The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain

The Last House on the Street is a tale of mystery, a tale of racial tension in the deep south, and a tale that isn't about to let you down when it comes to standing up for what is right. Told in present and past. Ellie and Kayla must endure the after-effects of tragedy and terror. 

It's the 1960s, Ellie Hockley signs up for the Northern group SCOPE. A program made up entirely of northern university students sent out into the south to help Blacks sign up for voting in anticipation of President Lindon B Johnson's Voting Rights Act.  Against the wishes of her parents, Ellie is the only student to come from a local area of North Carolina into the program. There she meets Winston Madison, Win to his friends, which she is hoping to become. There are rules in SCOPE. Ellie places herself in danger, not only because she is a southerner but because she is a blonde-haired, pretty local white woman. People don't look kindly to intermingling of the locals when it comes to race and this will affect Ellie and anyone she interacts with during her time in SCOPE. 

It's 2010, Kayla Miller has just lost her husband, Jackson to a freak accident involving the building of their new house at the end of old Hockley Street now known as Shadow Ridge Estates. The Hockley's old house sits at the top of the street where Kayla's new home is the last house on the street down in the middle of a ton of trees. What Ellie finds out and Kayla is beginning to find out is that there is a ton of history that happened on that street. What the two women have in common is a tale of hatred, conflicting feelings, and confusion. They will have to deal with time, place, and race together if they are to ever be able to move on into the future and forget the tragedies of the past. Things start happening around Kayla's house. The clock is ticking with a bomb about to explode if history doesn't sort itself out. 

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this novel. I wasn't sure how the 1960s and the 2010 era could ever intermingle. I was pleasantly surprised and utterly devasted to find out the link to both eras. 

The Last House on the Street is poignant in that it gives a detailed telling of the tensions of the 60s in the deep south between Black and White. The evil of the Ku Klux Klan and the narrow-mindedness of superiority towards the Blacks in the outskirts of the town of Round Hill's citizens. Is it even possible that only one person in Round Hill could see Blacks as equal? I know I am looking at this from a current-day perspective, but still, I just don't understand that there weren't more people who felt as Ellie did. 

It also amazes me that those same people didn't change their view as they grew older and came to understand the backwardness to their perspectives on the view of Race from their childhood. Can people really change? Can people really become better at dealing with the history of past experiences, or do they stay jaded and narrow in their views from generation, to generation? This seems to be a bit of what The Last House on the Street touches upon.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found Ellie and Win to be relatable. Reed, Ellie's boyfriend and his friend Garner and her best friend, Brenda showed me that there truly is bigotry and hatred in the world even today and I needed to be reminded of this so that we as readers can change our views. Without looking at the past, we can not change for the better in the future. This story kept me at the edge of my seat and up late into the night. 

Author, Diane Chamberlain knows how to turn a story from beginning to end so that you don't get a dull moment in between.