The Last House on the Street

I gave Diane Chamberlain's The Last House on the Street a 5-star rating on Goodreads. It was actually more like a 4.5 that I rounded up to 5. But be warned, this is not a book for everyone.

In 2010, Kayla and her husband, Jackson, build their dream home at the end of a street in a brand new development in Round Hill, North Carolina. Jackson dies in a tragic accident - at the house - before they can move in. And for some reason, discouragement about moving into the house is coming from all different places.

In 1965, Ellie Hockley, a 20-year old from Round Hill, North Carolina, volunteers to work for the summer educating "Negroes" about registering for the vote, in anticipation of the Voting Rights Act. She was part of a program that was put together for students from the North and out west to canvas in rural Black areas in the south. Ellie, as a southerner, was not really who they wanted in the program. Her family and friends are not at all happy that she feels the need to volunteer. She has her reasons and feels that she has to do something to help.

The novel is written in alternating storylines. Kayla's story and Ellie's story. Most of the early part of the novel I was waiting for the two stories to intersect, to help me make sense of Kayla's story.

I don't want to give too much of the story away, so I won't. But living in the south for the past twelve years, I found both the 1965 and 2010 stories hauntingly realistic. They are both stories about blatant racism, the KKK, divisions within the community. It's about new developments in rural areas. It's about relationships - both family and friends - and how far they can be stretched.