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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
Dark Legacy by E M Schorb is told through the unfinished memoir of Jessie Judas, a celebrated biologist whose childhood on North Carolina’s Fortune Island is something of a mystery to her younger brother, David. As a girl, Jessie lives in the household of Reverend Jason Cogburn, a traveling preacher whose cruelty has made her home a frightening place. Ruth Perle, a visiting folklorist, takes an interest in her and shows her what life beyond the island might offer. Jessie only knows her absent father through other people’s accounts of a crime, and the arrival of a watchful stranger stirs curiosity of its own. Years later, David comes across Jessie's written account and begins to understand what her life on Fortune Island meant.
E M Schorb's Dark Legacy shows how much being wanted means to Jessie. That longing in her is treated sensitively, and we see how she would translate love through somebody's willingness to stay. Ruth's devotion has particular meaning for that very reason. During Hurricane Hazel, she remains beside Jessie as the water rises around them. It's a moving act of selflessness and loyalty, and the exact opposite of another main character. The Reverend is exceptionally well drawn, too. His certainty about his own righteousness offers a window into how he justifies his cruelty toward Jessie. When Jessie confronts him following her birthday, his insistence that everything was for her benefit reveals the reasoning he lives by. This is thoughtful literary fiction about the obligations adults have toward their kids, and I highly recommend it.
