broken country by clare leslie hall
quick hit
been in a bit of a rut not gonna lie. i’ve been catching up on some ARCs i had pending (which have been fun, more on that in the monthly wrap-up), but what really pulled me out of my reading slump was broken country by clare leslie hall. (did it pull me out or did it pull me back in?)
i also picked up the conditions of will by jessa hastings—both books came in the same amazon box, which is giving opposites attract in terms of vibes. and yes, i did order them from amazon. i’d love to support my local bookstore, i really would, but they didn’t have either title and also charge three times the price. like, be serious. i’m not exactly rolling in substack cash over here.
anyway. back to broken country. both books—the conditions of will and this one—had excellent reviews, but verrrry different vibes. I ended up going with broken country first because in the moment, the promise of a love triangle sprinkledinto a mystery just sounded like the right kind of mess.
and lo and behold, i devoured it in two days. and that’s saying something because this is not a light read. if you're in a fragile headspace, please take care—here are some trigger warnings to know going in:
child’s death
cheating
love triangle
parental death (off page)
gun violence
suicidal thoughts
a bit of animal cruelty?? (but not really I mean its a ranch)
phewwww. yeah. it’s a lot. and yet somehow, the way clare leslie hall wrote it, it never feelt exploitative or gratuitous. it’s heavy, sure, but also tender. emotional, but not emotionally manipulative. raw, but not bleak.
this was my first clare leslie hall, but absolutely not my last. also, shoutout to reese’s book club for another banger pick—she’s never led me astray.
about the book:
i have this tendency to spoil when i don’t mean to, so let me just copy-paste the blurb instead:
“The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago.
Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident. As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface—this time with deadly consequences.
A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.
ok so!!! the farmer is dead. let me just say i did not see that coming.
this book at times reminded me of where the crawdads sing by delia owens—in the best way. it has that same quiet intensity, the ache of first love, the natural setting woven into the emotional landscape of the story.
about the love triangle:
look, i know this isn’t primarily a story about love... but isn’t it? it’s love for her child. for her family. for her husband. and for her first love, gabriel. that is what sets everything into motion.
and i’m not a love triangle girly—i usually run the other way. but this one? it worked. the writing and the depth of the characters elevated it far beyond the usual mess. no one is all good or all bad. they’re just... people. hurting and trying.
i truly loved both men. i think each had something to offer beth, and i fully understood why she was torn. they represented such different versions of her life, of who she was and who she could’ve been. ultimately, she did the right thing. they all did. and omg—what a final few chapters. it knocked the air out of me, I think I literally shed a tear.
if you’re into books that feel like a slow unraveling, where the real tension lives in what’s unsaid—this is one of those.
i mean, what else is there to say except: what a masterpiece. everyone should read it. honestly? this could easily be in my top 10 books of the year.
five stars. no notes. except this one: go read it.