What's Left Unsaid by Emily Bleeker Book Review

 

Hannah … I had to admire this journalist’s persistence and resilience. She found herself without a job, without a boyfriend, without a steady place to be. Off she goes to Senatobia to take care of her mamaw (grandmother). Along the way, she finds a new job, a few new friends, and a story she cannot let go.

Hannah was ‘banished’ to the basement to put all the old files into a computer system. In the boringness of doing this task, she ran across a letter from a woman named Evelyn. To say it piqued her interest is mild. This was it! This was her chance to redeem herself.

Senatobia is a town in Mississippi, and Evelyn’s story was from the 1930s. Way back then … well, let’s just say some folks haven’t changed their minds in today’s world about certain things, so when Hannah forms a friendship with Guy, the local schoolteacher, some folks didn’t approve. I, personally, was rooting for them! I enjoyed reading about the attraction these two had for each other, yet they didn’t know what to do about it. Their budding relationship was full of ups and downs.

Hannah also was dealing with a lot of self-doubt which would throw her mind into a bunch of chaos.

But, chasing Evelyn’s story gave her purpose, gave her something to cling to, gave her someone she could relate to (granted Evelyn was long-since gone).

I had no idea that this story was actually based on a true story from the author’s own family tree until I read the Acknowledgements. That made it, to me at least, more interesting. What happened to Evelyn way back then, or to anyone, should not have happened. I was actually shocked when the big reveal of what happened to her was revealed.

In this story, you’ll find politics, broken relationships, healing relationships, major family dynamics, an attraction between two people who didn’t know what to do with that attraction, healing for Hannah, personal growth for Hannah, the closing of the newspaper the Record which was kind of healing in a sense, and a perseverance to find a truth that no one wanted exposed.