Into the Free: A Novel [Kindle Edition]

Julie Cantrell (Author)

Book Description

Just a girl. The only one strong enough to break the cycle.

In Depression-era Mississippi, Millie Reynolds longs to escape the madness that marks her world. With an abusive father and a "nothing mama," she struggles to find a place where she really belongs.

For answers, Millie turns to the Gypsies who caravan through town each spring. The travelers lead Millie to a key that unlocks generations of shocking family secrets. When tragedy strikes, the mysterious contents of the box give Millie the tools she needs to break her family's longstanding cycle of madness and abuse. 

Through it all, Millie experiences the thrill of first love while fighting to trust the God she believes has abandoned her. With the power of forgiveness, can Millie finally make her way into the free?

Saturated in Southern ambiance and written in the vein of other Southern literary bestsellers like The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin, Julie Cantrell has created in Into the Free—now a New York Times Best Seller—a story that will sweep you away long after the novel ends.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A young girl growing into adolescence confronts family abuse and a dark past in this lyrical debut novel. Millie Reynolds and her mother live in a ramshackle cabin in Depression-era Mississippi, occasionally receiving unwelcome visits from the violent family patriarch, Jack. With her only friend, Sloth, dead and gone, Millie struggles to find any happiness with a “nothing mama” and a ruthless father. Only the passing caravans of gypsies offer her any semblance of belonging. But when unlucky events engulf her, she discovers some surprising secrets that eventually help her hope in God’s love. Cantrell’s exquisitely written story immerses readers in a world that is as cruel as it is beautiful. From the opening lines to the very last sentence, the book’s magnetic prose bewitches and enthralls on every page. A visceral and gripping journey of a young woman’s revelations about God and self, this novel will surely excite any reader who appreciates a compelling story about personal struggle and spiritual resilience.”

 - Publisher’s Weekly

 

 

“Cantrell’s words paint vivid pictures that bring Millie’s harrowing story to life. Riveting you to your chair, this story is a reminder that sometimes faith — real faith– is slowly built during the darkest moments of your life.”

- RT Reviews

 

“Julie Cantrell beautifully renders a vivid past, but her subjects are immediate and eternal—family secrets, love’s many losses, revenge and revelation, and finally redemption. Her characters may buck and brawl and bray against the notion of God in their lives, but there’s no denying He continues to send them into each other’s path, and Cantrell masterfully introduces them to one another in her wonderfully woven narrative. This book is full of insightful detail and wondrous turns, with an ending that moves in all directions through time like God’s grace.”

- Mark Richard, author of House of Prayer No. 2

"A beautiful and literary coming-of-age romance that is as close to perfect as I've seen in quite some time."

Serena Chase, USA TODAY

About the Author

New York Times Best-selling author Julie Cantrell was the editor-in-chief of the Southern Literary Review. She has been a freelance writer for ten years and has published two children’s books. She has contributed to more than a dozen books, and her first novel, Into the Free, hit shelves February 1, 2012 (David C Cook). In addition to writing the sequel to that novel, Julie was honored to receive the 2011 Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Artist Fellowship and is currently working on a creative nonfiction book about her family’s adventures as first-generation farmers. Julie and her family live in Oxford, Mississippi where they operate Valley House Farm. She is also a certified speech-language pathologist and currently teaches English as a second language to elementary students.

 

Product Details

• File Size: 742 KB
• Print Length: 368 pages
• Publisher: David C. Cook (February 1, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B006YS5V2O
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,805 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #8 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Americas > United States > State & Local > South

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

128 of 136 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading January 29, 2012

By K. Murray

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

My disclaimer regarding bias: I grew up with the author, and thought the world of her long before she published anything. Now, I am simply in awe of her. Most reviews I've written have been solicited by authors known to me personally. This review is unsolicited. I hope that my inadequate typed words are able to convey the depth of passion I have for this book.

The bottom line: I have no recollection of being so powerfully moved by written words in my lifetime.
I read the first four chapters after a long day at the office, when I greatly desired only to sleep. I forced myself to put the book away, only after awakening my bride to share a few passages with her. I rationalized savoring the experience, meteing out only a few chapters a night. Today, instead, I finished the book. I cried no less than three times. I stopped to get into the floor and play with my kid, tears in my eyes, and to hold him- telling him that I love him. Mrs. Perkin's Millie Reynolds represents to me hundreds of victims of domestic abuse/neglect and child witnesses of domestic violence that have streamed through my office seeking therapeutic services. My tears and anguish for Millie are the tears I've never let myself cry for them- the depth of pain that I felt here something professional boundaries limit me from in my practice.

Julie writes with an authenticity and genuineness that perfectly captures the experience of many children who grow up in violent homes. Millie's growth from child to late adolescent in the book tracks perfectly with the psychologic development of kids in her position. I've developed workshops and delivered countless trainings in this particular subject area. With Into the Free, I could instead take a front row seat in Julie's classroom, witnessing firsthand, transfixed, the personification of everything I've ever learned from my clients about their experience. One of my favorite professors described empathy as walking with our clients, trying to understand their experience. With the characters in this book, I was able to walk a mile in their shoes- wanting desperately to flee from the text, but unable to abandon the young protagonist when she was so desperately alone.

I am considering making this book required reading for a class that I teach at a local university. There is no better way to experience the journey of so many of the people we work with. For those blessed to never live in Millie's circumstance, it offers insight into the human condition. For those who have or still do, it may offer some roadmap to healing their own invisible wounds.

This is an outstanding read, its characters complex and evolving. It is easy to love young Millie Reynolds, to be afraid for her, to cheer for her, to want to hold her tightly until the storms in her life pass. The reader is treated to an age-accurate view of the world that matures as Millie does- from a dichotomous perspective that categorizes people as good or bad, to one more accurately reflecting the people that we all are- significanly more than can be described with a few adjectives.

Buy this book- the publisher guarantees to credit your purchase price if you don't believe it worth the time most will certainly invest into it. My warning: don't buy it if you are afraid to connect with the protagonist at a visceral level. I don't suspect many will read the book without going through a spectrum of emotions.

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great. Only great. January 30, 2012

By Paul H. Yarbrough

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Julie Cantrell has written a great novel. It is a story of grief, love, conflict, and forgiveness. And as it is Southern, it is especially a story of faith. It is difficult to write a review of such a story, as the risk of leaving out critical concepts is greater with the myriad of them Julie has woven so well into this tale; so brevity herein. Her characters are masterful: from her father (whom she calls by his given name, Jack)and mother to her almost-mystical, Sloth, to a knight (my appellation) named Bump the reader will attach himself to them as well as others. I don't know where Julie came up with the idea to write INTO THE FREE, but God gave her the talent to write it.

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully-- Almost Poetically--Written Story February 4, 2012

By Erin MacPherson

Format:Paperback

I loved this book. The story was captivating and powerful, but even more than that, Julie Cantrell's nearly poetic prose painted a picture that engaged all of my senses and emotions and drew me in from the first pages. I highly recommend this powerful, captivating and beautifully written book.

More About the Author

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author, Julie Cantrell was the editor-in-chief of the Southern Literary Review. She has been a freelance writer for a decade and has contributed to more than a dozen books. Julie and her family now live in Oxford, Mississippi where they operate Valley House Farm.

A speech-language pathologist and literacy advocate, Julie was honored to receive the 2012 Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Fellowship and is working on a creative nonfiction book about her family's adventures as first-generation farmers. Her second novel is set to follow her bestselling debut, Into the Free (David C Cook) and will hit shelves Fall 2013.

Learn more:
Website: www.juliecantrell.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juliecantrellauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JulieCantrell