I really liked the book but it was heartbreaking. I first tried to listen to it on Audible but found it too difficult (sad, appalling). Reading it was easier for me.

This is hard book but it is so important. I think it is the most important book of fiction I have read in ten years. I am a WVian and a professor of social sciences/public health. My family is from the Southern WV (very much like Lee County, VA) and the story is awful bc it is reflective of the realities there, which are awful. Lowest life expectancy in the US - internal colonialism, mono-economies, switching up coal for pills, so much more. Our children are in crisis. I am not sure she could write it as bad as it actually is here. This book is the most respectful treatment of my culture and its problems that I have ever read. Kingsolver has my heart and my thanks. I am now teaching this book alongside more classical social science and public health resources in an upper division public health course, Appalachian Health & Wellness.