Hope House
In Joe Bond’s outstanding novel Hope House, troubled teenage boys try to find community and a sense of purpose at a Kentucky group home during the 1980s.
Fourteen-year-old AWOL lives in a rundown Victorian home, Hope House. It’s part of a youth treatment program that involves daily chores, self-reflection, and interconnection. Though Hope House treatment is mandated for just nine months, AWOL can’t seem to finish the plan. Each time he nears the end of his term, he runs away; after returning, he is required to start over again.
Hope House’s Kentucky setting results in an influx of “street” and “hillbilly” youth from urban and Appalachian areas, and AWOL describes various peers as he narrates, including charismatic Karvel and childlike, voluble Peanut. After running his criminal father over with a truck, Bobby arrives barefoot and bleeding. He speaks with a mountain accent, in “quick, quiet bursts of language.” Smoove was shot during a drug deal; an unknown woman remained by his side and prayed for his survival.
Each resident’s backstory is detailed within an incisive, humorous, and at times poignant narrative that reveals not only what the residents did, but what was done to them, including abuse, neglect, and sexual molestation. Meanwhile, Hope House’s staff members are fleshed out with compelling nuance: tenacious Mr. Watts helms the program and uses both straightforward and subversive motivational methods. As he helps the residents to develop a strong emotional core and moral compass, Watts realizes that life beyond Hope House—through the risk of recidivism, unemployment, or disconnection—presents a greater challenge.
With sinewy, loquacious eloquence, the novel Hope House explores the tenuous cycles of youth rehabilitation and the innate need for belonging.
Reviewed by
Meg Nola
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
