24th March, 2025 in Recommended Reads

On Veil Creek by Gaylene Dutchyshen

“It was easier not to think about it. Why take the sharp tip of a nail and drive it into your own heart day after day, until you feel like dying on account of the pain bleeding out?” The novel, On Veil Creek, by Gaylene Dutchyshen, is a weighty family drama about the hardships of small-town farm life in a troubled home of parents with diverging fixations to combat their personal pain. We view the family through the perspectives of the younger siblings, Marissa and Tommy, as we gain insight into their hopes as children, and the burden that carries into later life when there are unresolved and hushed tragedies that cause distrust in a family that desperately needs each other. On Veil Creek explores the distress that a troubled childhood can wreck upon one’s adult life, and the healing that trust and communication can ultimately provide.