Kelly J. Ford, Cottonmouths (2017)

This was Drear’s Bluff, nothing bad happened here. People didn’t disappear.

Kelly J. Ford’s novel, Cottonmouths, explores the return home to the small, Southern town of Drear’s Bluff, Arkansas, through the eyes of college dropout Emily Skinner. While bearing the pressure of her community’s expectations, she reconnects with her childhood friend and unrequited first love, Jody, whose new life is full of secrets and lies. As Emily’s life becomes intertwined with Jody’s, she must make decisions on who to trust, what to believe, and how much of herself she is willing to give away for someone she loves.

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Wanda M. Morris, Anywhere You Run

Wanda Morris’s Anywhere You Run is one of the latest successes to come from 2022. The book focuses on the game of cat and mouse that falls under the umbrella of the crime genre. The book is labeled a crime thriller, yet there isn’t an element of suspense that’s typically expected for a thriller. The novel is divided into two parts, and the chapters switch between three different points of view, Marigold, Violet, and Mercer, which is a layout I really enjoyed reading. Some themes of the novel may be hard to read and are better suited for ages 13+.

The book is set in a medium-sized town in Mississippi in the summer of 1964. The South is still holding onto Jim Crow Laws as two black sisters, Marigold and Violet, are finding themselves on very different paths in life. 

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