“A good voice gets you a long way,” my friend, Steve Brezenoff once said. Though I would never admit this to his face, those are some pretty wise words. A good voice does get you a very long way, which is why I enjoyed Amy Greene’s Bloodroot so much.

Each voice in this novel, and there are six of them, was so genuine and true to the character that I was pulled along through this story about Tennessee hill folk, madness, and magic even though some of the storytelling kind of drove me bonkers.

The book opens with Byrdie, an old woman from Chickweed Holler telling the reader about her childhood and early adulthood growing up in the hills of Appalachia surrounded by a group of women who possess mystical powers. At one point there’s a curse placed on the family. Eventually Byrdie falls in love and moves to Bloodroot Mountain where life does not get much easier. She loses five of her children and ends up raising her bewitching grandaughter, Myra.

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