Sometimes I Feel Like a Piece of Bologna

Fiction Friday: Daisy Chain

Daisy Chain is perhaps an unusual book to start off Fiction Fridays. At multiple levels, it isn’t an easy read. It’s complex, literary, and heartbreaking. It’s also a book with more truth than many of us want to believe. It’s a story of many questions, many layers, and few answers. But it’s worth the effort to read.

The location: Defiance, TX.
The year: 1977.

Jed Pepper and Daisy Chance are best friends. In fact, Daisy’s decided that 14-year old Jed is going to marry her. Then she goes missing. Suddenly, immediately after they’ve left their usual meeting place: the church. Jed knew he was late and in trouble, so he didn’t walk her home. Now she’s disappeared and he’s the last one to see her. And her last words were, “You’ll regret it…”

Now he feels guilty. Confused. He’s investigated. Meanwhile, life at home is unpredictable. Unfair. Abusive.

Weeks pass. No word from Daisy. Life goes on. The investigation turns up nothing. Jed copes. Sort of. And he never gives up hope, even when everyone else does.

This book is haunting and challenging, but the complex characters make it well worth the read. My only complaint is that many of the story lines don’t resolve. There are loose ends that will hopefully be addressed in the next two books – and the second one, A Slow Burn, just came out. It’s in my stack and I can’t wait to read it!

Labels: book review