunger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kent Wascom's "The Blood of Heaven" is the complex story of Angel Woolsack which is set in what eventually becomes the state Louisiana from roughly the end of the Revolutionary War through just beyond the Louisiana Purchase. Through careful storytelling, Wascom recreates fictional events regarding not only religion, but also life in general in this region with a love story mixed in. The story is at times graphic in it's religious aspects of things & even more dead on with the practical aspects of life in this area that was caught between 3 countries in a very short time frame. The book itself is full of plot twists & acts of love & war that remind us of how volatile things were. The use of Aaron Burr at the end in his renegade role after his time as Vice President also adds a touch of realism to this story. Overall a very well done novel whose only draw back may be that the story is a little hard to follow, but if you as a reader can then you may be as impressed as I.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will read pretty much any novel in which that homicidal, racist, crazypants megalomaniac, Aaron Burr, makes a cameo. Especially if said novel is set in similarly crazypants 19th century Florida. I hoped this book would be slightly zany, picaresque historical highbrow pulp, but instead it was really more like what the Guy in Your MFA would write if he were really, really into Cormac McCarthy. Kent Wascom is clearly a smart guy, but boy howdy is this novel ever turgid. We're talking thick as Delta river silt that looks almost purple from some angles.

[Kyleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the first half was amazing, while the second half was filled with uncompelling minutiae. Wascom took a fascinating part of American history and filled it with interesting fictional and actual characters. If the second half was as vibrant, moody and atmospheric as the first, this would have been an easy 5 stars for me.

[Ron Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fantastic voice -- so raw and brutal. This is a spectacular novel about a young man in the violent American Southwest in the early 19th century -- burning with religion and slavery. History on fire! (Reminds me of the early novels of Jeffrey Lent.)

[Timothy Grubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early 19th century chronicle of a southern family and its debacles…

The Blood of Heaven by Kent Wascom was the debut novel of the writer drawing from southern history.

I didn’t care for this. Not my thing.

It had a few interesting characters but the time jumps and some odd plot choices took me out of it…

[Schuyler Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually don’t pay much attention to reviews before I write mine. In the case of THE BLOOD OF HEAVEN, I was perplexed by my reaction to the book and wondered if I was alone on my island of confusion. There’s no question in my mind about Kent Wascom’s talent. He’s an amazing writer with all the skills to produce a blockbuster. I’m of the opinion that this book isn’t it. So, to get a grip, I read what other people thought. I’m still lost.

My first negative thought is about the characterizations. I see glimmers of greatness peeking through but then they disappear with onslaughts of ugly behavior and even uglier philosophies. I couldn’t find a single character I wanted to become acquainted with, much less read about.

Then there’s the question of grammatical style. I’d much rather read a book with impeccable writing than slog my way through sentences that are too long, wandering thoughts that disappear into an ethereal never-land, and a lack of punctuation that reminds one why punctuation is necessary.

I’m a great lover of history in both fiction and non-fiction form. Wascom has a great idea for a historical fiction event. I’d love to read more about West Florida and the other southern environs he touches. Unfortunately the clarity of his depictions is as muddy as the swampy lands in which they take place. I want to learn something, not spend my time trying to find some clear water. Baynard Kendrick’s THE FLAMES OF TIME, a 1948 novel about colonial Florida is a splendid example of the historical intrigue found in that area.

I’m giving the book three stars because it’s OK and I took the time to read it, enjoyed the talented writing, and at times found the events portrayed as interesting and strangely captivating. I liked it in a rather bizarre fashion but would have preferred to spend less time trying to interpret Wascom’s writing about events and behavior, and more time simply enjoying the story.

I recommend this book for those who enjoy the pain of confusion along with the ability to detect a glimmer of well-being somewhere in the ache.

[Sherry Sidwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one hell of a debut novel. It evokes the best of Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, and even a little Harry Crews in telling the violently unrepentant story of Angel Woolsack and the settling of what was known as the territory of West Florida. The son of a sinners in the hands of an angry god style itinerant preacher who would force his only child to choke down hot coals as punishment so that he might know the taste of hell, Angel along the way entangles himself with the real-life Kemper brothers to wage the little known Kemper Rebellion in which American settlers alternately fought their Spanish colonial overlords to either declare themselves their own republic on the Gulf Coast or become part of the growing U.S. as territory lines were being drawn and redrawn and disputed in the settling of the Louisiana Purchase. There's a fascinating mix here of invented and historical characters like then U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr, who fresh off of killing Alexander Hamilton in their famous duel in this telling very much is committing the treason he was accused and later acquitted of in trying to carve the frontier off into a separate country from the new nation.

