This is an amazing book that surprised in many ways. Long Black Veil by Jennifer Finney Boylan is extremely well-written, has strong characters, and an ending I could only hope for! This is a tough review to write simply because I don’t want to spoil anything, but the best things I want to talk about might be considered spoilers.
The mystery at the crux of the story is a simple one, and perhaps because it is so simple, we never really see it coming. All is revealed to the reader midway through the book, which is a good thing because the heart of this novel doesn’t lie in solving the mystery. The heart of this novel lies in piecing these people together. In watching them struggle to overcome what happened, stutter, fail, and then try again. Only after everything has been brought to light is there any hope of moving forward.
There are slight suggestions to spoilers here as I will briefly touch upon the ending. I was worried, given what unfolds in the book, that the ending would be one we see all too often. A trope that I hate with a passion that befalls characters like Judith, where they are denied happy endings and used as a means of self-reflection for other….. ‘mainstream’ characters. Boylan definitely teases that this is the way it will end, that we will get that predictable ending so many characters like Judith meet in ‘mainstream’ fiction, but thanks to every deity, we don’t get that. We get a good ending. Perhaps some cynics will say it was too saccharine considering the events of the book, but I disagree, and would argue that those readers possibly missed the point. The point of the mystery, the point of the novel. That holding onto hate, to darkness, to secrets, will poison and consume you, will lead you to darker roads you might not be able to turn away from. Yet, if you persevere, you face the truth, and are willing to accept the same in others, then yes, good things are possible.
Long Black Veil by Jennifer Finney Boylan is an extremely well-written novel that draws its suspense not primarily from the mystery, but from the interpersonal relationships between old friends and former selves; the struggle for self-acceptance for ALL of the characters.
