I, too, must have missed something here. While the first several chapters definitely had me hooked, I found the rest of the book slow going. Most of the characters, but especially Delia, were only partially-drawn, and each seemed to be keeping a BIG SECRET that never emerged. There is a lukewarm family drama described in retrospect toward the end of the book that could be considered expository, but it seemed like an author's afterthought, and didn't work at all.

The whole cave thing was too little, too late, and the fact that it dictated the book's title surprised me. I was most frustrated with how Allison takes us deep into a character, and then pulls back, as if teasing us with detail that is ultimately inconsequential. The most fascinating characters, Rosemary and Amanda, are dangling like rag dolls at the end of the story.

Allison has once again given us a beautiful book, real, romantic, and exceptionally written. Delia Byrd needs to go home and she drags her ten year old daughter with her. This is really her story, the story of Cissy, living in the strange Cayro, GA, her mother's hometown. What greets them is Delia's reputation. She left her husband and her first two daughters, ran off with a rock star, and now returns to find bitterness and strong memories in the town's minds. Cissy is pulled along for the ride, at turns found curious and interesting, and other times looked on as a total outcast. This is her story of growing up and finding truth in the beauty parlor, in her mama's strange friends, and in the gift a boy gives her: the location of amazing caves.

The writing is powerful and the story compelling. We are with Cissy every step of the way and we rejoice with her for her freedom and the security she finds underground. The novel becomes predictable only near the end and the outcome is quick and painless. I loved this book.

Years and years ago, I devoured Bastard out of Carolina. Then I got ahold of Cavedweller - and it might as well have dwelt in a cave itself for all the notice I took of it. Why did it take me so long to pick it up and read it?
Answer: the cover photo was ambiguous and didn't draw me in, and the title was...odd.
What a mistake! I picked it up while cleaning out bookshelves a few days ago, flipped to the first page, and barely put it down till I'd finished it. It begins with death, and death (or the threat of death - many near misses) persists throughout. But somehow the women of this book triumph above poverty, narrow-minded neighbors, small town pettiness, Holy Roller invective, no-good men (though, to Allison's credit, there ARE a few good men), and lack of opportunity.
I admire the author's ability to move seamlessly forward in time without her readers demanding to know absolutely everything that happened in the intervening years. Characters grow and learn and change, and Allison's writing plops us down at the critical moments so we can observe first-hand the events that caused the transitions.
Wonderful book, wonderful characters, wonderful writing.
Highest recommendation, right behind Bastard out of Carolina.