The Book Woman's Daughter

The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson was first published in 2022. It is a sequel to The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, but can be read as a stand-alone work. Richardson was born and raised in Kentucky. The Book Woman’s Daughter draws on her personal experience as well as research she conducted about the Pack Horse Library Project, the Frontier Nursing Service, female coal miners, Moonlight Schools, and more. The Book Woman’s Daughter is a New York Times Best Seller, Editor’s Choice of The Historical Novel Society, and a Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist 2022.

Richardson’s novel is a work of historical fiction that explores the lives of “the Blues,” a group of people in Kentucky who have the genetic condition methemoglobinemia, which causes their skin to turn blue. It is set in 1953, after the original Pack Horse Library Project ended, but is focused on The Function of Books in Kentucky in that era. Richardson’s themes also include Othering and Sexism in Rural Kentucky, as well as The Role of Female Friendship.

This guide uses the 2022 Sourcebooks Landmark paperback edition.

Content Warning: The novel contains depictions of domestic abuse as well as discussions of racially-motivated prejudice, sexual assault, and forced sterilization. This guide also quotes the use of “miscegenation” in the context of racially discriminatory laws in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, this term is generally considered pejorative, as it was often used in the context of racial discrimination and prejudice.

Plot Summary

In Thousandsticks, Kentucky, Honey Lovett’s adoptive parents are arrested for “miscegenation.” Honey and her mother both have a skin condition called methemoglobinemia which turns their skin—only hands and feet, in Honey’s case—blue. Honey rides her mother’s mule, Junia, to Troublesome Creek, where she runs into moonshiner Devil John Smith and the new fire watch lookout, Pearl Grant. Honey accompanies Pearl to the tower and discovers Perry Gillis and Robbie Hardin (a miner and another lookout, respectively) have vandalized it. While Honey takes Pearl to her grandparents’ cabin, Junia runs off, and the women follow her back to Thousandsticks.

The sheriff and a social worker named Mrs. Wallace arrive to take Honey to the House of Reform, a juvenile prison. However, Devil John returns with his son Carson and claims Honey and Pearl are his daughters. After the sheriff and Mrs. Wallace leave, the group rides back to Troublesome Creek. A friend of the family, Loretta “Retta” Adams, agrees to be Honey’s guardian.

Shortly after, Retta falls ill. A frontier nurse, Amara, tells Honey that Retta is dying. After Retta dies, Honey makes the funeral arrangements. Retta’s drunk nephew, Alonzo, sells her cabin, so Honey hides out in her grandparents’ cabin. Pearl keeps her company until she can move into the watchtower. Honey applies to become a Pack Horse librarian like her Mama and flirts with a boy named Francis who works at the store.

Later, Carson proposes to her in order to keep her from being sent to the House of Reform. Honey refuses. She begins her job, and eventually discovers an old newspaper with a story about a 14-year-old winning emancipation in court.

Honey delivers books to various residents, including Devil John’s wife and Bonnie Powell, a miner and Francis’s cousin. Along Honey’s book route, Gillis’s wife, Guyla Belle, asks for help getting her son out of an old well. Honey rescues the boy, but Gillis returns home and harasses Honey for being a “Blue.” He tells her not to bring books to their house, but Guyla Belle asks Honey to deliver them in secret.

Honey asks Amara for a ride to the prison so she can visit Mama. When she arrives at Amara’s cabin, she finds Amara is busy caring for Guyla Belle’s son, who has pneumonia. Guyla Belle and Gillis arrive and get into an argument, and Gillis hits his wife. Amara intervenes and Gillis leaves. After being treated for her wounds, Guyla Belle takes her still-ailing son back to Gillis.

Honey goes into town and sees Francis fighting with Gillis over Bonnie. After the fight, Francis helps Honey call the prison, and Honey learns Mama is in the infirmary. While in the phone booth, Honey overhears Gillis talking to his mother, plotting to murder Guyla Belle and steal Pearl’s job.

Honey goes to the doctor’s house, and he invites her to have dinner. After dinner, Honey tells Doc about her mother. Doc makes a phone call, learns that Honey’s mother has been sterilized, and arranges for them to visit the following day. Honey stops home, gives Guyla Belle The Awakening, and returns to spend the night at Doc’s house. The next morning, they visit Honey’s mother to learn about her sterilization. On the way back to Troublesome, Doc tells Honey he plans to try and get Honey’s mother pardoned. Honey calls Mr. Morgan and asks him to file for emancipation for her.

Honey continues to deliver books. One patron is the healer Emma, who cares for a girl named Wrenna who is training a pet rooster. Honey tries to visit Guyla Belle, but Gillis’s sister claims that Guyla Belle left. Honey finds the destroyed The Awakening in the yard and suspects foul play. Later, Doc tells her that the governor will not pardon Mama. Honey tries to call her mother via the payphone, but can’t reach her. Francis consoles Honey with a kiss.

Honey learns that there is a polio outbreak at her father’s prison. A couple days later, Mr. Morgan visits her, and they discuss Honey’s situation as well as her parents’. When Honey gets her first paycheck, Francis helps buy a headstone for Retta’s grave. Gillis harasses her, but Bonnie intervenes. Honey then visits Pearl, who tells her that Gillis has asked her on a date. Honey warns Pearl against dating Gillis, and Pearl takes her advice.

Pearl and Honey have a pajama party, where they listen to music, drink, and have a small argument. Early the next morning, Gillis and Robbie set a fire beneath the tower and lock the women inside. Pearl breaks through the trapdoor with an ax while Honey calls Pearl’s boss, R.C. R.C. brings the sheriff, who assumes they drunkenly set the fire and leaves without taking any action.

On the day of her emancipation hearing, Honey sees Wrenna and Bonnie set Wrenna’s rooster on Gillis. Honey goes into the courthouse, but her hearing has to be rescheduled. She tells Mr. Morgan about her suspicions regarding Gillis and Guyla Belle. Mr. Morgan calls the state police; with Honey’s help, they find the corpse of Guyla Belle in the well at Gillis’s cabin.

Honey continues working as a librarian. She has nightmares about Gillis as she waits for her new court date. She gets a letter from Mama, who is working as a prison librarian and will be released from prison early. Gillis dies as a result of the wounds the rooster inflicted. After that, men stop harassing Bonnie in the mines, and she gets a promotion. Honey and Pearl encounter Wrenna, who is unable to understand that Gillis is dead.

At her emancipation hearing, Honey faces Mrs. Wallace and the sheriff again. After listening to several character witnesses and Honey’s own defense, Judge Norton—a former patron of her mother’s—grants her petition for emancipation. Miss Foster, the librarian who hired Honey, gives Honey a poetry book—a gift from the librarian Mr. Taft. His inscription inspires Honey to think about how books were the key to her freedom.