Told from three different points of view, this book takes place in 2010 and 2018. It tells the story of one girl and one woman who are connected by family. Beth is taken from her home in 2010 when someone kills her babysitter who is Peurto Rican in an attempt to get the baby sitter's father to stop teaching at the local college in Georgia. Since Beth is a witness and a white one at that the man can't kill her too. So he takes her to a basement and keeps her captive.
Imogene is related to the man who took Beth. Imogene has had to deal with being the child of her mother and another man who raped her mother. She is the much younger sister to Jo Lynne and Eddie whose father Ed Coulter was the leader of the local chapter of the KKK. Imogene's chapters take place in 2018 and she is still dealing with the death of her husband, Russell, and young son, Vaughn which happened five years ago. She drinks too much and sleeps with a variety of men.
Imogene is asked by her mother to cut the electrical wire to her old dead grandfather's house that was used for Klan business. Now that her husband Ed is dead she is stopping the Klan from meeting on her property. When Imogene goes to the house and investigates she finds a young boy in the basement. He is about five or six years old and believes that his mother will come back soon. That the man who takes her away always brings her back. He lets slip that Ed is the name of the man who has been keeping him and when shown a picture of her daddy, Ed, he recognizes him as the man who has been keeping them.
Someone burns down the building the same night that Imogene finds the boy. The third voice in this story is Tillie, Imogene's father-in-law and the owner of a pawnshop that Imogene helps out at by looking for any insurance claims on the items that are being sold. Tillie left the Klan forty years ago because of something awful that happened one night that haunts him still. He has a problem because Natalie, Tim Robithan's girlfriend tried to pawn two watches that belong to Tim's dad a big man in the Klan who is probably taking over now that Ed is dead since his son is a pretty useless man.
Interspersed between the voices are segments about the history of the Klan that are very interesting. This is a powerful book that explores the life of being in the Klan because Imogene's brother and sister are both in the Klan, even though Imogene hates it with a passion just like her mother. Beth tries her best to make the man who took her happy because she knows that's her only way of staying alive. Her story is tragic and told with bold strokes that belie her tender years. This is a great book that demands to be read. I give it five out of five stars.
Quotes
The man’s voice flows out of him like warm gravy. That’s what Mama says about a Southern man’s voice. Like warm, peppery gravy that’ll leave you craving more and give you heartburn all the same.
-Lori Roy (Gone Too Long p 17)
She told me to talk like I’m a rose, sweet and flowery,
to men like this, but to be a cactus inside.
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