Into the Free (original 2012; edition 2012)

I listened to this book while on a trip, and it's a great one for that purpose. Millie's mother is regularly beaten by her father, Jack in early 1940's rural Alabama. Millie observes these beatings from afar during her childhood as she grows up but never attempts to intervene. Eventually her mother succumbs to the affects of a beating, and Millie has an accident of her own that lands her in the hospital. She goes to live in the home of one of the nurses who cared for her. Millie's father was a rider in the rodeo, and although Millie had never ridden, she discovers that she inherited riding talent from Jack. Meanwhile, she is also fascinated with a band of Gypsies who come through her Alabama town each year and thinks she loves a boy from their group named River. There's also a man from the rodeo named Bump, who falls in love with Millie. It's an enjoyable coming-of-age story for readers of all ages. ( )

Millie is growing up in Depression-era Mississippi, living in a slave shack with her mother. She has a father, but it seems he only comes around to beat up her mom, who sleeps away her depression with the help of morphine. Thankfully, Sloth is there, feeding Millie, and teaching her the secrets of the outdoor world, and being her friend. Then she meets River, one of the Gypsies that pass through Millie's town every spring. Suddenly, running away with the Gypsies seems like the perfect answer to all her problems.

This was a wonderful book with characters who leap right off the page and descriptions so beautifully written than it feels like you are right there in Mississippi with Millie. The troubles that life hands her are almost unbearable, but somehow she keeps coming back, stronger than before. My one disappointment with Into the Free is that in just the last few pages the author hits us over the head with the fact that this is "Christian Fiction". The book would have been much tighter without this unnecessary belaboring of Millie's change of heart and spirit--it was apparent without being spelled out. My advice? Stop reading at page 339! ( )

Into the Free is a wonderful book to read.Millie Reynolds grows up in the Depression era in her home of Mississippi. Her family life is abusive and trouble is her constant companion. She is entranced by a boy who travels around with a band of gypsies(no racial intended)but there is also a cowboy who vies for her attention.
Who will she trust? Who can she trust?
This book has strong characters, a real page turner,leaving you wanting to know more. Great for book discussions with questions in the back. Thank you to the creative works of Julie Cantrell. ( )

This is one of those novels you could write a book about just to get across how wonderful it is. It's a book every book club should be dying to read and discuss! The story of a little girl who learns to view her world from the safety of a high tree, to dream of escaping the fears she has and the poverty she experiences both emotional and physical, will grip your heart from the first seconds you touch this book. But what also hooked me was the elequence and heart-stopping prose of Julie Cantrell. She is a storyteller personified.

"Into the Free" is so beautifully written and so rich in symbolism that it will not let you pull away. Even when you put the book down to go about daily business, the memory of what you've read and look forward to reading will haunt you. This is an extraordinary book with a human story that digs at the essence of what it means to be alive in spirit, and to love with your whole heart.

We primarily see the world through the eyes of Millie, a pre-teen then late teen, as she comes of age learning to understand the realities of the world and the adults within it; as well as her place within that world. Millie is a wise child, but one who is alone in the world. She embodies the spirit of any child who is held captive in a home surrounded by poverty and abuse. She's powerless to hinder her father's abuse of her dependent and addictive mother, and that mother's complacency, but her spirit finds a way to be free by way of her interactions with other people and her world view. Millie is a so fully developed and so sound in psychology that it's difficult to remember that she's a "make believe" character and not a living person whose biography one is reading. She's a jewel of a character whom I'll never forget.

"Into the Free" causes us to ask questions about what freedom actually is. Can we choose freedom in our situations, over enslavement? There are many choices this book looks at through Millie's eyes and which may cause the reader to assess her own world and spiritual views. I was particularly struck by Ms Cantrell's use of the gypsies as a way of showing what security and false security might be for Millie. The lure of the beautiful and strange may not always be best, and Millie has to decide if it's the right course to her own freedom.

Julie Cantrell is an author of blinding beauty and wisdom. Her spiritual insights and easy way of leading the reader into a deeper knowledge of them is graceful and blend well within her story. As Millie learns the difference between harsh, rote and human "religion," and finding godly love and caring, so does the reader. Millie comes to understand what "good" people really are versus what society claims and where "class" sets them. Her Choctaw blood and rodeo background make her an outcast in the town's society, but that doesn't mean she's "bad."

Ms Cantrell's book is a treasure of symbolism that I wish I had a group of friends to unravel with me! As I said, this is one for the book groups. A gorgeous book, and one I highly recommend to everyone. You have to get this book and/or put it on your must read list. It's a book you won't forget. ( )

"Into the Free" takes place during the great depression in Mississippi. Millie lives with an abusive father and a depressed mother, who has trouble functioning day-to-day. Each spring the Gypsies come into town and Millie finds herself following and then befriending them. At the age of 16, Millie decides that she wants to know more about her family and goes to the rodeo to watch her father compete. Thrown off, her father is gored in the chest and is immediately taken to the hospital where he dies. Her mother dies a few days later from a morphine overdose and Millie is left alone.

This book was incredibly touching. It is a coming-of-age novel that shows the strength and determination of a young girl who has been dealt a bad hand in life. Despite her abusive upbringing and the mental illness throughout her family, Millie is able to grow and live. I thought the characters were very well developed and sympathetic. The plot line moved slowly at times, but overall was well paced. This book reminded me a bit of "The Glass House" and other memoirs set in the era. Overall, I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. ( )