4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

HUGE FAN of Kristin Hannah. This book was a tough one. Same wonderful writing you’d expect from the author but dang, it’s depressing. There was never any happiness, which honestly made it hard to read. But also, where is there happiness in ‘The Great Depression’. I mean … it was ‘The Great Depression’. Is the hopelessness that I felt throughout reading the whole point of the book.

Author’s note also mentions she started this 3 years ago, but she finished during pandemic. Maybe that’s why she was able to convey the feeling so well. There were actual grocery stores in our time with high prices or empty shelves. We were actually going through something similar (not really, but you know..).

Gotta take the book for what it is, though. Which is why I couldn’t give it less than 5 stars really. It was a great representation of ‘The Great Depression’ and didn’t show you too much of the ‘good years’ because that’s not what it’s about. ‘The Great Depression’, was DEPRESSING. It was sad and hard. We can’t gloss over it because it was real and there was more than just pain going on. Hannah really showed what happens when hard time come and we start looking at one another and don’t see a fellow human but rather someone about to ‘take’ what we feel is ‘ours’. We are greedy. We hoard. And we run out of toilet paper.

Well done. Very appropriate. And let’s be better to one another.