Quick Lit: A Common Thread

Small Town Stories…

As mentioned, I love a small-town story. Even with the understanding that rarely are they easy ones. That the endings are far more complex than merely happy or unhappy. That often the only thing that thrives in these places is the past; never to be buried, never to be forgotten. That the towns are ripe with secrets that have lived and breathed across decades, seeping into everything. Cast with characters that always have one foot in the past, unable to ever let it go. Telling themselves a reframed story that suits a tolerable narrative, only adding to the moral ambiguity that seeps onto the pages of these books. And for those left behind, the ones who never got out, resentments have been allowed to fester and flourish. And the endless machinations to avoid the contemplation of the sins of the past ensure the reader an absorbing narrative.

So come with me to visit places were everyone knows everyone, for better or for worse.

We Begin At The End – Chris Whitaker

This is a story of how tragedy seeps into a small town and lingers like a poison for generations. It is a story of actions and their consequences, of love and loss, of sadness and sorrow, of bad choices and second chances and of remorse and regrets, revenge and redemption. It is also a love story, a story of hope and selflessness and compassion. It’s about people haunted by the certainty that they will leave no mark on the world, as if they never existed in the first place.

Bookended by mysterious deaths, the beating heart of this novel is without question its lead characters. Walk, a forty something Sheriff hanging on for dear life to a past that may have only existed in his imagination and Duchess, a foul-mouthed, fierce and furious thirteen-year-old that refuses to cower from the misery’s life has seen fit to throw at her. The author imbues them with such longing for a life outside their grasp that your heart will lay torn and tattered on their behalf.

Not all stories are easy ones. Not all endings are happy. Life isn’t fair or kind to all. It won’t give you what you deserve. It doesn’t even the scales between good times and bad. For some, certainly for those in this book, it piles on more than a fair share.

There is nothing I can say that will do this book justice, no grouping of words that can embody how I felt at its conclusion. This is a staggeringly beautiful and powerful story; it will imbed itself in you, it will linger long after the final page is turned, and it will break you a little. If you are lucky. If you allow it to.

All The Sinners Bleed – S.A. Cosby

Charon County is a small southern town sown together through generations of bloodletting and shed tears. And despite so called “progress”, racism and violence still simmer close to the surface. Titus is the newly appointed Sheriff who has returned home to care for his aging father and reconnect with his younger brother after leaving his FBI position under mysterious circumstances. As the first Black Sheriff ever appointed, he has his work cut out for him, even before a single crime is committed during his reign.

Titus and his deputies are called to the scene of a reported school shooter, one who has killed a beloved teacher and is himself killed when officers believe he is going to turn his weapon on them. Sounds straightforward, a bad man killed a good man and then a good man killed the bad man, what more could there be to talk about?

Turns out quite a bit. An investigation into the shooting unearths evidence of shocking crimes and brutal slayings spanning years. A lot happens from the first crime to the last in this book and none of it should be missed.

The sense of grief and ravenous pain that permeates this novel is immeasurable, written with such beautiful prose that the reader can almost picture it as water wrung out of a wet cloth. This author is a master storyteller, able to have his characters stare into the abyss and yet still retain their humanity and hope. Few writers can accomplish such a feat, and I am grateful to have found my way to him.

Fairytale – Stephen King

This novel is a love letter to the fairytales and storybooks of our childhood, the ones that left the deepest impression and endure the most retelling. The ones that assured us our happily ever after. That is what King has given us in his latest novel, Fairy Tale. With a twist of course. King takes the curses we imagined from those youthful treasures and gives them substance. Inflicting new horrors on beloved characters and then giving them a savior, Charlie.

Charlie made a promise that if his alcohol father, driven to the bottle by the devasting loss of his wife and Charlie’s mom, stopped drinking he would do something for whatever deity made it happen. He swore it, no matter what.

After saving a curmudgeonly old man living in a mansion crumbling down around him, Charlie discovers a portal to another world, one with magic that can save his dying old dog. On his quest Charlie will discover that the magic of the fairy tale realm has been lost. The characters that Charlie meets on his journey have become blurred, as if someone, or something, is trying to erase them. And yet they are oddly familiar…

Stephen King is a masterful storyteller for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which is his ability to create evocative characters and then thrust them headfirst into unimaginable circumstances. Whether those circumstances are horrific or fantastical, monstrous, or magical, the reader invariably feels as if they are themselves are being absorbed onto the pages.

In his own words, “I try to create sympathy for my characters, then I turn the monsters lose”.

Not to worry, monsters or not, you will get a happily ever after here. It just might be a little fuzzy around the edges. Vintage King in other words.

Small-Town Tales…The Stephen King Universe

It

Salem’s Lot

Needful Things

Joyland

The Shining

Misery

The Dark Half

The Institute

The Outsider

Revival

Small-Town Tales…New & Notable

King Sorrow – Joe Hill (Coming Fall 2025)

Small Mercies – Dennis Lehane

Black Woods, Blue Sky – Evelyn Ivey

Trail Of Blood On The Snow – Sam Lee

Savage, Noble Death Of Babs Dionne – Ron Currie

Hard Town – Adam Plantinga

Fever Beach – Carl Hiaasen

Broken Country – Clare Leslie Hall

Sleep – Honor Jones

What Happened To The McCrays – Tracey Lange