death 4

Some days you just want to cry, and you're not even sure why that is. This book so far, is like one of those days. Rebecca's life is so sad and depressing and it's not even one reason, it's a bunch of reasons that add up to such a general feeling of doubt and sorrow and all these emotions that make you want to curl up in bed and hide from the world. But this section was the worst. 

Rebecca is now living with only her parents, as both her brothers have run off. One because he attacked a few men around town who had vandalized the family farm with swastikas, and one because he was sick of the abuse that Jacob seems to enjoy raining down on everyone in the family. Her mother has become even more desolate than before, spending almost the whole day in the hose and only showing sparks of emotion whenever Jacob attacks Rebecca. Jacob is a suspicious old man who believes that even his family is possessed by evil spirits, and the rest of the world is conspiring against them. Trust no one appears to be his motto. Are you getting the feeling yet? The setting of their life is a ghost town in upstate New York where all the men are brutish and drunk, and all the women are vulgar and gossipy. Rebecca is outcasted as the 'gravedigger' daughter' and alternatively labeled a Nazi or a Jew. Both intended as insults, but both are incorrect. She has no friends, except for a girl who she then shunned because she found the girl to be almost too kindly. As it appears that Rebecca's life can get no worse, she sees her father buying a shotgun and she has no idea what he intends to do with it because the man is not a hunter. That's where I left off. I look forward to finding out just how much more depressing her life can get. 

It's a very good book.