Plum Springs

De: Dan Lawton

Narrado por: James R. Cheatham

Winner of the 2019 New Hampshire Writers' Project Readers' Choice Award for Fiction

Faced with the aftermath of a life-altering decision, a 9-year-old boy seeks solace in the Kentucky forest in pursuit of happiness, love, and acceptance.

After a lifetime of abuse, 9-year-old Rusty Travis and his older brother, Bo, decide their father must be stopped when, in a drunken rage, he goes after their 6-year-old sister. After their vengeance is complete, they seek refuge in the tall oak forest where they stumble upon a mysterious runaway orphan. This leads to uncovering secrets about themselves and their family they never imagined leading Rusty to question everything he thought he knew. With his brother by his side, they battle with the demons that shatter their world in the sleepy town of Plum Springs.

©2018 Daniel Lawton (P)2020 Daniel Lawton

The best Dan Lawton

Plum Springs is by far my favorite Dan Lawton book. While I sometimes find his storylines a bit convoluted, this one was not. It was a great adventure, coming-of-age story, filled with twists, but with poignant family drama that added to the realism. However, if you listen to the Audible narration, the narrator is horrible! He makes the 13-year old sound like a gravely old man with a two-pack-a-day habit. Terrible "voices!"

Love, loyalty, and resilience among siblings

Rusty, Beau (or maybe it's Bo, I listened to the audiobook so I'm not sure), and Ruby are siblings who are growing up on a tobacco farm with their alcoholic and abusive father. The two boys work the farm and are beaten by their father regularly. We find out that their mother left their father after being abused and was forced to leave without the children, but she didn't go far. Although close by she never does intervene to stop the abuse of the children but once Lenny (the father) hits little Ruby for burning toast, the boys have to take matters into their own hands. What unravels next is a series of events seen through the shifting perspectives of Rusty, Ruby, and Earl (the grandpa). It's a good story about love, loyalty and resilience amongst siblings and the secrets, lies and immorality amongst the adults in their lives. Although it was unnecessarily crude, at times, it was a good read (well... listen). The narrator did amazing, he captured the time, the characters and the story in a masterful way. He made me very happy to listen to this story over reading it myself. It was unlike any story I've read before, in a good way. The children were a great, heartbreaking, and heartwarming story to follow [Thank you LibraryThing and Dan Lawton for the free audiobook]

Very Enjoyable

Great book , definitely gets you thinking with a bit of suspense and mystery. Great storyline and amazing narrating. Overall the book is very good to listen to.