Where I Can't Follow: A Novel

by Ashley Blooms Narrated by Julia Atwood

Overview

Walk through the door and leave all your problems behind ... but you don't know what's on the other side. And once you leave, you'll never come back. Will you go through?

Maren Walker told herself she wouldn't need to sell pills for long, that it was only means to an end. But that end seems to be stretching as far away as the other side of Blackdamp County, Kentucky. There's always another bill for Granny's doctor, another problem with the car, another reason she's getting nowhere.

She dreams of walking through her little door to leave it all behind. The doors have appeared to the people in her mountain town for as long as anyone can remember, though no one knows where they lead. All anyone knows is that if you go, you'll never come back.

Maren's mother left through her door when Maren was nine, and her shadow has followed Maren ever since. When she faces the possibility of escaping her struggles for good, Maren must choose just what kind of future she wants to build.

From critically acclaimed author Ashley Blooms, Where I Can't Follow explores the forces that hold people in place, and how they adapt, survive, and struggle to love a place that doesn't always love them back.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

12/13/2021

Bloom’s mild sophomore effort (after Every Bone a Prayer) explores the perils of mental illness and addiction in rural Blackdamp County, Ky., via the magical realist story of Maren Walker, who is grieving the death of her mother while caring for her ailing Granny. As the bills pile up, Maren resorts to selling Granny’s pain pills, placing her on police radar and bringing up memories of her mother’s addictions. A strange little door follows Maren, a known phenomenon in town that occurs when someone might need a way out—“The doors found the hurt, the lonely, the poorest, and the most desperate”—and the only fantastical element found in the novel. With the cops on her trail, Maren is tempted to make a break for it, but her mentally unwell friend, Julie, and Maren’s on-again, off-again love interest, Carver (who is also Julie’s older brother and has a troubled past), won’t let her go that easily. The author tackles hard subjects, but only skates along the surface with easy fixes to big conflicts and characters who are flawed but underdeveloped, and the dense dialogue rarely feels like natural conversation. This falls short of the author’s promising debut. Agent: Alexandra Levick, Writers House. (Feb.)

From the Publisher

PRAISED BY Good Housekeeping, Den of Geek, Gizmodo, Tor.com, Hasty Book List, Virginia Living, and more!

"Blooms is the best we have at combining magical realism with the grit and grace of the best documentary. The Blooms of Every Bone a Prayer continues to flower in Where I Can’t Follow." — Robert Gipe, author of Pop

"A The Good Place-like musing on life and death with a backdrop of both magic and poverty." — Den of Geek

"This fantastically real, absorbing novel explores what it would feel like to have an escape hatch from the hardships of life, and the agonizing decision whether to leave everyone you love behind." — Good Housekeeping

"Where I Can't Follow is a powerful and unflinching look into emotion, place and its people, and what binds you even when not fully belonging. Ashley Blooms has written a haunting testament to the survival of self and family in a struggling, desperate Appalachian community." — Kim Michele Richardson, New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

"Haunting and hopeful, a hard story full of shocking warmth and unexpected beauty. The little doors of Blackdamp are the kind of make-believe that feels true, a magic so vivid it feels more like a memory than a work of fiction." — Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of The Once and Future Witches

"Ashley Blooms novels have this in common with the tallest of trees: they are deftly rooted in the land of their origin, and yet their crowns, dappled with starlight, define a much broader world. In Where I Can't Follow, the twined themes of magical escape and what it means to be left behind build a brilliant stage on which Blooms' luminous cast of characters is transformed. A captivating novel that is at once personal and universal." — Fran Wilde, double-Nebula award winning author of Riverland and Updraft

"Blooms is the best we have at combining magical realism with the grit and grace of the best documentary. The Blooms of Every Bone a Prayer continues to flower in Where I Can’t Follow." — Robert Gipe, author of Pop

"With wisdom beyond her years, Blooms illuminates human frailty and elevates the humble journey. Her mountain tale of hardship comes wrapped in delicious language. I highlighted favorites phrases so I could re-read them and be stunned all over again. Her original voice is captivating and unique and delivers an ethereal story about trust triumphing over self-doubt. Congratulations, Ashley Blooms, on propelling our imagination toward a new dimension." — Leah Weiss, bestselling author of If The Creek Don’t Rise and All The Little Hopes

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175141192
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	05/17/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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