The Truth According to Us

This novel creates a sense of time and place that transports you so successfully that you can almost feel the sweltering heat. However, the initial pace was so slow that I found the book hard going at first and almost gave up with it. The letters and historical reports are a distraction and interrupt the flow of the story and the multiple narrators make things a little confusing.
Ultimately the book is worth investing time in. As you learn about their lives you start to care about the characters, especially Jottie. When the secrets are revealed it gains momentum to keep you hooked until the moving conclusion.

The pace of the book is slow, and the introduction to all to characters can be a little confusing at times.
Set in Macedonia West Virginia, it can take a while to understand the local dialect and some of the unusual first names that people have. (There are lots of people introductions). The descriptions are vivid so you could imagine yourself standing in this small town.
Layla Black is sent to unravel the town’s secret, on the towns 150th anniversary. She has a good rapport with her editor Ben, to whom she constantly sends her reports by letter. These letters bring humour to the story.
If you love a good gossip, and can understand the southern drawl then this would be a good read for you. If you want something fast and pacey, then this is not the read for you, as it seems fragmented in places.
On researching Macedonia, it is a real town in West Virginia, brought together by the American civil war, the main reason for the secret.

Dina Andrews, Jersey

This book had a strong sense of place and time, and I enjoyed the insight into small-town America during the 1930s recession. I liked the fact that there was a bit of a twist at the end. Very different from her last book, but she is a good writer who held my attention throughout. Recommended!

While I did not enjoy this as much as "The Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Pie Society" it is still a good book if a little long although I think that reflects is hot, slow, American south in the 30's setting. The length enables you to get to know the characters especially the narrator, 12 year old Willa, and I enjoyed her reflections on her extended family and town. The resolution to the central mystery of the book was fairly obvious to me quite early on but its resolution is intereresting. The book reminded me of those by Fannie Flagg and I vwould recommend this to those who like her novels.