Rating: 
Summary: What a great book.
Review: I picked up this book because 1) it was an Oprah pick and 2) the reviews were so interesting I was intrigued and curious. Tawni O'Dell has written a wonderful book. I can't believe it's a debut novel. She has captured so well the torment and intensity of this young man. There are so many parts of Harley that are pushed and pulled and strained. It's a wonder he didn't go over the edge with all he had to cope with. Harley is a truly interesting character whom I have thought about long after I finished the book. This book has some of the same intensity that Wally Lamb showed us in THIS MUCH I KNOW IS TRUE. Families can make you crazy in many ways. Everyone copes differently. I highly recommend this book. If you like good character development, Harley is a great one. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: If there's any theme to the books Oprah chooses, it would have to be dysfunctional families. Don't get me wrong-she's made some interesting and daring picks, and has probably done more to promote decent literature than anyone else since who knows when-and here's another choice on that theme. It reminded me of earlier choice "White Oleander," and like that novel, "Back Roads" is memorable and worth reading.The family in this book is probably the most out-of-whack in any in the Oprah oeuvre. After his mother kills his father and is sentenced to life in prison, nineteen-year-old Harley Altmeyer is given two choices. As he puts it: "I could be an ADULT with DEPENDENTS, or an ORPHAN with NOTHING." Harley has chosen the former, and questions his choice every morning he sets off to work two full-time jobs, coming home to three younger sisters. Harley is a tremendously appealing character, funny and wry, who knows he's got way too much on his plate. His life, his home, and his sisters are a mess, and he's not getting much help in the small mining town he lives in. It's no wonder that he falls in love with the first person who seems to see beyond the chaos surrounding him, and this is a terrible choice. Tawni O'Dell has done a remarkable thing. She's written a book filled with despair and shocking revelations, which is peopled by likeable and believable characters. "Back Roads" speaks to people's resilience in even the most extreme circumstances. It deserves to be read.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: I loved this book... for many reasons. The realism of the thoughts of a twenty year old male, Ms. O'Dell hit it right on target, without sugar coating it. Back Roads tells a story that is really very simple.....what happens when a human mother doesn't do what comes naturally to every other animal God put on earth.....Protect her young!...This is a story of what happens to the kids...how young minds are warped......how abuse can mix emotions to the point that terrible things seem normal....and accepted. I read the book in one sitting...couldn't put it down....the words flow, the characters are real, I am looking forward to more from Tawni O'Dell. Thanks for a real story about a true hero who tried to make things right....but was defeated by the reality of child abuse!
Rating: 
Summary: Better Left Unread!
Review: Sure, this book has some sensational story lines but not even incest can keep this book interesting! The characters are not well devloped and you don't really care for or about any of them. If you must see for yourself, at least wait until it's out in paperback!
Rating:
Summary: Party of Five gone bad
Review: Ms. O'Dell has taken the TV show and transported and transformed it from upscale San Fran to poverty stricken Pennsylvania. (Although it could be any "hick town nearest you") I guess I owe the book one star as I read it to the bitter end. What a disturbing novel! It is written pornograhy at it's peak. I don't exactly feel enlightened by the twisted incest, adultry, child murderers and detailed descriptions of a 20 yr. old male phyco's mastrubation. Sure, this s**t happens, but the 6 o'clock news is bad enough. We don't need to delve into the sexual horrors of a "Party of Five" gone bad.
Rating: 
Summary: Oprah, What is with you?
Review: I just don't get it. This book started out like it was going to be worth my time. The story was building,you began to care about the characters. It seems as though the murderer was someone else. To me it just fell flat at the end, I could not believe it, what a disappointment! I think I may have to give up on this Oprah book club thing.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read!
Review: O'Dell does an excellent job of portraying how the cycle of abuse can go beyond those obvious instances where an abuse victim does unto someone else the same acts of abuse done unto them. This depiction of the cycle of abuse expands from the physical abuse of a parent to his children to the sexual abuse of the children to each other. The fact that O'Dell writes about the children's abuse of each other in a way that allows you to "see the love" is indicative of a skilled novelist with superb insight to the psychological working of the mind at various stages of development. Her use of the sexual abuse as an allegory for the emptiness and despair caused by emotional abuse as a child is handled with a precision and care that allows the reader to better understand the circumstances and not focus so much on the nature of the act. Added to this story line is a murder plot that spins with all the elements of a good mystery. The novel is perfected with wonderful characters that are loveable in one chapter, pitied in the next, despised later on. A very well done first novel worthy of your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing new, nothing gained.
Review: Having grown up in the region that O'Dell is writing about, I was eager to read this book. But BACK ROADS could be set anywhere that people are poor and more rural than urban. The setting was almost incidental, and I was disappointed. The characters too, tended to disappoint. The writing, while technically fine, tended to disappoint. There was nothing new explored here, not in terms of the family, the region or the male or female psyche. I could predict everything, which is for me, the ultimate disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: A Story of Survival
Review: Tawni O'Dell has written a painful story about the pressures of trying to survive events one has no control over. Poor Harley is trying to do right by his sisters as he heads for a nervous breakdown brought on by both past and present events. As these things (murder, incest, child abuse) are brought forward to his conscious mind by a court appointed psychiatrist, he finally breaks down completely and has to be institutionalized. Now that all the secrets are out, maybe the family will be able to heal and move forward. You can only hope that their mother will be released from prison and the girls will get the help they need. This is truly a novel of despair with no happy endings.
Rating:
Summary: wow
Review: I really love this book.It is very well written.While the story is bleak and rather depressing, this one is a page turner! O'dell is a masterful story teller with a keen sense of modern America.It's almost as good as Asher Brauner's 'Love songs of the tone deaf'. Which it resembles in a way.O'dell is a major talent. I can't wait for her next effort.
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