Drug addiction. Mental illness. Child abuse. A trifecta of misery informs these linked stories set in a small town in North Carolina. And while it is dark and bleak and despairing, I very much liked this collection. I can't say I enjoyed it, but Thornton's writing is good (though occasionally marred by typos and odd formatting of the Kindle edition) and her characters are compelling. Hands down, the best story was also the most upsetting - one narrated by a child who is witness to and then victim of abuse at the hands of her father. It's unsettling and heartbreaking, and when I came to the end of it, I said quietly out loud, "Nooo..." and took a break from reading for a bit.

Lord the One You Love is Sick peels back the layers of small town America to show how even the quietest, most nondescript places can have deep rot at the core.

Note: Trigger warnings abound, so I definitely would not recommend this for everyone though I would like to see it get a wider audience and encourage more from the talented author. ( )

The kudzu had already taken over the silver post of the sign. No one had bothered to clean it off for a while, because they knew it would just swarm it again in a week or so. Why bother? Why bother.

This is a collection of tightly inter-connected short stories set in the small town of Bethany, North Carolina. Really, it's a novel where the focus shifts from one character to another, circling back to look at people and events from different perspectives. Beginning with a young man's overdose and the subsequent shattering of his family and his former best friend's guilt, this book looks at the darkest corners of small town life, how it smothers those who don't fit in, how it allows a judgmental complacency to thrive as well as a fear of the unfamiliar. It's also a novel about how deep roots in a place can sustain us and how we might need to come to terms with the place that nurtured us in order to move forward. It's telling that the most clear-headed character is an agoraphobic young man living in his mother's basement.

This is a gorgeously written book and by changing the viewpoint throughout, the reader is given a complex picture of the various characters. It's very effective method of story-telling, but makes the often difficult subject matter much more difficult to read. Thornton doesn't gloss over a single dark corner of small town life. This is an excellent addition to current Southern Lit and I look forward to reading whatever Thornton writes next. ( )

Lord The One You Love is Sick by Kasey Thornton is a very highly recommended, beautifully written heartbreaking collection of short stories that, as a whole make a novel of profound depth.

The stories take place in rural Bethany, N.C. and open with reactions to and repercussions of the heroin overdose of 23-year-old Gentry Coats. Nettie, Gentry's mother, feels the judgement of the town and the church focused on her and judging her. Gentry's life-long best friend Dale is in the police academy and Gentry's death sends him into a spiral of guilt. His marriage suffers and he eventually has a mental breakdown. Ethan, Gentry's quiet withdrawn younger brother becomes agoraphobic. A family in the area struggles with an unspeakable secret and the repercussions are heartbreaking. At the same time a group of older men meet every at their self-named Table of Knowledge at Austin’s Grill, oblivious to the real issues in the town.

The writing is breathtakingly beautiful and absolutely perfect in this collection, even when the subject matter is heartbreaking and emotionally agonizing. Each story in this collection, taken together, create a picture of life in this small town and how one death is connected to an undercurrent of secrets, gossip, and denial. Thornton uses different points of view in these stories, which makes them stronger and poignant when viewed as a whole. The subjects Thornton covers from this small town include drug addiction, mental illness, gossip, prejudice, sexual abuse, and domestic violence, to name a few. She manages to capture psychological insight into each character and treats them as individuals with tenderness and understanding, even when the subject matter is tragic and agonizing. Yeah, you will likely cry while reading Lord The One You Love is Sick. This is an excellent collection.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of lg publishing
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2020/11/lord-one-you-love-is-sick.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3634868998 ( )