Book review: True Places: a novel, by Sonja Yoerg

True Places: a novel, by Sonja Yoerg

Lake Union Publishing: January 1, 2019

 

About the book:

A girl emerges from the woods, starved, ill, and alone…and collapses.

Suzanne Blakemore hurtles along the Blue Ridge Parkway, away from her overscheduled and completely normal life, and encounters the girl. As Suzanne rushes her to the hospital, she never imagines how the encounter will change her—a change she both fears and desperately needs.

Suzanne has the perfect house, a successful husband, and a thriving family. But beneath the veneer of an ideal life, her daughter is rebelling, her son is withdrawing, her husband is oblivious to it all, and Suzanne is increasingly unsure of her place in the world. After her discovery of the ethereal sixteen-year-old who has never experienced civilization, Suzanne is compelled to invite Iris into her family’s life and all its apparent privileges.

But Iris has an independence, a love of solitude, and a discomfort with materialism that contrasts with everything the Blakemores stand for—qualities that awaken in Suzanne first a fascination, then a longing. Now Suzanne can’t help but wonder: Is she destined to save Iris, or is Iris the one who will save her?

**My Review**

Somehow, this is my first time reading Sonja Yoerg, but True Places has absolutely made me a huge fan of this wonderful author. The first thing that caught my attention was the beautiful cover that reminded me of where I live and various places that I’ve grown up. Once reading the description of the book and the author, I realized that it appealed to me because it is home. Set in the gorgeous Virginia mountains, this novel is about a wife and mother named Suzanne who, one afternoon,  finds a sixteen-year-old girl alone, sick, and starving along the side of the Blue Ridge Parkway. After taking the girl to the hospital and speaking to the police, she finds herself compelled to visit the girl, who she learns is named Iris and continues to check on her progress and whether any family has been located. In the meantime, Suzanne is becoming less content with her “perfect” and orderly life of taking care of her home, her husband, her teenage children, and the countless commitments within her day-to-day life. When no relatives are located and it appears that Iris will go into foster care, Suzanne goes to her husband and convinces him to let her bring Iris home with them. Iris’ presence quickly illuminates the dysfunction and struggles within Suzanne’s household and leads to changes for everyone in the family.

I am going to try my best not to ramble forever about this novel, but it was truly outstanding. Whether in Asheville, NC, Roanoke, VA, or a million places around and in-between those areas, I have spent the majority of my life living near and spending time on the Blue Ridge Parkway. One of the things I love about my house is that I can easily see stretches of the parkway from my kitchen window and it’s about a ten-minute drive to hop onto the parkway from here whether I had up the mountain towards Floyd or if I head towards town. With that being said… I already know what this area is like, especially from the Peaks of Otter area and south through Virginia and into North Carolina. Yet, the author’s vivid imagery and beautiful writing made it all feel new again. The sights, smells, sounds, temperatures – all of it – jumped off of the page and transported me to endless adventures and experiences in that area. 

Other than the setting, what I truly loved was the raw honesty that Yoerg put into Suzanne, her family, and Iris. Suzanne already knew she needed changes in her life. It was her inner thoughts screaming out to her that led her to the parkway that day in the first place. She knew that things needed to change, despite their family appearing to run beautifully like a well-oiled machine. Her daughter Brynn made me cringe countless times with her smart mouth and entitled attitude. But her brother Reid sparked feelings of sadness and frustration for him as he struggled to connect with his father while also struggling to figure out who he was and wanted to be in life. Then there was her husband, Whit. I’m still not sure how I feel about him, although I didn’t dislike him, exactly… His concern over work, money, power, and impressing the masses certainly took precedence over his family, yet when he was home and with them, he seemed to genuinely want to connect, except with Reid, who he just didn’t understand. 

Then there is Iris, whose character had been through horrible circumstances that I wouldn’t wish on anyone, especially a child. She survived on her own in the woods for years, was terrified once brought into “mainstream society,” and struggled in making connections with her new family. The past weighed heavily on her, she fought demons constantly and found it difficult to be happy in her new environment when none of it made sense to her. The need for cell phones, all of the noise, huge homes with tons of rooms and multiple levels, refrigerators and pantries stuffed full of so much food that it could never be eaten before spoiling – she didn’t understand the necessity for so much “stuff.” Iris had lived a simple life in the woods with her family, and then on her own, making it nearly impossible to acclimate to the materialistic ways of her new life. 

The main theme of this novel is not just about finding a girl who had been living in the woods. True Places represents the things, places, people who bring our lives joy and give us purpose. Our true places are what make us feel whole, that motivate us, and that we will fight for. Not everyone will understand or accept some of Suzanne’s actions in this novel, which is unfortunate. However, I hope that everyone that reads this novel will recognize what a wonderful gift it was when Suzanne found Iris that day, and Suzanne’s persistence for a different life and a different destiny was the most incredible gift she could have ever given her husband and children, as it motivated them to figure out their own true places. Bravo to this amazing writer and a book that truly touched my heart and soul.

P.S. This wonderful author will be in Roanoke, VA on Saturday, February 23, from 1 – 3 at Book No Further. I am chomping at the bit to go, but will most likely still be working long after the event ends (insert tears, frustration, etc. here). But for anyone else around this area, I highly recommend reading this one, so why not go meet the author? 

*Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union for providing this review copy in exchange for my honest review!

Purchase True Places on Amazon.

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