Better as it Progresses
Likability: ★★★★
Depth: ★★★★

There's no doubt, this starts off with a bang, but then slows down before gaining in depth and insight.

I'm pretty sure that I am not the target audience but can see this as an amazing book for anyone, especially someone like the Heroine, Cielle. About 15 years old whose father recently passed away.

There are some weird mistakes in detail in the beginning that threw me off. I know it shouldn't matter, but for me, a book shouldn't get things wrong. Albeit, minor. Yes. Mosquitos don't fly around in the day. (Well, not in 1943 they didn't). As well as a few other bits. But, it didn't affect my rating. It did cause me to stumble getting into the book.

There are some absolutely brilliant bits of imagery and prose in this book, especially as it nears the end. And there are some parts that just had too much "tell, not show." The characters were consistent, the world well crafted. I did not want to put down the book, but I also didn't spend the next few days thinking about it - which is what I reserve for 5 stars.

You should read this if you are dealing with loss and death or you know someone who is. It will help you. ( )

Solid 4 of 5 stars - read my review here: https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/driest-season-novel ( )

I received a free e-copy of this book and have chosen to write an honest and unbiased review. I have no personal affiliation with the author. This is a short but powerful story. The setting is a Wisconsin farm in 1943 and the boys are going off to WW II. A young girl discovers that her father has hanged himself in the barn when she comes home from school. Her mother with assistance from a neighbor covers it up and calls it a tractor accident. We feel the stigma to suicide in the community throughout the story. Then a tornado destroys the barn. Who is going to cut and bale the hay and where will they store it? What is going to happen to the family? What is going to happen to the farm and land? As happened so often during and after the Great Depression the land was bought by a neighbor and rented back to the family with the option to buy it back. Will the owner of the land discover that it was a suicide and void their contract to buy the land back? Meghan is a very descriptive writer. This is a great short story and I’d like to see the story and its characters developed further. I’d really like to know what happens to this family. I look forward to reading more from Meghan Kenny in the future. ( )

THE DRIEST SEASON by Meghan Kenny is the story of a fifteen year old girl, Cielle, who is coping with her father's death and with her own maturity and self-discovery. Cielle walks in on her father's suicidial hanging, then his death is pronounced to the world as an accidental demise. In Cielle's search for the truth and why it was hidden, she learns about hope, love, and survival.
Setting the story in the 1940's in Wisconsin provides a melancholy backdrop to a melancholy story that in the end, provides hope that Cielle and her family will move on and grow from this ordeal. The author, Kenny, writes the book through the eyes of Cielle, which for the reader is enjoyable and challenging at the same time. While the innermost thoughts and feelings of Cielle are clear at all times, everyone around's motives are vague and hard to figure out, which is true when a fifteen year old young woman is trying to figure those intentions, but as a reader it left me missing something. Maybe Kenny is trying to consider that people can be vague and unclear and having the book mimic that struggle of understanding is what the author is trying to accomplish. Challenging a reader can be good, but sometimes clarity and straightforwardness is a good thing too.
Thank you to W. W. Norton & Company, Meghan Kenny, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )

A slice of life in the American heartland. Boaz Wisconsin, 1943, Cielle finds her father dead, hanging from the rafters in the barn. This discovery puts the family at risk, their farm at risk, and leads Cielle on the quest to discover exactly why her beloved father did what he did. (Not a spoiler since this discovery is part of the books summary) Although America is going to war, and will touch this family, the events of the summer take precedence, as Cielle must come to terms with a huge loss and it's aftereffects.

Cielle, soon to be sixteen, as expected changes over this summer, grows up and comes to understand the contrary nature of man's outward personality, and the churning difficulties he harbors within. It is a slow road of often somber realizations, but beautifully written. The flashbacks to specific moments with her father were wonderfully portrayed, and emotionally touching. Family, friends, the weather affecting the farm, a first love, and a broken romance are encompassed in this novel. The descriptions of the country side are brilliantly rendered. A beautiful place that holds the family at its center, their life and livlihood caught within.

The Amish, and their different standards of living, come to the aid of this small family, and bring a different sort of realization to Cielle. A quiet, internal novel about facing a devastating loss while attempting to keep external forces from taking what is theirs.

ARC from edelweiss. ( )