Redfield Farm is a novel about the Underground Railroad. I had such high hopes for this book; I was let down. I found this book from the cool website www.whatshouldireadnext.com where you type in a book you enjoyed (The Kitchen House in this instance) and similar books come up. Redfield Farm was on the list and it sounded so good, so I bought it. Note to self: every book I buy because it's not at the library turns out to be crap.
This book was one dimensional. And all just a little too cliche. The story was good enough to continue reading, but the plot was predictable. The book itself got a little more interested a little over halfway through, but still fell short of my high expectations. The writing was poor to okay. There were at least four typos, which was quite distracting. Coopey should have gotten a better editor. The book reads as if in fast forward, which makes the scenes too quick. The lack of descriptive details makes the writing blase.
The main heroine is the narrator but she tells the story with as much emotion as an outsider. Some of that is because she's a strong woman. Perhaps some of it is because of the setting (a farm in the 1860s). But most seems to be the lack of character development. And really, all the characters are poorly developed, are simple, and have no personality. Even the villains in the book aren't developed enough for the reader to be really scared of them or what they could do.
Here's the one good thing about my wasted day: it piqued my interest in the topic of the Railroad.
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