I think it would have been pushed a bit harder in more competent hands.

Ronald Kelly writes so incredibly well, that this decidedly 'not-for-Brandon' story had me turning the pages like crazy.įrankly, I'm not sure why Zebra and not some other publisher, more renown for quality and taste, didn't put this out. To expound, Kelly's debut novel, a 1930s post-depression period piece about a young girl with some serious psychic ability and her misadventures with death/loss, just would not be my thing in any other circumstances (at least not known to me). This is one of the best Zebra Horror titles I have read. Whatever- nice little novel by Kelly, and if you have not read any of Kelly's work, you should rectify that directly. I guess this was billed as horror as that is what sold when this was published today it would probably be marketed as YA, given little Cindy as the main protagonist. Overall, superb historical fiction, a decent plot and some memorable characters. I loved the dialogue and he gets the Central Tennessee phraseology to a tee! I have 'kin folk' who live pretty close to where this was set and it felt like I as visiting as I read this. He manages to capture the attitudes of the day (there is some rather unpleasant racism here) while making you feel the nature of poverty the Biggs clan lives under. He immerses you in the lives of the folks living in this small town and the novel oozes authenticity. Perhaps it is cliché at this point to state Kelly is a master of southern story telling.

Her oldest brother Johnny is all set to leave after he graduates from high school to join the CCC in Northern Tennessee but while he sets off ok, Cindy has a horrible vision, warning him to be careful if only he had listened to her advice.

She is called a witch by some of the townies and kids at school, but things settle down after a spell. Clay, Cindy's father, was a tobacco farmer with some good land until Cindy fell ill with typhoid and had to spend 6 months in a Nashville hospital the bills from that forced him to sell his land to the local greedy banker and now he does odd jobs and repairs cars.Īfter a rather upsetting experience detailed in the first chapter, Cindy's mom tells her she has 'the gift', something that runs in the family and seems to become 'active' if you will after a hard illness. Our main protagonist is little Cindy Ann Biggs, nine years old, and one of five kids in the Biggs family. Hindsight takes place in a rural, tobacco farming town in Tennessee circa 1936 and the Great Depression made itself felt especially hard in rural areas. While Zebra billed Hindsight as a horror novel, it is more historical fiction with some supernatural aspects in any case, Kelly demonstrates once again he can really tell a story.

Hindsight by Ronald Kelly