texas, east

"Ephram Jenkins has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby, 'the kind of pretty it hurt to look at,' is already quite damaged, but Ephram is forcibly drawn to her. As soon as she becomes a young woman and has any power of her own, Ruby flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York City. Years later, when a funeral forces her to return home, 30-year-old Ruby will find herself reliving the devastating violence of her girlhood. With the terrifying realization that she might not be strong enough to fight her way back out, Ruby struggles to survive her memories of the town's dark past. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised and stood by him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy"--Provided by publisher.

"Ephram Jenkins has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby, "the kind of pretty it hurt to look at," is already quite damaged, but Ephram is forcibly drawn to her. As soon as she becomes a young woman and has any power of her own, Ruby flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York City. Years later, when a funeral forces her to return home, 30-year-old Ruby will find herself reliving the devastating violence of her girlhood. With the terrifying realization that she might not be strong enough to fight her way back out, Ruby struggles to survive her memories of the town's dark past. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised and stood by him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy"--.

An autobiography in which the author discusses his early life in a small corner of East Texas known as the Big Thicket, and tells stories of the relatives who made those years so interesting.

On Halloween night, a recently divorced seamstress named Chintana attends a fiftieth birthday party set in a foster home that turns out to be for her ex-husband's mistress. A mysterious storyteller arrives to entertain the five orphans there. He keeps them spellbound with his tale of vengeance and his long black box that holds a magical weapon--a sword that cuts but shows no wound until the victim's fiftieth year of life. As midnight approaches, the box is opened, and the partygoers come face to face with the sword's deadly power.

When Harry Crane discovers the mutilated body of a young African-American woman, he unwittingly unleashes a storm of fear, racial animosities, and violence in Depression era East Texas.

Lauren's misgivings about participating in a seance turn to real fear when two of the girls who participated in the event are murdered.