Review: This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
4****
I am on the fence about giving this book 3 or 4 stars and once again lament the lack of half-star ratings on Goodreads. While I liked it, I didn't love it and maybe that is because it was so hyped up or maybe because I read Ordinary Grace a few weeks earlier, but for one reason or another, This Tender Land was just ok for me. I know I'm in the minority here and am happy to find most readers really loved this book, but I couldn't quite connect to the story and for me, most of the characters felt kind of like caricatures, heavy on cliches. That being said, the author does a really good job with his main character and also in painting a picture of the historical era. I have not read many books set in Depression era America and this aspect of the story was really fascinating for me. I also liked that, despite it being a long book, it moved consistently at a good pace and was never boring. All in all, it was a good book, just not, as I had hoped, one of my favorites for the year, maybe that's why I'm being too hard on it, so I'll round my rating up and end the year on a good note:-)
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