The story is at times ugly. Woolsack as an adopted Kemper is never apologetic and never shies away from violence. Plenty seems to find him as well in a landscape of huckster preachers, land speculators, flimflam politicians, cutthroat prostitutes, riverboat men, slave traders who steal back and resell the same slaves over and over, and every other kind of riffraff that made the frontier. There's no real happy ending or end of book redemption, and nobody really emerges as a better person for their experiences but the book never really promises that anyway. What it does offer is a lot of action and history thrown in for good measure told in a strong sometimes tragic sometimes darkly funny narrative voice.

The sheer amount of action and moving around and number of character introduced do sometimes bog down the story in spots and make it little hard to keep track of, but it's still an impressive first effort just the same.

[Victoria · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am a sucker for debut novels - I love reading them and when I saw the rave reviews this novel received, it hardly seemed like a gamble at all. Unfortunately, this book has no redeeming qualities. The opening tangle of a prologue is more alienating than engaging and the book continues on in this odd, rambling vein. The author, born in 1986, tries to capture Angel Woolsack looking back on his life with the weight of a lifetime of extraordinary experiences at his back, but it feels disingenuous as the perspective of an older man.

Wascom also takes an almost childlike delight in revelling in some grotesque descriptions. In just the first fifty pages there is bloody urine, plenty of excrement, blood and a putrid corpse. The complexity of the language falls a bit flat as its full force is used to create crass, unsympathetic characters. Some of the graphic elements (like the use of coals as a punishment) do have some justification, but overall, the justification isn’t there for the level of grotesque and gruesome violence and language.

The writing style also does not help matters. In what I suppose is supposed to feel like 19th century style, Wascom adopts overly lengthy sentences and does not use any sort of punctuation to separate the dialogue. This pretentious - or perhaps more accurately, overly stylized - choice lends itself to a muddled flow and in many places outright confusion. And there simply isn’t enough historic detail and vocabulary to make this style choice worthwhile. To slog through more than four hundred pages of piss, excrement, cursing and violence takes a lot of patience and to be honest, I have too many books in my To-Read pile to waste any more time on this one. I am abandoning it. Maybe later I will check out an audio version where the style choices will hopefully be less apparent. But as it stands, I just can’t connect with this book on any level to see it through. Maybe the author’s favorite movie is Django Unchained - I walked out on that one, too.

[Chris Craddock · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Woolsack of Angels

The Blood of Heaven is a novel of historical fiction, blending real historical figures and events with fictional characters in order to dramatize an historical era. It is the debut novel of Kent Wascom from New Orleans, and it is quite an impressive debut. The prologue begins in 1861, at the start of the Civil War, then plunges back to the turn of the century, 1799. The fictional protagonist is Angel Woolsack, the son of an itinerant preacher. The setting is the South--Florida, Mississippi, and New Orleans. One of the historical characters is none other Aaron Burr--the man who shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel.

Burr is a good choice for dramatizing an historical era, as he was often at the center of the action, stirring things up. Gore Vidal has a series of historical fiction novels that outline our nation's founding and history, and the first one is titled Burr, as Vidal has ascertained that he is a seminal figure, despite or due to his roguish reputation. Wascom also employs him to good effect, as he spins his own tale with Angel Woolsack at its center. There is plenty of action, plenty of drama to make you keep turning the pages. It is a very well written debut and we all look forward to hearing more from Wascom.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE BLOOD OF HEAVEN by Kent Wascom is historical fiction for those who like it adventurous, manly and raw. The characters are vividly drawn, the story is full of twists and turns and there is a new adventure on every page. While there is a lot of history included in the story, the author makes a point of saying it is not historically accurate and that he took liberties in his storytelling. Several famous people populate the pages and it is interesting to see how they are portrayed from the perspective of the three brothers who are our guides. The world portrayed is bookended by violence on one hand and the evangelical religious on the other. Sometimes the two are less far apart than might be hoped. It is an interesting and fresh approach that I found at times funny, at other times devastatingly sad, and even sometimes horrifying. While I don't think this is a book for everyone I expect it to be loved by many.

[William Koon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Blood of Heaven by Kent Wascom is at turns enthralling and vastly disappointing. When Wascom stays with his main character's actions and persona, the book zings and propels. But when he pauses for the ponderous plot of the revolution in West Florida at the turn of the Nineteenth Century, the book flails and gasps for its literary life. The novel is about America's extension, love, slavery, Aaron Burr, our violence, sex, brotherhood and a dozen more things. The dude needs to focus.
Certainly he has almost a Thomas Wofleian flow of words and sentences. I await his next work --and hope it is shorter.

