Book Review: All That's Unseen

Congratulations to @emileehackney on this exceptional instant New York Times bestseller!

I love when I finish a memoir feeling like I’ve actually gotten to know the person who wrote it, and that’s definitely the case with ALL THAT’S UNSEEN.

The more I read, the more it became clear to me that this isn’t simply a memoir about escaping Appalachia. It’s about what leaving made possible: the perspective to see home differently and how that perspective led Hackney to become more—not less—committed to understanding and defending her roots.

The early chapters trace the experiences that shaped her, among them her upbringing in the coalfields of southwestern Virginia, her Pentecostal faith, and the troubling relationship that impacted her adolescence and early adulthood. But the memoir’s larger questions really come into focus during her time at Harvard, where she must reckon with the ways her peers and professors view Appalachia. That experience pushes her to interrogate her own complex relationship with the region. Her worldview expands, but she refuses to lose sight of the people and places that formed her.

There’s a real humanity and compassion to Hackney’s story, and a willingness to challenge her own assumptions—especially about her faith—that feels very sincere. I admired the generosity she extends toward the region and the people who live there, but also toward her younger self.

Hackney’s story is still unfolding, and that openness is part of what makes the memoir so compelling: a portrait of someone still figuring out what it means to belong to a place and question it at the same time. I’m excited to see what she has in store.

Emilee Hackney will also be at Crozet Book Fest on Saturday, October 24th!