BEFORE WE WERE YOURS

This audio experience is truly horrifying. It's not Wingate's writing, which is gripping, evocative, and colorful. The narration is, likewise, admirable. Emily Rankin and Catherine Taber are polished narrators who give us sympathetic, memorable characters whose voices are age appropriate and conventionally Southern. What's horrific is the story itself, which describes the atrocities of Georgia Tann who ran the notorious Tennessee Children's Home Society. We see her cruelty through the eyes of a "river rat" who was stolen from her riverboat home with her five siblings. There is a parallel story about a modern-day senator's daughter who has familial connections to the 1939 abductions. This story is well presented--perfectly paced and emotionally satisfying. D.L.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2017]