Born “in the wilderness, under a tree during a howling storm,” Ridley Speaks, daughter of troubled mother Blaize Speaks, grew up in a household shrouded with poverty, drugs, and despondency, in a small-town teetering on the edge of the famous Appalachian Trail. Ridley escapes as soon as she turns 18, armed with only meager belongings and her Martin Junior, bound for “the farthest place [she] can get to from here.” She finds her way to Nashville—and starts dabbling in music—but quickly gets caught up in the murky underbelly of the big city, putting her plans, and her life, on the line. Robinson’s third in his Speaks Saga (after Blaize Speaks) wades through heavy material, confronting human trafficking, sexual assault, and more, but the story is buoyed by Ridley’s disarming narration. Fierce, independent, and talented, she’s a refreshing breeze in an otherwise suffocating world, desperately trying to escape her mother’s shadow—only to discover they’re more alike than Ridley cares to admit. Ridley’s inner tumult—and encounters with the darkness of the larger world—is lyrically described with effortless ease, the present punctuated by flashbacks of the past that sometimes explain, and other times deepen, the reader’s understanding of her life.
What hooks from the start is Ridley’s unbending character, besieged by appalling events but still resolute in her determination to make something of herself beyond her one street town, an “aberration… [against the] undulating forest green” of the surrounding mountains. Some scenes—Ridley’s retribution in particular—induce incredulity, but the narrative voice remains steady, realistic, and imminently believable, eclipsed only by Robinson’s motley crew of ragtag hikers (one of which, Cockadoodle, who teaches Ridley her first Blues shuffle on the guitar), old Black men singing the blues, and one very sarcastic undertaker. For lovers of on-the-road adventures seeded in the darker underworld of life on the streets, this is a must read.
Takeaway: On-the-road adventure of a young hopeful against the seedy big city.
Comparable Titles: Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
