Reviewed by Elizabetta

TITLE: Sweetwater

AUTHOR: Lisa Henry

PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing

LENGTH: 240 pages

BLURB:  

Wyoming Territory, 1870.

Elijah Carter is afflicted. Most of the townsfolk of South Pass City treat him as a simpleton because he’s deaf, but that’s not his only problem. Something in Elijah runs contrary to nature and to God. Something that Elijah desperately tries to keep hidden.

Harlan Crane, owner of the Empire saloon, knows Elijah for what he is—and for all the ungodly things he wants. But Crane isn’t the only one. Grady Mullins desires Elijah too, but unlike Crane, he refuses to push the kid.

When violence shatters Elijah’s world, he is caught between two very different men and two devastating urges: revenge, and despair. In a boomtown teetering on the edge of a bust, Elijah must face what it means to be a man in control of his own destiny, and choose a course that might end his life . . . or truly begin it for the very first time.

REVIEW: 

Nobody can do tough and uncomfortable-making, squirm-in-your-seat storytelling quite like Lisa Henry. I’m thinking The Good Boy, Dark Space, but mostly, The Island. The list goes on… and Sweetwater is no exception. Here’s a romance you gotta work for; there’s nothing floofy here, you gotta wait for the pretty. I love that.

This ain’t Little Town on the Prairie. 

Life is messy and crude, and often, not fair. Especially in a dusty boomtown of the late 19th century. Elijah Carter, orphaned at a young age, lives with his adopted father, the town doctor, in hard-scrabble South Pass City–  a town that thrives on the hopes and greed of gold prospecting. Making life harder for Elijah is that he is seriously hearing-impaired from a childhood bout of scarlet fever and has born the brunt of ignorant bullying because of his ‘affliction’.

Elijah is young and tender (think ripe for the picking) and in the throws of a fiercely awakened sexuality. With a deviant, forbidden twist. For such a young, sheltered lad, he has a pretty kinky bent. Elijah has also caught the eye of the much older, wealthy saloon and brothel owner, Harlan Crane. Who is of a like mind and seems to know just what Elijah craves (think rode hard and put away wet).

Now, if you’ve ever watched the great TV western, Deadwood, starring the wonderful Ian McShane, you’ll know something of South Pass and Harlan Crane. Tough, gritty, winner takes all says it all. Like that TV drama, Sweetwater gives us a wonderful sense of place and a supporting cast of characters with depth that help sculpt and color Elijah’s story.

I love, love, love it when the bad guy has some 3D meat to him and Henry doesn’t skimp on the extra sauce with Crane. He’s a user and abuser and he fits perfectly into the setting. Crane is a man who answers to no one, a man who is supremely confident in all his deviancies and that is the allure for Elijah.  For Elijah, he is a seductive boogeyman who holds total command, delivering all that dark, hidden desire. Do we like Crane? No. But he makes a worthy opponent.

Elijah has certainly felt the brunt of being hearing impaired. He’s always on the outside because of it. And his sexuality, which he barely understands leaves him even more confused. He only knows that he must have more of it even as he questions it. And it adds to his shame… because he loves his adopted father– a kind and loving man– but feels that he can’t live up to being the good boy he should be. 

The story turns on this wonderful character– on Elijah’s complexity, this curious mixture of innocence and a toughness earned through his disability. His inexperience and vulnerability. His loneliness and fascination with what he and Crane get up to in that room over the saloon. He is compelling; he draws us in and makes us cringe whenever Harlan gets his hands on him. Is it rape; is it dubiously consensual? The author loves to walk that tightrope between vulnerability and obsession, and consent, pulling our strings all along the way.

There is a sweet spot of sunshine in all this. When cattle rustler, Grady Mullins also takes an interest in Elijah, we get some well-needed hope and tenderness for Elijah. But, again, you have to work for it — the easy path is never taken. Those parts of the story where Elijah and Grady struggled with their choices held me mesmerized, heart drumming, breath held.

There were some minor quibbles: the timing of the climatic violent act – why then? (other than plot device), Grady leaving Elijah when he needed him the most, and the handling of Grady’s family at the end. But I was thoroughly held captive, hoping and wishing for Elijah, wanting a better day for him. The ending is… interesting; it has more of a ‘happy for now’ feel to it. Which fits with the flavor of the story, when you think about it. This is really just the beginning for Elijah.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS: 

Riptide Publishing

Amazon

Amazon.uk

ARe