Cheap Back Roads (Book) (Tawni O'Dell) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Back Roads

Four children are orphaned when their mother is jailed for killing their abusive father. The oldest, the son named Harley, is thrust into the role of being father and mother to three sisters, Amber, Misty and Jodie. He is struggling with becoming an adult - hormones, etc. - and is now shouldered with responsibilities normally earned by one many years older than he. He works two jobs, wonders if he should be bothered that the girls seem to eat only hot dogs and frozen pizza and worries about finding money to pay the property taxes on the house. He maintains regular appointments with a psychiatrist to work through issues relating to his mother's absence and incarceration. The older sister, Amber, is a rural Lolita: a vulnerable vixen, who looks for security in meaningless sex with local hoods. She wants her drivers' license but not a part-time job needed to pay for her own insurance. The middle girl, Misty, is rage in a prepubescent body. In moodiness and isolation, she harbors the family secrets and her own resentments over her father's death. The baby, Jody, is the joy and innocence remaining of this damaged family; she witnesses the family's decent but is shielded from recognition by childhood and its undaunted optimism. She hides in "to do" lists, which reflect a world of make-believe and an attempt to bring order to chaos erupting around her.

Jody is the only child to have escaped her father's hand. Each of the older children bears the physical and emotional scars of abuse. In the absence of the mother, who is damned for both killing the abuser but failing to stop the abuse, Harley, Amber and Misty cannot make a "family" from what is left of a group of individuals trying to survive. They both love and hate one another; they cannot embrace each other because the wounds inflicted by years of abuse are still raw and sensitive. The amusement with which Harley shares his experiences and struggles only exaggerates the ruination of their lives.

This story is "Party of Five" in a nightmare. Other reviewers have doted on the Appalachian setting as creating a "local color" work, but this family crisis could have been staged at any time or place. I think I recall seeing a similar story on "Law and Order - Special Victims Unit" once; if I didn't, it would work, all the same . . . This is not a story for the faint of heart. I cried for these children and their lost innocence; I wanted to kill their dead father; I wanted to punish their jailed mother personally. My strong reaction is making this review difficult to write.

This book is the first "Oprah's Pick" I can recommend but not because I "like" it. I like this book in the way I know it is often best to vomit when I have a bad stomachache. It's one of those painful things we must endure - facing the crimes and atrocities in our own modern society - in order to impart meaning and purpose to our own lives. However, in today's environment of mass media assault, where camcorders can take us directly to the scene of a massacre, the perverse exhilaration from such a book as this comes from the knowledge that I am still outraged by it.

An incredibly brilliant book by a new author!
I have to say that I'm very impressed with this first novel. Harley Altmeyer is a character with incredible depth that actually stays with you long after the last page. He's a confused and troubled young man trying to keep his family together after his mother murders his father. He works two jobs to keep their lives together but slowly begins to unravel after he mets the older, Callie whom he loses his virginity to and after he starts uncovering the shocking truth behind his family.

Many people might find the subject matter to be a little offensive. I think the book was done in a way that was able to take you beyond the disturbing to the truth. This stuff happens and whether we like to admit or not, it happens every day. Tawni takes you into this boy's life and sucks you in with the thoughts and feelings of this kid who is in trouble.

Highly sexual, beautifully written, I loved this book. However, if one is offended easily, this isn't for you. Read it with an open mind and open heart. A truly brilliant piece of work!

Not for young readers...
I have worked with Emotionally Disturbed teenagers as an English teacher for 10 years. In that time, I have heard stories of abuse that are so disturbing I thought nothing could shock me. This book shocked me. I didn't know what I was getting into when I picked it up. The back and cover are very misleading. I feel, after reading this, that I know now exactly what Holden Caufield was trying to protect kids from. Many times during reading this book I thought of putting it down and not finishing it. It was written in such a way, though, that I felt compelled to finish it. In fact, I read the last 100 pages in one sitting. I am warning the faint of heart, the weak of stomach, the prudes out there who don't want to hear about things that make people uncomfortable: Don't buy this book. For the rest of you, be open-minded, read it, and think about ways to make this world a better, safer place for those who need it most.