"Regional flavor, quirky humor, and strong father-son dynamics are the elements of this entertaining debut novel."
     —Voice of Youth Advocates

"A terrific, thought-provoking, introspective look at inter-generational strife and the struggles for appreciation and understanding by each character."
     —Library Media Connection (Worthington, OH)

"Engaging story of love and redemption, judgment and forgiveness, life and death.....Hemphill brings a fresh, humorous voice to her tale. ... A breath of fresh air."
     —BookPage

Show All Reviews

"Regional flavor, quirky humor, and strong father-son dynamics are the elements of this entertaining debut novel."
     —Voice of Youth Advocates

"A terrific, thought-provoking, introspective look at inter-generational strife and the struggles for appreciation and understanding by each character."
     —Library Media Connection (Worthington, OH)

"Engaging story of love and redemption, judgment and forgiveness, life and death.....Hemphill brings a fresh, humorous voice to her tale. ... A breath of fresh air."
     —BookPage

"Hemphill strikes a confident balance between deep heartache and sharply irreverent humor. Harlan’s folksy voice narrates, and his constant thoughts of running away and his run-ins with shady characters move the story swiftly along."
     —Booklist

"Hemphill’s debut novel alternates between bittersweet and laugh-aloud funny, often in the same paragraph. With a clear, spare writing style, she tells the quirky tale of a father and his estranged son making a road trip from Texas to Nevada with a casket in the back of their old station wagon."
     —Dallas Morning News

"Hemphill borrows themes from Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood and a plot point from As I Lay Dying in this impressive debut ...Laugh-out-loud scenes, a marvelous narrative voice, period details and appealingly quirky characterization outweigh the too-tidy ending, making Hemphill a writer to watch."
     —Publishers Weekly

"In her strong debut, set during the late 1960s (or early 1970s), Hemphill strikes a confident balance between deep heartache and sharply irreverent humor. Harlan’s folksy voice narrates ("I wanted to go like an old dog with a small bladder," he says about the trip), and his constant thoughts of running away and his run-ins with shady characters move the story swiftly along. Many teens will see their own questions about faith, worship, and independence in Harlan’s heart-twisting feelings: "How could God love a screw-up [sic] like me?"
     —Children's Literature

"Wryly funny."
     —Kirkus Reviews

"In her first novel, Hemphill catches the classic tone of the road-trip story, as confidences and life stories roll by along with the miles, and the possibilities open up with the horizon, and she never overplays her quirky, satirically touched humor and picturesque particularity. By overtly focusing the story on fathers and sons, the book relieves itself of the burden of being unobtrusive, so that Harlan Q can be keenly interested in Warrior’s relationship with his own estranged father and with Harlan P; the ‘Long Gone Daddy’ of the title is actually the name of Harlan O’s Vegas bar, taken from a Hank Williams song and summing up Harlan O’s own history of parenting, with which Harlan Q’s dad has never really come to terns. The colorful and comedic travel tale will draw a broad range of readers, while those dealing with their own parental friction will sympathize with Halan Q’s struggles."
     —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"A delightful story that let the reader feel the emotions and battles of a teenage boy trying to understand his thoughts and life—separate from the thinking of his father."
     —ALAN Review

"Hemphill’s novel features a spot-on Southern voice, a double helping of colorful characters, and an emotionally-satisfying conclusion. What else could you ask from a debut author?"
     —ALAN Review