[Pete Camp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Always felt there should be a half star rating , 2.5 stars for this story of America in its infancy. Harmless way to learn a bit about the Louisiana Purchase and Aaron Burr. Some good shoot em up action as well and the author spares no expense in the area of gore. Perhaps the author has seen one too many Quentin Tarrintino movies.

[Felix · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the characters, but the story seemed to drag.

[Marilyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The style of writing in this book make me feel like I was trying to walk through mud. It was hard to stay on track because I felt like I was reading a foreign language.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book having been born & raised in West Feliciana Parish and currently living in New Orleans. I just found the prose too difficult to read. Stopped after 50 pages.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fiery. Furious. Ferocious.

Wascom tells the bloody and brutal tale of Angel Woolsack, one that encompasses several wild and rambunctious years in the early days of America. The story follows Angel and his adoptive older brothers - Samuel and Reuben Kemper - in their varied attempts to carve out the area known as West Florida away from America, Spain, and France to be its own country.

The Blood of Heaven calls to mind a ultra-violent blend of Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner, but I read it more as the inverse of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. Both books are richly steeped in the history of their respective eras, right down to the everyday political machinations that make up the lives of their characters. And both of them spare no detail when it comes to describing how harsh and unforgiving their respective worlds often were.

Wascom's true gifts for prose arise in his unflinching portrayal of Angel's progression from downtrodden son of an itinerant preacher to slaver thriving on the outskirts of the law. The author's capacity for detailing our protagonist's harsh upbringing and harsher adulthood never feels unnecessary or overwrought. Instead, it feels entirely authentic to the American frontier of the time, complete with sketchy preachers, rebels, sex workers, brigands, double-dealing government officials, and unethical military men - not to mention average people simply trying to eke out a meager existence.

This book is not for the faint of heart, but it is utterly incandescent.

[Esoteric Grimoire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kent Wascom's "The Blood of Heaven" is one of those books that sticks with you after you've finished it. "The Blood of Heaven" follows the story of Angel Woolsack, the son of a abusive and divisive Baptist preacher on the frontier shortly following the American Revolution, that is to say Missouri and Ohio. Angel Woolsack himself, being impulsive and naturally inclined to violence ends up on adventures of his own, stretching from early teen years to young adulthood he'll make his way to West Florida (modern coastal region of the Florida panhandle and Alabama Shore). During this geographical journey the book traces Angel's evolution from a common ner'do'well to a violent highwayman and then to a revolutionary. His adopted family and himself become swept up in the course of history as the French cede the Louisiana Purchase doing battle with the Spanish settlers of Florida and United States government. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Antebellum America life in the early South. A word of warning, this book employs racial slurs as common use language.

[KayG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kent Wascom is an incredible writer of Southern historical fiction. I absolutely loved his 2018 book, The New Inheritors, and was interested to read the preceding books in his series about the Woolsack family.

The Blood of Heaven is the first in the series. It is very well written, and tells quite a story, however it is extremely dark, graphic, and cruel. Murder, torture, filth, deceit, nastiness, and perversions are at the center of this story about the vile Angel Woolsack, the evil ancestor of the family I read about in The New Inheritors. He killed and maimed and tortured. Read only if you can stomach this story of pure evil and perverted religion.

[Honey Rand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting in places, not so much in others. Takes place in the early 1800s when Florida was poised to become part of the United States. Tinged with religious overtones and underlayment, where the call of the Lord is nearly as great as the call of the union. Personal stories, hardship, choices. BUT, the writer made an interesting choice: while there is dialogue, it's not set off with quotation marks. It took me 40 pages or so to notice.... it was distracting, but not a deal killer. I would sample the book before commiting.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just don't know what to think of this. Kudos to the author, nice job! But the story could have been developed more. Had I not recently read "War of Two . . . " by John Sedgewick I would have had no clue why Burr was down south.
If you do read this, give yourself a challenge and see how quickly you can figure out what was wrong with Angel's child.
Altogether a strange story.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* - The writing in this book is very good, although it is quite dense which makes it a slow read. It makes up for this by being filled with the most fascinating history of a young America that is still trying to establish itself.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A weirdly gothic frontier tale set in a part of southern U.S. history that I knew little about. And the language! Every sentence is written in fire and brimstone that evokes the darkest parts of our "manifest destiny".