(FYI: There are spoilers in this post.)

This past November I went back to Hindman for a Winter Writers Retreat. I drove over to the Read Spotted Newt in Hazard with a group, and while we were inside I pulled this one from the shelf. I think the deep cobalt blue of the cover called to me. I already had too many unread books that I needed to read, so I was willing myself to browse, but not buy another book. But then I opened this one and read the first and last lines of the prologue:

“Making good moonshine isn’t that different from telling a good story, and no one tells a story like a woman.”

“Stories, like bottles of shine, are meant to be given away.”

I tucked this under my arm and walked to the cash register, reaching for my wallet in my coat pocket. I was so happy. I had yet another story I couldn’t wait to read.

This book was full of lines like that, so simple in execution yet so profound. And it is a book of stories, divided in parts based on the main characters’ differing perspectives of their lives on the mountain near Trap, West Virginia.

Because of the prologue, entitled “True Story,” and the title of the book, “Shiner,” I expected the theme of making moonshine to be the first thing I read about as soon as I opened the book, but as I started to read, I realized that that was too literal of an expectation. The book begins and ends with Wren’s perspective, the daughter of Ruby Day and Briar Bird. Briar is a snake handler and preacher, struck by lightning in his youth and spreading his story and version of God’s message in an abandoned gas station to the mountain faithful every Sunday. But he has his own secrets to hide. Ruby is Wren’s mother, and she gets her own part of the book, as well as her best friend, Ivy.

Ruby and Ivy are best friends, have similar hopes and dreams as they grow up together, and also need each other to survive life on the mountain. Theirs is a story of living through trauma and under the control of men, whether it is their fathers or their husbands. Ivy has such a cynical perspective on life, and it is no wonder after you slowly discover what she has been through. Ruby is similar, though she has her bursts of hope. Unfortunately, they do not serve her and they come back to bite her in the end. (I am no coward; I intend my puns.) And along with them, growing up on the mountain, is Flynn Sherrod, a moonshiner and tragic character, tangled up in it all with Ruby, Ivy, and Briar.

Flynn was probably my favorite character, even though in many ways he was the most sad. I keep going back to the way he described moonshine.

“Flynn loved his whiskey so much that he shied away from describing its flavor… Folks didn’t want details as much as they wanted to be told a story. And Flynn packed a tale in every bottle– the same story, in fact… ‘It tastes like heartbreak at midnight,’ he’d say. Or, ‘Like kissing your best friend’s girl.'”

Despite the heartache and the tragedy, I loved the ending of this book and the final message for sweet Wren Bird, who had to live through it all. You can rise out of the darkness; you can tell your own story.

Amy Jo Burns wrote a beautiful story and I am so grateful that I got to read it. I love stories so much. This book recognizes their importance in our lives and it was a joy to read. I’ll be recommending it to everyone. Have you read it? What stood out to you?