Taylor Brown

The West Virginia-Kentucky border has been home to volatile events from the Hatfields and McCoy Feud through coal Mining and the beginning of unions. This story is set during the later, with miners caught in the middle of a reckless job, violent union conflicts and poverty. Fraught with violence that rivals the Wild West, Rednecks delves into the lives of these characters and their plight for safe working and living conditions amidst racism and poverty-ism. Interesting and at times confounding, the plot moves through these events with heart wrenching detail and a need for triumph.
*I received an arc from the publisher through NetGalley for an honest review… (mere)

"They had long ago forsaken the war of newspapers for the one they carried everywhere with them, and which had no colors, no sides, and which could be fit neatly to any new opportunity that presented itself: ambush, pillage, torture." - Fallen Land, Taylor Brown

Taking place at the end of the Civil War, Taylor Brown's debut novel, Fallen Land, follows the story of Callum and Ava as they race across the South toward the home of Callum's distant relatives while being pursued by a band of nefarious men intent on punishing Callum for a crime he didn't commit. Along the way, Callum and Ava encounter a land and people devastated by the war.

"Wonder what future people will think," said Ava. "Finding all this. The trees all gone, all these irons dug up from the ground. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe."
"Nobody's like to forget this," said Callum. "Not soon, I reckon."
"I don't know," said Ava. "You'd be surprised what people'll forget."

Brown is an extraordinarily talented writer. Certain passages were so beautiful, and I loved the story line over all. However, there were times when I found my mind drifting. Other reviewers have said Brown was "trying too hard". I'll have to agree to an extent. And while I enjoyed the story, I would have loved to see more interaction between Callum and Ava and less descriptions of the landscape.

I vacillated between a 3 and 4 star rating for this one, but landed on a 4 because I have a soft spot for Civil War stories. I remain in awe of what our country went through, and how primitive the conditions were for those traveling through the South at the time. Callum and Ava's story sounds like it wouldn't have been out of place in the 1600's instead of the 1860's.

4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

… (mere)

This is the story of the Battle on Blair Mountain. This is where an army of 10,000 coal miners battle mine owners, state militia, and the United States government in the largest labor uprising in American history. A powerful story of rebellion against oppression.

This tale is full of great historical detail and unique characters! I knew some of how the redneck term came about, but I did not know all. What these coal miners went through to get safe practices and fair wages is mind boggling.

I did find the tale a bit redundant and repetitive in places. This is a minor issue, I learned such a great deal!

Need a well researched novel about a tale most of us have forgotten about…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.… (mere)

If the term Rednecks get your dander up becuase of its modern meaning - - "a working-class white person, especially a politically reactionary one from a rural area" that is not the meaning that we find in this book. Interestingly, it came about when the Union workers tied red bandanas around their necks before entering this war.

If you like your American history real, raw, bloody, and very descriptive, then this might be the book for you. You may also enjoy this bit of history, especially if you come from or live in the rural Blue Ridge Mountains/Appalachia and want to see what it was like for some people over 100 years ago.

This book is about the bloody battle between the miners who wanted to join the union and King Coal, who wouldn't let them. It also shows us how so many ethnicities and people from different countries and cultures managed to band together to try and beat the 'enemy'.

It is a terrifying historical novel that sticks more with history in all of its blood, guts, and glory and a lot less with fiction (yes, a lot of this was fictionalized, but not much, I think).

Long descriptive passages and a compelling look into the life of “Doc Moo" Muhanna, a Lebanese-American doctor (inspired by the author’s own great-grandfather), and what he has to deal with not to take sides.

Well worth reading if you can really handle the horrors of what trying to break into a union really meant to our ancestors.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher St. Martin's Press/Macmillan, the author, and NetGalley.… (mere)