The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain

Amy  

fiction, historical fiction

The Last House on the Street is a novel about two women and two different time periods.  In 1965, Ellie becomes involved in the efforts to bring voting rights to the black population in the southeastern United States. She is 20 years old and white. Her family and friends don’t understand why she wants to risk her own safety for the cause. In 2010, Kayla is a young widow and moving into the house of her dreams that she and her husband designed. It’s down the street from the house where Ellie grew up and is nestled in dark, creepy woods which are said to be haunted. Also, there is a strange woman who seems to harbor ill will towards Kayla.

I found myself quickly caught up in the stories of both women and wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen. Both women were living with consequences of the choices they had made.  Sometimes the burdens of those choices were stressful and sometimes they were rewarding. While their choices may have seemed outlandish to their families and friends, these characters had their reasons. Both had to figure out how to make peace for themselves.

While this wasn’t my favorite Diane Chamberlain novel, I did enjoy it. Some parts were extremely tragic but the main characters were worth getting to know.

I listened to the audiobook and read the Kindle, but mostly the audiobook.  The narrator was Susan Bennett and she did a great job as usual.  She is a good voice actor and has a large repertoire of voices. However, given that large repertoire, I was disappointed that she did not use different voices for Ellie and Kayla.  If not for that major flaw, I probably would’ve given Bennett an A+ on this audiobook. Alas, I’m dropping her to an A- because that really bugged me. I also have to say that her pronunciation of “kudzu” may be the way Google says it is pronounced in America, but it is NOT the way it is actually pronounced in the southern United States by anyone I know in Georgia or North Carolina. Sadly, the word “kudzu” was used dozens of times and, every time, I cringed at her pronunciation and was pulled out of the story.