The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Pub Date: March 11, 2014
ISBN-10: 0812995201
ISBN-13: 978-0812995206
320 pages
This story is convoluted and complex but the real delight is the writing, the voice, of the author.
This story will grab you by the lapels and drag you right into the woods and hills of the Missouri Ozarks, where the novel is set. It revolves around two women, mother and daughter, separated by time and the mother’s untimely disappearance. Is mother Lila dead or alive? This is the question that haunts daughter Lucy Dane. Oh yeah, and the brutal murder and dismemberment of her childhood friend Cheri Stoddard. The story jumps between Lila’s story in the past and Lucy’s in the present. The two are similar in appearance and temperament and each tale is as scary and deeply disturbing as the other. This story is convoluted and complex and populated with a host of unusual, deeply-drawn, and deeply-flawed characters, but the real delight is the writing, the voice, of the author. It will stay with you long after you finish reading.