Book Review: Bent Road by Lori Roy

From the library catalog record:

“For twenty years, Celia Scott has watched her husband, Arthur, hide from the secrets surrounding his sister Eve's death. As a young man, Arthur fled his small Kansas hometown, moved to Detroit, married Celia, and never looked back. But when the 1967 riots frighten him even more than his past, he convinces Celia to pack up their family and return to the road he grew up on, Bent Road, and that same small town where Eve mysteriously died.”

He is convinced that it will keep is family safe and help his son become a man.

In some ways it makes me think of Grapes of Wrath, but I can’t really say why.   The farmhouses they live in are usually described as old and run down, there is a passage where the son talks about wearing shoes that are too small, because he is growing too fast.

2/3 of the way through this book and I was still trying to figure out why I was still reading it.  It’s dark and rough, depressing and scary, I don’t usually read this kind of book, and I’m not sure I even like the people.  I feel sorry for some of them.  The father is mean, but not as mean as the brother-in-law. But I could not put it down.

I thought I was reading it to find out what happened to Eve, and that did surprised me, but there are a couple of other twists and turns that surprised me too.   I had to set in my car and listen to the last 3 minutes before I could go to work.