Review ‘So, so compelling. Read-in-a-day, stay-up-all-night compelling’ Stylist‘The Catcher in the Rye meets Fargo . . . as the world goes to hell in a handcart, Percy’s response to the dangers faced by little baby Jenna is like a shot of pure raw emotion’ Digital Fix‘Blackly comic . . . featuring echoes of True Grit’s Mattie Ross and Winter’s Bone’s Ree Dolly, Percy is a fearless, funny and stubborn leading lady’ Shortlist‘Compulsively readable . . . finish the first chapter and you will be hooked’ Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs and Beneath the Bonfire‘Darkly humorous . . . this book must be read’ Literary Review‘If you’re a fan of Charles Portis and Denis Johnson this book is exactly what you’ve been waiting for’ Brock Clarke, author of The Happiest People in the World‘Gritty, compelling . . . Mulhauser depicts his people and their landscape with uncompromising fidelity’ Ron Rash, author of Above the Waterfall‘This novel comes on like the blizzard at its centre, and leaves you dazzled and dazed not only by how much Travis Mulhauser knows, but how deeply he cares’ Michael Parker, author of All I Have in This World‘There's a big old neon heart pulsing on every page of Sweetgirl, like the sign to a bar you can't help but enter. I couldn't stop turning the pages’ Lindsay Hunter, author of Ugly Girls and Don’t Kiss Me About the Author Travis Mulhauser is from Petoskey, Michigan. He lives currently in Durham, North Carolina with his wife and two children and earned his MFA from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
C**T
Gripping
A wonderful read. Very expressive writer. This book would make an excellent film. The detail given to the characters and the location made me feel I was right there with them.
P**O
not bad
it was different. sometimes a little slow. easy enough to get through being a shorter book. but i cant say i was blown away by the story. it was just okay. maybe if you want something cute and quick to read...
A**.
Enjoyable read
Likeable characters, enjoyable prose and well realised settings. Overall a good read, but for me could have been aboutv10 pages shorter in the middle section as became somewhat repetitive at times.
K**N
Five Stars
Brilliant
A**N
Four Stars
decent
B**S
Snow, murder, and a baby
If you like snow, small babies, brave women....... That's how I was going to start this review, but it's better than that.Percy (female) is a high school drop-out, has a meth addict for a mother, and is sixteen. When her ma has not been seen around for a couple of weeks and a bad storm is on the way on the southern shores of Lake Michigan, Percy sets out to look for her. What she finds is something different altogether. At the house where she spots her mother's car, she finds a couple of zonked out druggies, one a guy she knows supplies her mother and the other a female. Upstairs is a dead dog and a small baby. Abandoning any thought of her mother's whereabouts, she knows the baby needs help, and fast - and so she takes it, and heads off for the home of a friend of her mother's - a man whose only vice these days is whiskey. But the baby belongs to someone, and someone else offers money to get it back.Rather like Fargo, those will little brain who believe they know what they are doing will often fall foul of others of the same ilk. And soon there are a few bodies in the snow. This is a very black comedy, with a bit of heartbreak thrown in. An easy to read thriller that has some laugh out loud moments, but also lets you know, if you had no idea before, what drug-taking can do for a person.Whilst reading I was thinking that this would make a brilliant film, and I wouldn't be surprised if the rights had been snapped up already. The author's first novel and not a bad attempt at all. I would certainly read him again.
E**Y
Beautifully written.
Percy James, a 16 yrs old lives in a small town in Cutler County, Michigan on the lake. In the summer a beauty spot, in winter, an almost desolate small town. It is winter and bad weather has been predicted.Percy lives with her drug addict mother, Carletta who has been missing for 9 days. It's not unusual for her to be absent for a few days, but Percy has started to worry and decides to look for her.Percy is very old for her age, smokes, drives a truck, and has ditched school. She works hard at a furniture store to keep her and her Mama afloat.Percy has become used to looking after herself( and her Mama) since her Mama fell off the wagon.Percy is worried for her as she has been missing too long, her mama has been spotted at Shelton Potters, a drug dealer who lives in a cabin in the woods up in the mountains and she's in a bad way.Percy decides to bring Carletta home, before the predicted blizzard hits. She has to ditch her truck in a snow drift before she gets to Shelton's and walks the rest of the way in a thin hoody and sneaker, her mama has stolen her winter clothes.Percy gets to the cabin to find no mama, a passed out Shelton and girl in the same condition. She decides to look around the cabin. As she gets further in to the room the stink hits her, as she goes upstairs the stink gets worse, she finds a dead dog, and in another room a whimpering baby in a crib near an open window. The baby is covered in a light dusting of snow, freezing and hungry.She can't wake Shelton or the woman and decides to take the baby back into town. If she leaves her there she will die.The story is about Percy's adventures getting the baby down to safety .I didn't love this book at first, but after a reread I appreciated the masterful way the author had with the prose, it was very descriptive and you felt the cold as the snow permeated through Percy's thin sneakers and clothes, and the very understated funny humour which I had missed in the first reading . You will read this book more than once, even when you know the outcome. I highlighted my favourite passages, I know I will reread them many times. I feel cold just writing this review.Thank you to Netgalley for this book.
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