Where I Can't Follow

Ashley Blooms — 2022

Walk through the door and leave all your problems behind...but you don't know what's on the other side. And once you leave, you'll never come back. Will you go through? Maren Walker told herself she wouldn't need to sell pills for long, that it was only means to an end. But that end seems to be stretching as far away as the other side of Blackdamp County, Kentucky. There's always another bill for Granny's doctor, another problem with the car, another reason she's getting nowhere. She dreams of walking through her little door to leave it all behind. The doors have appeared to the people in her mountain town for as long as anyone can remember, though no one knows where they lead. All anyone knows is that if you go, you'll never come back. Maren's mother left through her door when Maren was nine, and her shadow has followed Maren ever since. When she faces the possibility of escaping her struggles for good, Maren must choose just what kind of future she wants to build. From critically acclaimed author Ashley Blooms, Where I Can't Follow explores the forces that hold people in place, and how they adapt, survive, and struggle to love a place that doesn't always love them back. One of the most original and exciting new voices in literature.--Silas House, author of Clay's Quilt and Southernmost

Reviews

Kristen Claiborn@kristenc

Jan 7, 2023

I’ve only recently started following the Good Housekeeping Book Club picks. I thought it would be a good idea, because it’s a HUGELY popular publication and women are the driving force behind book clubs. I enjoy everything else about Good Housekeeping, so I was pretty excited. This book made me want to throw things across the room. One of the ways I personally determine whether a book is well-written is its ability to invoke feelings…of any sort. It can give me warm fuzzies or it can make me mad as hell, as long as it does something to make me feel, it’s at least well-written. This book just plain pissed me off. The book focuses on the damn door the entire time, but we never find out what the hell they are, where the hell they came from or where the hell they lead. UGH! I was so mad at the end. CLEARLY the author got the job done with this one. Otherwise, it’s kind of a heartbreaking story. I don’t want to give too much away because I’d rather you go read it and form your own conclusions, however, it’s pretty damn sad. It does eventually have a relatively happy ending, but the way it got there was depressing. Maren lives in a nowhere town and she’s living what seems to be a nowhere life. There were some ancillary storylines that I felt needed to have been expanded on (the sheriff, the drug situation), but the author just kinda threw them in with no backstory and no real resolution to any of them. It just felt like an incomplete story. It isn’t a bad book, but it’s certainly not a great one either.

Varun Raj@varunraj

Dec 18, 2023