Well done story about a community and the effects fracking has on it whether they leased their land or not. A very timely book especially where I live. So much that happens in the book is happening here and knowing people who have leased their land to the companies doing the fracking, I see the same thing happening here. These are good characters. I liked the storylines for each of them. I wish Jess' would have ended better. I did not like Kip and his cronies. As long as the money was coming in, they never questioned or reined in Kip. I liked Rich's introspection as the end. Excellent reading. Worth your time.

Well-written enough to keep me reading until 01h30 in the morning so I could finish it. I guessed early on what had really happened, so perhaps that influenced my feeling of the end being not as good as the beginning and middle of the book. Sheila, the narrator, and her half-brother Art were somewhat unknowable - Mike, the other sibling, was the most accessible character. The interplay of the family relationships was well-portrayed, and the child abuse scandal of the Catholic Church in the 90's sensitively handled. Overall, I enjoyed the story.

I really did enjoy Jennifer Haigh's "Mrs. Kimble" but this is the second book by Haigh that I could not get though. Heat & Light drags. It drags and drags and I just don't care what happens to anyone.

Taking place in the town of Bakertown, "Heat & Light" showcases the changes the town experiences after a natural gas deposit is found.

I really can't tell you much more than that. There were characters whose names I am blanking on. Some of the book followed some of the characters and then it jumps around to those people who want to drill in the town, and then back again. I just recall the character of Shelby and her family and how her and her husband Rich don't seem to like each other much.

The writing was okay, but honestly the flow of this book was disjointed. We kept jumping around timelines (I think) and I honestly couldn't keep straight what was going on. I wish that Ms. Haigh had just focused on the residents of the town and that's it.

The setting of Bakertown felt flat in this one. Probably because there's not much description of the place beyond the opening chapter. I really didn't get a sense of how the town had changed to it's present day setting in the book.

I just wish that any part of the book (people, characters, and writing) had come alive for me in any way. Instead I was bored from almost the beginning right up until I DNFed at page 210.

An absorbing tale of lives lived in a mining town, of those who stayed, those who left, and those who came back. The ending was a bit disappointing, with

the stories tied up in a tidy package with some happily marrieds,

(spoiler show)

but the journey was worthwhile. 

I don't remember when or where I acquired this book. It's a brand new hardback and has no stickers, so I must have picked it up from a sale table at some point. I only know it's been on my TBR shelf for years. 

 

I like books that grab you from the opening sentence, or at least the opening paragraph. This book opens with short, choppy sentences describing the setting in a way I found both dull and annoying, but as soon as the characters entered on the third page, the story came to life.

 

I'm looking forward to the rest of it.