First, the good. Keller wrote this book in 2012, before most of the rest of the nation was aware that there was an opioid crisis sweeping the state of West Virginia that would soon overtake the whole nation. As I was reading, I was continually struck at how prescient Keller was about the social determinants of health that breed drug addiction and what widespread addiction would do to rural communities. You can tell when someone writes about a place they really love, even when that place is hard to love, and you can tell that Keller loves rural W. Virginia. Those of us who grew up in small towns know how fraught coming home is and how hard the decision to stay or go is and Keller has captured that in this book beautifully.
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Now for the things I didn't love. The first is one of the book's subplots that involves a potential defendant with an intellectual and developmental disability, I think Keller included this subplot to show us that the main character is a think before she charges prosecutor, but the whole story line was pretty ableist and turned me off. The second thing that I didn't love is that while I don't think it was necessarily Keller’s intention, there were times that I felt the story judging and blaming those struggling with addiction. I know this was written a decade ago and we've come a long ways in the awareness of substance use disorder, but it kind of put a damper on my excitement for the book.