Valerie Fraser Luesse
Revell, 2021
352 pages
Amazon Description for Under the Bayou Moon: Restless with the familiarity of her Alabama home, Ellie Fields accepts a teaching job in a tiny Louisiana town deep in bayou country. Though rightfully suspicious of outsiders, who have threatened both their language and their culture, most of the people in tiny Bernadette, Louisiana, come to appreciate the young and idealistic schoolteacher as a boon to the town. She’s soon teaching just about everyone–and coming up against opposition from both the school board and a politician with ulterior motives.
Acclimating to a whole new world, Ellie meets a lonely but intriguing Cajun fisherman named Raphe who introduces her to the legendary white alligator that haunts these waters. Raphe and Ellie have barely found their way to each other when a huge bounty is offered for the elusive gator, bringing about a shocking turn of events that will test their love and their will to right a terrible wrong.
A master of the Southern novel, Valerie Fraser Luesse invites you to enter the sultry swamps of Louisiana in a story that illuminates the struggle for the heart and soul of the bayou.
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Thanks to Revell for sending me a copy for review as part of the blogger review program. All thoughts are my own; a positive review was not required.
Under the Bayou Moon was a big hit for me for several reasons. First off, I loved the sense of place. Usually I skim over descriptions and look for the action, but the setting in this book was super important and interesting. I have never been to New Orleans or lower Louisiana, but I feel like I know what it’s like to paddle through a bayou after reading this book.
Adjacent to the setting, the thing that initially drew me to read this book is the legend of the white alligator. It brings back some fun childhood memories for me because I vividly remember when the Knoxville Zoo added an exhibit with a white alligator (I was probably about 10 years old), and local tv stations ran ads exhorting visitors to “look in ‘dem eyes”. We did, in fact, go check out the white gator, although it was considerably smaller than the one described in this story.
If you like Southern fiction you might also like Still Waters by Lindsey P. Brackett
The thing I liked the most was the dialogue. Many conversations are peppered with witty banter that I found utterly delightful and engaging. It lent a lightness to the story that was lovely, given that it deals with some hard things like racism and grieving personal and community tragedies. The heroine, Ellie, is so spunky but also sweet, caring deeply for the people of the small, very rural bayou community that she finds herself in.
Even though Under the Bayou Moon is categorized as a romance on Amazon, I would say it is historical southern fiction with elements of romance. There is a love story, but I didn’t feel that it was the central story. It was more about Ellie finding her place in the world, which included falling in love, but also relied upon her decisions to stand up for people and join herself with the bayou community. She had many non-romantic friendships that influenced her story as well.
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it for readers of southern fiction and/or historical fiction, especially if you like a strong sense of place.
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