By Amy Greene
Author Amy Greene’s first novel, Bloodroot, is a heavy, claustrophobic and wonderful debut that could easily define the Southern Gothic genre. Greene crafts a story told through several generations, ultimately about a brutal love that leaves both lovers battered in different ways. Myra Lamb, daughter of the untamable and not-very-maternal Clio, is raised by her Gran on Bloodroot Mountain after her parents die in a train wreck. She grows up lovely, with sea-blue eyes and black hair and a version of the wild spirit that her mother had. Myra meets the beautiful Johnny Odom in town and, well, that’s that. Myra, along with family members and neighbors, take turns narrating in a very authentic and poetic Tennessee cadence. While Greene occasionally takes some melodramatic turns with the character’s observations and realizations, there’s no artifice in her style; the very simplicity of the voices make the book feel like a genuine oral history of a small Southern family.