BookBrowse Reviews Neverhome by Laird Hunt

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Neverhome by Laird Hunt

Neverhome

A Novel

by Laird Hunt
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • First Published:
  • Sep 9, 2014, 256 pages
  • Paperback:
  • May 2015, 256 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Reviews

BookBrowse:


This novel features a plucky female protagonist who fought in the Civil War as a man.
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For access to our digital magazine, free books,and other benefits, become a member today.

Laird Hunt's latest novel, Neverhome, is the story of Ash Thompson, a new recruit in the Union Army at the book's start. In the opening chapters, readers come to learn that Ash is actually Constance, who has left her farm and husband to enlist as a soldier in the American Civil War. We follow her as she learns to fight and kill – and as she discovers exactly how duplicitous men can be. Through episodic adventures that are reminiscent of those endured by Odysseus, Constance eventually leaves the fighting and begins her long journey back home.

The premise is a compelling one and is based on historical fact: there are approximately 400 documented cases of women fighting as men during this particularly bloody conflict. Hunt expertly incorporates history into the narrative, bringing to light little known facts (see 'Beyond the Book') about what hardship these women endured as soldiers and the trials they experienced as a result of their deception.

The highlight of the book is unquestionably Hunt's writing. The action is narrated in the first person by Constance, and the author has given her a unique and beautiful voice. After she kills her first Confederate soldier one night while on picket duty, she tells her audience:

Now there I sat. I wanted to take up the dead man's head and cradle it but I did not do that and knew that that kind of a thought was another thing I was going to have to learn to kill. Some of them on relief teased me a little as I sat there my minute but I didn't pay them any mind. They hadn't killed anyone that morning. When the sun was up sufficient I saw that the dead man's eyes were blue.

Employing a narrator who speaks in vernacular can be a challenge for any writer. If done well, that voice can add a unique style and convey a more immediate sense of time and atmosphere in a way that third-person stories can't. It's often difficult for an author to maintain that style from start to finish. Hunt, however, doesn't miss a beat; Constance's voice is consistently true. Although the use of such colloquialism adds a note of authenticity to Constance's account, it also makes it difficult to read from time to time and could be a barrier for some readers.

Despite its distinctive heroine making this novel a stand-out, I felt that in the first half, not enough was made of the fact that the main character was a female, and the account seemed to lack any hint of a feminine perspective. There was also a coldness to her that made it difficult to relate to what she was experiencing; Constance is relaying past actions so some emotional distance is to be expected, but I thought overall the tone was too remote. It was also never made clear why she felt compelled to enlist in the first place. Her past is gradually revealed over the course of the novel, and I think this is meant to have some bearing on the choice she made, but the connection really wasn't apparent.

Those concerns aside, Neverhome will likely find a wide audience among those who read historical fiction, and its accuracy is sure to please history purists and aficionados of Civil War fiction. In Constance, Hunt has created an inimitable and unforgettable heroine who will have broad appeal, and her story will likely touch many.

Reviewed by Kim Kovacs

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in September 2014, and has been updated for the June 2015 edition. Click here to go to this issue.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book:
  Women In the U.S. Civil War

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Neverhome, try these:

  • Days Without End jacket

    Days Without End

    by Sebastian Barry

    Published 2017

    About This book

    More by this author

    Moving from the plains of Wyoming to Tennessee, Sebastian Barry's latest work is a masterpiece of atmosphere and language. An intensely poignant story of two men and the makeshift family they create with a young Sioux girl, Winona, Days Without End is a fresh and haunting portrait of the most fateful years in American history and is a novel never ...

  • Fallen Land jacket

    Fallen Land

    by Taylor Brown

    Published 2017

    About This book

    More by this author

    Searching for a home in a ravaged landscape, two star-crossed lovers flee a ruthless band of bounty hunters, from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to Sherman's March through Georgia in the final years of the Civil War.

We have 9 read-alikes for Neverhome, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Laird Hunt
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    Death at the Sign of the Rook
    by Kate Atkinson
    Jackson Brodie returns in a gripping new mystery! Welcome to Rook Hall. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    This Here Is Love
    by Princess Joy L. Perry

    Three people—two enslaved, one indentured—struggle to overcome the limits and labels of their painful shared pasts.

  • Book Jacket

    The Magician of Tiger Castle
    by Louis Sachar

    The author of Holes returns with a magical adult debut about forbidden love and a kingdom on the brink of collapse.

  • Book Jacket

    Too Old for This
    by Samantha Downing

    A retired killer's secret is at risk when a visitor arrives—her only option? Another murder.

  • Book Jacket

    A Club of One's Own
    by BookBrowse

    Dreaming of starting or reviving a book club? A Club of One’s Own is the essential guide to doing it right.

Win This Book
Win All the Men I've Loved Again

All the Men I've Loved Again by Christine Pride

Christine Pride's solo debut explores a woman's love triangle in her 20s that unexpectedly resurfaces in her 40s.

Enter

Book
Trivia

  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

I N R S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.