The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek Book Review

As someone who has worked in libraries for many years, I will always get my hands on books about librarians. There are plenty of titles about this line of work, so they have to find some way to stand out from the rest. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson does just that with a story that incorporates the Blue Fugates and the real-life Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is about 19-year-old Cussy Carter – the last living female of the Blue People ancestry – who lives in Kentucky. In 1936, the lonely young Appalachian woman joins the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian. She rides across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains with her faithful mule Junia to deliver books and other reading material to those most in need in Eastern Kentucky. To the mountain folk, Cussy is known as “Bluet.” She confronts those suspicious of her blue skin and of the unique government program. Also, she befriends a cast of colorful (no pun intended) characters. Cussy is determined to bring comfort and joy, instill literacy, and give those who have nothing something that will take them to faraway lands.

Before I get into this review, I want to say that I’m fully aware that The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes has similar plot elements to this one. I have read that novel, so stay tuned for a review of that in two weeks.

This book is loosely based on the Blue Fugates – a family who were known to carry a genetic trait that led to the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, causing skin to appear blue. I never knew about this family nor about the aforementioned condition. The novel briefly divulges into their medical history. When the doctor takes Cussy to Lexington, he peforms experiments on her. He then gives her a pill that turns her skin white even though it has some queasy side effects. However, it’s more focused on how Cussy deals with prejudice and how she proves she’s a worthy member of society despite the unusual skin color. Richardson provides more backstory about the Fugates and the discrimination that they likely faced in the afterword. 

I found it interesting that when Cussy takes the pill, she still gets stigmatized by the people of Troublesome Creek. I thought they would be intrigued by and more accepting of someone of color who has the ability to turn themselves white. I guess that was just Hollywood, just look at Rita Hayworth.

In the meantime, I knew about the Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and how the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration set it up prior to reading this book. Not only did they allow the less fortunate to obtain books and other reading materials, but they also provided jobs for women in the area. Richardson constantly stresses how scarce the books were since a. People in Kentucky didn’t take the Works Progress Administration seriously and/or held it in disdain and b. It was the Great Depression. This adds more of Cussy’s urgency to obtain novels for her patrons like a boy who is severely malnourished. Like with the Blue Fugates, the back of the novel explains more of the history of this highly unique program, which is always necessary whenever an obscure event or organization is discussed in historical fiction.

With this background information, Richardson does a good job with incorporating them into the plot without shoehorning them. She usually does this with Cussy remembering something like how the miners negotiated in the past and previous lynchings of blue people for petty crimes while she’s in a situation where those circumstances apply. With the library stuff, Richardson shows readers the obstacles that the Pack Horse Librarians had to go through, especially the terrains they pass through and the scarcity of physical reading materials.

Since The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek deals with books, I love how it incorporates various classic titles into the story. My favorite is when the malnourished boy reads Peter Pan to his family as he sadly lays dying. I don’t need to explain the correlation, do I?

I will automatically like any main character that’s a librarian, but Cussy is more than that. She’s willing to do anything for her patrons even if that means traveling through the toughest terrain that Eastern Kentucky has to offer. And yet, she’s a gentle and empathetic soul. Some of my favorite scenes in the novel involve her kindly recommending books that they could read and use. She’s willing to defend others, but she’s not as capable of doing that for herself. The book can be a little too melodramatic in showing her struggles (ie her getting raped by her now-dead husband, attacked by his perverted priest cousin, and her clothes stripped by nuns in the Lexington hospital), but it retains the emphasis on her survival as opposed to her suffering. She’s a passive character, but she slowly realizes her own worth and gradually sets boundaries and fights for herself.

Majority of the other characters tend to be shallow, as in they are either really nice (like the patrons) or mean (like Harriet and Eula at the Library Center) to Cussy, yet they are some characters that are more in the gray matter. The sheriff doesn’t like the Fraziers because of how slimy and cruel they can be even though he’s related to them. At the same time, he’s willing to uphold the law even when the law in question feels unnecessary and outdated. Doc, as mentioned earlier, is fascinated by Cussy and her dad’s blue skin. This is to the point that he goes to their house for checkups and to ask about the skin color. At one point, the Doc and Cussy’s dad agree to have Cussy undergo some experiments. At first, his main concern was to find the cause of the pigmentation, but after he gets to know Cussy more, he defends her humanity even against a black colleague. He also stands up for Cussy when the town was up in arms against the marriage between her and Jackson – a white guy – even if his argument was just, “There’s a pill that makes Cussy turn white!”

The most interesting character outside of Cussy is her dad Elijah. He’s a sick coal miner, who wants Cussy to be taken care of. Sometimes, he doesn’t realize right away that the people he trusts mistreat Cussy in various ways. These include Cussy’s first husband and to an extent, Doc. In addition, his tactics of ensuring Cussy a better life through marriage put him at odds with his daughter who simply wants to continue working as a librarian. Through these instances, Richardson makes it clear that Elijah has good intentions, but goes about it in ways that come off as terribly old-fashioned.

The only thing that I have to nitpick is how predictable it can be. I could see various plot points from miles away. These include Cussy showing off her white skin to her co-workers and Jackson showing up to propose to her while the courting candle is burning. But then again, these are nitpicks. There are other scenes that I didn’t see coming or didn’t go the way I expected it to.

In summary, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson is a book that stands out because of its inclusion of the Blue Fugates and the Pack Horse Library Project. Even though it can be melodramatic and predictable at various points, I was emotionally invested in Cussy’s journey for acceptance and to get more books for her patrons. I would recommend this to readers who want to read stories about the Blue Fugates, prejudice, racism, the Pack Horse Library Project (like The Giver of Stars), Kentucky, and of course, librarians. I’m glad that novels like The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek appreciate libraries as much as I do.

Before I go, I want to everybody know this is my 149th review, which means the 150th one is coming up! To celebrate, I will add 50 more titles to my rankings of every title I’ve looked at next week, so keep an eye out! In case, one is not familiar with that series, take a look here.

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