Thanks to Algonquin Books for providing me with a free e-ARC via NetGalley.

At 17, Jodi McCarty was sentenced to life in prison for manslaughter. 18 years later she finds herself suddenly released. She tries to return home to West Virginia, falling in love with young mother Miranda along the way and trying to escape the way her past always seems to circle back on her.

This book, y’all. How is it not in everyone’s hands yet? Maren captures the simultaneous freedom and oppression of rural life with writing that is beautifully lush, yet never flowery. SUGAR RUN has the most solid sense of place I’ve seen in a long time, nailing that way summer in Appalachia can close in on you. You feel submerged in that heat and trapped in the past with Jodi.

This book is all about cycles and patterns and that slow realization that you may never escape the path you’re on. Some readers may find themselves frustrated with the way life seems to happen to Jodi, but to me it rang true with the way people’s options are narrowed with every system working against them: the prison system, parole, rural economies, drug trade, homophobia. The way Jodi felt the “choiceless” life of prison followed her out was so visceral. Then add to that how unequipped she was to live as an adult outside of prison for the first time - she may be repeating patterns but she was also set up to fail on multiple fronts, and it was so painful to watch that spool out slowly. (Note: I think this book might make a good pairing with DOPESICK if you want the nonfiction version of this story).

My heart broke over and over again for the ways each person lost control of their lives, from Jodi as a manipulated teenager to Miranda’s unhappy marriage to little Kaleb witnessing these dysfunctions. Cycles repeating across lives, families, and generations.

I know it’s so early, but I think SUGAR RUN could be a top book of the year contender for me.