Title: On Home
Author: Becca Spence Dobias
Publisher: Inkshares
Publication Date: August 31, 2021
Genre: Women’s Fiction
When tragedy strikes, Cassidy, a cam girl living in Southern California, must return to the small West Virginia town she left behind. Cassidy likes her job getting naked for men on camera, though she prefers sex with women. She never came out to her family or friends back in her home state—not about her sexuality and certainly not about her sex work. Now, she must figure out how to hold on to the life she’s built for herself while picking up the pieces of her fractured family.
As Cassidy’s story unfolds, we glimpse into the lives of the strong, complicated women who came before her: Jane, the sheltered daughter of farmers, escapes West Virginia for Washington, DC to work as a Government Girl for the FBI during World War II, until a fateful mistake threatens her future. Paloma, a Fulbright Scholar, journeys to newly Westernized Prague—only to fall for an idealistic but safe man from West Virginia.
Though worlds and generations apart, all three search for meaning as they face impending motherhood and the pull to return home to rural Appalachia.
-from Amazon
Why This Book
On Home is about three generations of women in the same family: grandmother, mother, and daughter. It’s a bit of an ambitious story that tackles motherhood, abortion, miscarriage, sexuality, race, and sex workers, among other things. While it did feel like it bit off more than it could chew, I appreciated the open discussions of more women-centric topics. This novel spans several decades, stretching from WWII to present day, and focuses on the ties that pulled all three women back to the same small West Virginia town as well as discovering where home really is.
Why did I pick this book? The main character is Cassidy, the daughter. She is openly lesbian, but has had to deal with being labelled “different” in her small West Virginia town since her childhood. It was interesting to see the different and varied reactions to her sexuality, especially when she makes a living as a cam girl taking off her clothes for a male audience.
Reviews
My review: “It was about her leaving home to seek something more than what her small town could offer, especially as a lesbian who was labelled “different” early on and bullied because of it, and then going back home and being changed.”
Ghostie Bee’s Reads rounded this book up to 4 out of 5
Purchase Links
Amazon | Inkshares | Bookshop.org | Barnes & Noble | Target | Appalachian Mountain Books | Booktopia (Australia) | Google Books | !ndigo | Book Depository | AbeBooks | Porter Square Books
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