Emory Chance was a tragic character in last year's Daisy Chain. In Slow Burn, the story of Emory's loss and failures, she becomes even more tragic. Though Jed Pepper was a character who made my heart ache, Emory was one who frustrated and challenged me. Mary DeMuth creates characters who behave in awful and ugly ways yet as she reveals the deepest, ugliest parts and pieces of them, she manages to do so with grace so that I found myself filled with pity for Emory and hoping that she'd escape from her emotional prisons.
The subject matter covered includes abuse, negligence, drug abuse, immorality and sensitive readers should consider that this is not your traditional Christian fiction.
At the end of A Slow Burn there is still the mystery of what happened to Daisy and who did it? I am compelled to finish this trilogy as I feel the need for closure and I want to read Ousie's story. I'm hoping that the Pepper family finds much grace and healing and that Emory finds complete and total peace.
DeMuth writes in a literary voice that sometimes crackles with intensity and sometimes oozes molasses-slow emotion into the storyline. Folks who don't care for introspective and deep fiction and the slowness that results may not find the series to their liking. I think people struggling with issues of faith and failures might find some hope and healing within the story of these very broken people and the God who loves them.