Welcome to Litsy!

The premise drew me in and made me want to read this, but in the end I was disappointed. The villains were cardboard cut-outs, and the deception (and its uncovering) too easy to be believable. It could have explored the tension between the husband and his best friend, tasked with watching out for the pregnant wife and then resented for getting to experience what the MC missed by being in Korea. Instead it focused on how evil his parents were.👇🏻

This story is about Blackburn, the caretaker of the local cemetery. I had to keep reminding myself of that because it was easy to become immersed in the lives around him. The language is simple but the story is deep and rich. A study about connection, grief, and most of all true friendship. Book #86 in 2024

#BookReport 11/24

I loved both A History of Loneliness and The Caretaker. They are a bit comparable, both have loving lonely narrators and the style is 👌🏽

I enjoyed When You Disappeared (I am making my way through John Marss‘s backlist) but bailed on In Ascension which couldn‘t hold my attention.

It‘s a romance, but a dark and twisty one. Jacob and Naomi are in love and married, much opposed by his parents who have had other plans for him, Then Jacob is being deployed to Korea, to fight in the war. He asks his best friend Blackburn to take care of Naomi and protect her from her nasty parents-in-law and the much biased community. I loved how Ron Rash creates his characters, all of them feel so real, as do the Appalachian surroundings.

Blackburn is the caretaker of the local cemetery. When his best friend, Jacob, leaves to serve in the Korean War he entrusts Blackburn with looking out for his young, pregnant wife. When Jacob is wounded overseas, events none of them could have predicted affect them all. I loved this book so much. So much. Beautifully written without a single wasted word, I found myself tearing through the last few pages because I had to know how it ended.

#bookhaul Part 3

And lastly, the new Rash (staff rec at my local indie) and deWitt.

Wow. Just wow. I loved this quietly beautiful novel about a cemetery caretaker and his best friend who is returning from the Korean War. The depth of friendship he conveyed in so few pages astounded me. 5⭐️

Gant was afflicted with polio and became a cemetery caretaker. He was always an observer of life until his best friend asked him to look after his new wife when he goes to war. Some manipulative lies by his friend‘s parents test everyone.