If the Creek Don't Rise

By: Leah Weiss

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte, Kate Forbes

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

A strikingly sincere portrait of a town and its buried secrets from an outstanding new voice in southern fiction.

In a North Carolina mountain town filled with moonshine and rotten husbands, Sadie Blue is only the latest girl to face a dead-end future at the mercy of a dangerous drunk. She's been married to Roy Tupkin for 15 days, and she knows now that she should have listened to the folks who said he was trouble. But when a stranger sweeps in and knocks the world off-kilter for everyone in town, Sadie begins to think there might be more to life than being Roy's wife.

As stark and magnificent as Appalachia itself, If the Creek Don't Rise is a bold and beautifully layered debut about a dusty, desperate town finding the inner strength it needs to outrun its demons. The folks of Baines Creek will take you deep into the mountains with heart, honesty, and homegrown grit.

©2017 Leah Weiss (P)2017 Recorded Books

Good!

Love everything Kate Forbes records! I’m going straightaway to look for another Leah Weiss novel

Multiple first person stories build the narrative.

The performance of the narrators emphasized Leah Weiss' structures for the tale. introducing characters giving them small climactic events before they become background characters. Often a voice would appear after figure had be described by others, adding nuances of character development, even if it only made them more despicable.

Great listen

Awesome

This was an awesome book delivered beautifully. Would definitely recommend. Easy to follow leaves you wanting more.

Lacks Story Structure

I found this book to have interesting character studies presented in an unusual way, but the overall structure of the story seemed to be lacking. In the end the reader finds what happened to Sadie and Roy but all the other characters that were presented in such depth fade to black.

Although a novel, the book was presented in historical context that did not sit right. As a resident of an Appalachian county of SW Virginia in the 70’s, I thought a lot was exaggerated and overblown and more indicative of the 50’s and 60’s especially since the last one room schoolhouse in the US was terminated in 1967. The author’s descriptions lead one to believe that extreme poverty and deprivation only lead to violence and aberrant behavior and totally leave out the kindness and giving nature that so many Appalachian communities are known for today.

Weiss has some talent as a writer and I look forward to more practiced future publications.

Loved it!

I really enjoyed this audio book! Leah Weiss is a great storyteller. I was swept away by each character as they developed and each told his/her point of view of life in Appalachia. Some of the lines made me laugh out loud, while the difficulties of life in this region made me so sad. As with every audio book I listen to, the narration can make or break the story. The female voices varied enough to distinguish each individual. However, as soon as “Forest Gump” started speaking, I groaned out loud! It was clear that Tom Stechschulte spent many hours listening to “Forrest’s” speech patterns and intonations to get it just right! He was right on!!! I almost stopped listening at that point. It was much too distracting. All I could see in my head was Forrest talking to his “Mama.” The narrator’s time would have been better spent coming up with an original “back woods” voice belonging to that character alone!
That being said, I’m glad I finished listening, and found that I wanted to find out more, “perhaps in a sequel,” about what happens to the characters in the future. Doesn’t often happen for me.

Couldn’t put it down!

We listened to the book on a long road trip were captivated by the story and colorful characters and language.

Love this book

Narrators were perfect for each character!
The story held my attention the entire way through.
I wanted to hear more!

Wha?

I would have loved a “button up” at the end... just felt like some of the story I was LOVING ended when it shouldn’t have. I thought it was a great book- just wanted more I guess!

Great narration; story could have been much better

Story left you hanging. Could have been much more developed. The narration was wonderful. You just wanted more from this book all around.

Multiple character narrative.

This was a first person narrative by multiple characters (at least 8) that didn't follow much of an overall story line, but instead gave a telling of life in the backwoods of the Appalachian mountains. It was quite dreary most of the way through but had interesting characters that kept me going.