The Steep & Thorny Way

Starred review from December 15, 2015
A biracial teen seeks justice for her murdered father in Prohibition-era Oregon The daughter of a white woman and an African-American man whose marriage was not recognized by the law, 16-year-old Hanalee has few legal rights during the 1920s, an era of extreme intolerance exacerbated by the ever present specter of racial violence from the Ku Klux Klan. Hanalee's father, "the last full-blooded Negro in Elston, Oregon," was struck and killed by a drunk-driving teenager a year earlier. When the teen is released from prison, he tells Hanalee that the doctor who tended to her father the night of the accident is the real killer--the doctor who just happens to be Hanalee's new stepfather. With clear parallels to Hamlet, Hanalee struggles to uncover the truth about her father's death, hoping the truth will protect her and those she loves and put her father's wandering soul to rest. A fast-paced read with multiple twists, the novel delivers a history lesson wrapped inside a murder mystery and ghost story. Winters deftly captures the many injustices faced by marginalized people in the years following World War I as well as a glimmer of hope for the better America to come. A riveting story of survival, determination, love, and friendship. (Historical mystery. 14-18)

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Starred review from January 1, 2016

Gr 8 Up-There's something rotten in 1920s Oregon in this Hamlet-inspired tale of a biracial girl seeking the truth about her African American father's death. When the drunk driver who killed her father is released, Hanalee starts to look more closely at her small town and the folks who live there. She uncovers prejudice, injustice, and serious crimes from some very unexpected sources. This is not humdrum historical fiction as usual. Hanalee is a fantastic lead, armed with a two-barreled pistol and led by the lost soul of her father. Her gumption is inspiring-nothing she is faced with is too scary to make her back down, but her stubbornness doesn't prevent her from evolving her point of view. Setting Hanalee in the backdrop of Prohibition-era Oregon, punched up with bootleggers, a hidden gay relationship, the public and private face of the Ku Klux Klan, and a dash of the supernatural makes for a delightfully unpredictable page-turner. VERDICT Unique and riveting historical fiction that feels anything but dated.-Emily Moore, Camden County Library System, NJ

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2016
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Hanalee Denney's father has been haunting the crossroads of Elston, Oregon, right where Joe Adder ran him down in his Model T after a night out drinking. Now that Joe's out of prison, Hanalee's ready to get her revenge, but before she can fire the bullet home, Joe convinces her to take a closer look at her stepfather, Uncle Clyde, who married her mother quickly after her father's death. If that plot sounds vaguely Shakespearian, you wouldn't be wrong. Winters retells Hamlet in a grandly realized Prohibition-era Oregon setting, featuring biracial Hanalee in the title role, while the prejudices of the day simmer in the background. Compellingly, Winters doesn't cleave faithfully to the Hamlet story. Instead, Hanalee discovers something far more rotten than a murderous uncle: the KKK are eager to rid Oregon of anyone who doesn't conform to their ideals, and Hanalee, along with her parents and Joe Adder, is at the top of their list. Hanalee's investigation of her father's murder and her growing friendship with Joe are engrossing enough, but Winters amplifies the story by weaving Oregon's troubling true historystate-sanctioned discrimination, eugenics, forced sterilizationthroughout the tale, adding weighty, unsettling context to the slow-burning mystery. A powerful, gripping, and exceptionally well-executed glimpse into a little-known corner of U.S. history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2016
In 1923 Oregon, mixed-race Hanalee's father, Hank, was hit by a car and killed. The driver, Joe, returns from prison an outcast, which brings Hanalee and Joe together even though she knows him as her father's killer. When she begins to see Hank's ghost, it leads her to suspect foul play. While the influences from Hamlet are clear, the novel's plot flows naturally.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2016
In 1923 small-town Oregon, Hanalee Denney has some friends, but she's well aware of the prejudice surrounding her. After the death of her African American father, Hank Denney -- apparently from injuries sustained when he was hit by a car driven by young Joe Adder -- Hanalee's white mother married Clyde Koning, the doctor who treated Hank after the accident. Convicted of the murder, Joe has been released from prison and returns to town an outcast, which brings Hanalee and Joe together even though she knows him as her father's killer. When she begins to see Hank's ghost, it leads her to suspect foul play. Was it in fact her new stepfather, not Joe, who killed her father? The more Hanalee investigates, the more she uncovers of her town's shadowy underbelly, including a thriving local Ku Klux Klan chapter that targets not just Hanalee and other nonwhite people but also Joe, who is gay. As in her previous novels, Winters (In the Shadow of Blackbirds; The Cure for Dreaming, rev. 11/14) incorporates historical photos into the text, adding a documentary-like feel. While the influences from Shakespeare's Hamlet are clear, the novel is not so attached to its inspiration that it fails to let its plot flow naturally. The unique setting and thorough research take the book beyond Racism 101: the KKK has it out for anyone who's not "white, Protestant, American-born, or sexually normal in their eyes," and readers might be surprised to learn of the Klan's Rotary-like activities, which allowed it to keep its hate crimes hidden. This is genre-pushing historical fiction that will surprise and enlighten readers. sarah hannah gomez

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)