“Genteel society ladies who compare notes on their husbands’ suicides. A hilariously foul-mouthed black drag queen. A voodoo priestess who works her roots in the graveyard at midnight…” The back cover summary continues to hint at murder, Nazi flags and “a walking streak of sex.” These are only small pieces of the puzzle that is the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.

This nonfiction book that reads a bit like a fiction piece follows Berendt’s time in Savannah, Georgia. Somehow, Berendt is able to meet a multitude of interesting people, and at times, it becomes a struggle to believe these were real people. This is one thing that sets this book apart from others: everything truly happened, and many of these characters are still alive.

This book is split into two parts, with 30 chapters in total. In the first part we, as readers, learn about the multiple characters we were first introduced to on the back cover. For me, this reading was somewhat slow, because the conflict had not happened. At the very end of the first part, the author drops a cliffhanger, leaving us hanging and yearning to read more. Overall, the book was interesting, although a bit slow.

This book would be especially interesting to those living in Georgia or those with a deep love for this area. However, as an Iowa kid with very little experience in the south, this book gave me a look at a different state and town that is very different from my own. The first difference is that Savannah is thought of as a small town, but there were over 100,000 residents at the time this book took place. Adel, in comparison, is thought of as a small town and had a little less than 3,500 residents in 1990.

This is a very important thought to keep in mind while reading, because although both towns are thought of as small, they’re very different. Overall, this book is an interesting, somewhat quick read for anyone, small, southern town or small, northern town.