BLOG TOUR: Let the Willows Weep by Sherry Parnell @sbparnell @tlcbooktours #letthewillowsweep

An emotional coming-of-age story about how one seeks to keep going through hard times. Sad and yet hopeful—filled with prose so beautiful and delicate, it often felt like reading poetry.

“My mother’s greatest talent was her ability to cause pain with her words. It was also her greatest weapon, and she rarely held back without wielding it at me.”

Birddog is a victim of her parent’s circumstances. She is a disappointment to her mother at every turn, and abandoned by a father who couldn’t take her mother’s wrath any longer. It is a heartbreaking reminder of how much power parents have over their children, whether in the presence or in their absence. In some ways, her father leaving sealed her mother’s rage. The ghost of a better life seemed to hang over the story, feeling as though each decision took Birddog further into a dark existence.

“For us, time had stopped. The life within these walls was nothing more than snaps of pictures twisted and trapped in a moment that refused to move forward.”

Her older brother Denny is her protector, a contrast to their other brother Caul who has their mother’s anger and viciousness. But their mother sees all the good in her sons and all of the disappointment in Birddog. At times, Birddog’s loneliness almost broke me. This is a girl who life and grace seem to have cast aside. And though I knew I should empathize with the mother as well, it was nearly impossible to as I watched her focus her grief in the form of anger and meanness on Birddog.

And yet there are moments of hope. Even the most damaged among us can find love. And even love that cannot happen, can awaken resilience in us. This is truly a story about moving forward even when everything is against us, knowing that there is always something to live for. How the moments of kindness from others mean so much more than many will ever know.

“Sometimes we can’t cry enough for all the pain we feel. So, we let the willows weep.”

About the Book

“Sometimes life is just like paper wings. Fragile, easily torn apart, and often there are too many pieces to pick up.”

In the tradition of the best Southern fiction—from Bastard Out of Carolina to Where the Crawdads Sing—Sherry Parnell’s Let the Willows Weep is a heart-wrenching portrait of hardscrabble, humble lives in rural America. A keenly-observed and unflinching look at the life of Birddog Harlin as she grows up in her dysfunctional family, this novel explores the line between destruction and redemption.

Thank you TLC Book Tours and Sherry Parnell for my copy. Opinions are my own.

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound