The Solace of Water by Elizabeth Byler Younts {Book Review}

Do you like meaty books? I mean like fiction books that make you uncomfortable and don't end with a feel good feeling. I don't always reach for them, but every now and then I am willing to give them a try. When I was initially sent The Solace of Water by Elizabeth Byler Yates to review, the book cover presented a story that although peeked my interest, it didn't grab me right away. I recently decided to pick it up and give it a try, and discovered a very deep rich story about racism, secrets, grief, and the power of forgiveness and friendship. I'd like to give you a peek into this book and let you know what I took away from it in my review today.

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Book Synopsis

The Solace of Water by Elizabeth Byler Younts

The year is 1956. 

Delilah is an African American woman from Montgomery, AL who is drowning in grief and bitterness after the death of one of her four-year old twin sons. Her husband makes the decision to move their family north to his hometown in Pennsylvania in order to give them a fresh start. It's hard to make a fresh start though, when you envelope yourself every day in a new layer of grief and doubt--and anger at your oldest daughter on whom you place full blame for the death of her little brother.

Sparrow is Delilah's oldest daughter and bears the brunt of her mother's pain, as she's never allowed to forget it was her fault her little brother is dead. In her new home however, she finds a new friend in a neighbor Amish boy Johnny who sees past her color to the girl inside. But in a time when racial tensions are high, their friendship must be a secret...another secret that Sparrow adds to her growing collection of secrets. 

Emma Mullet is Johnny's mother and Delilah's neighbor. She lives a reclusive life because of secrets of her own which would destroy her family's reputation in their Amish community. But she sees a hurt and pain similar to her own in the eyes of Delilah and desires to be her friend, even when Delilah refuses to accept one.

When tensions become too much for Sparrow at home, she seeks peace at Emma's house...and thus becoming the daughter Emma's always wanted, much to Delilah's distress and dismay. 

Emma and Delilah are two women weighed down with long-buried hurts and will have to face their own self-deceptions. 

Throw into the mix the increased tensions between the white, black, and Amish communities of Sinking Creek and you get a book layered with racism, secrets, self-deception, as well as the healing power of forgiveness and friendship to a broken heart.

My Thoughts on the Book

The Solace of Water made me very uncomfortable. Not like the bad uncomfortable. But the hard-to-read-because-it's-not-sugar-coated kind of uncomfortable. The characters in this story were so intensely real. They were so weak in their humanity. Yet too proud to admit their weakness. There wasn't anything fake. These were people that could have lived. It was a rare book featuring a less than perfect Amish family with hardcore problems. It was a rare book featuring a teenage girl who deals with depression and grief with self-harm and thoughts of suicide. It was a rare book where a mom is so caught up in her grief and anger at not being able to save her own child when he needed her, that she risks losing everything she loves. A book showing a woman who punishes her husband silently and hurts only herself in the process.

It showed the hard side of friendship--the side where friends make each other see behind the masks, stripping us bare to our soul, and then still stand there with us when we finally truly see ourselves in the ugliness of the revelation.

But it was also a book showing that redemption. Forgiveness. Love. Healing can still happen even when the walls have completely fallen down on your head and you are so broken you cannot hold yourself up. 

"How's Sparrow?" Emma's feathery voice, as light as it was broke into my thoughts....

I thought about my handbag sitting on my floor at home. And how I was waiting to find out when my sister's husband could come up and get the little ones and me to take us back home to Montgomery. Then I could kneel in Carver's dirt and that damp earth as long as I wanted.

"She bad." It was a relief to tell her. Like some weight had just lifted and with that came the well of grief to the surface and I started swallowing hard to keep it down. Her voice sounded like forgiveness and kindness. I didn't deserve it. But it wasn't grief over Carver, I knew. It was grief over Sparrow. My dead, living daughter. (~The Solace of Water, pg 316)

This book should not be considered just an inspirational fiction, because the topics and events and characters are so identifiable in the "real world" that it would resonate with so many. In fact, if someone handed it to me and I didn't already KNOW it was inspirational fiction, I don't think I would even have guessed. It is just excellent fiction. I would recommend this book to ANYONE wanting a deep thought provoking book to read. Elizabeth Byler Younts blew this one out of the park. 

The Solace of Water earns 5 ★

It is really rare that I am able to give two books in a row my 5 star rating, but I must. This book made me think. It made me feel. It gave incredible depth to the characters. It talked about HARD subjects and did them well. I will be definitely recommending this book. It wasn't anything I was expecting, but it left me with things I will remember for a long time.

***

The Solace of Water, a novel

by Elizabeth Byler Younts

Available in Print and Kindle on Amazon