When seventeen year old Marley West moves into small town Mercury, PA, she is quickly claimed by Baylor Joseph, the oldest of the three Joseph boys and a local high school football star. Dating Bay gets her invited to dinner with the rest of the Josephs, parents Mick and Elise, and Bay's younger brothers Waylon and Shay. She is witness to the complex family dynamic as an outsider, and eventually a participant as well as a member of the family herself, as Waylon's wife. In fact, she becomes a lynch pin in the family, even as resentments simmer and tensions rise. When a body is unexpectedly uncovered in the attic of the local church thanks to a leaking roof, a roof that Joseph and Sons Roofing fixed years ago, old secrets and hurts will come to light, changing the truth of the past.
This is a novel chock full of private family drama, the weight of expectations, and complicated family relationships. Burns draws realistic characters, some of whom are not entirely sympathetic or likeable. The secrets they carry shape their characters, form the love/hate relationships they feel toward one another, and make the family how and what they are. Although the novel is told in third person, Marley is really the main character, the one who both forces change and acknowledges tradition as she comes into her own. This is a powerful, character driven story of growth, belonging, motherhood, and the traumas that form us.
Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to review.
