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A grown up kind of pretty [sound recording]
Jackson, Joshilyn.
Adult Fiction JACKSON
From Publishers' Weekly:
The Slocumb women suffer from an unfortunate curse: every 15 years something bad happens. Ginny gave birth to Liza when she was 15. And Liza had Mosey when she was 15. Now it's Mosey who's 15, and she's nervous. But the curse strikes in a different form, bringing a stroke to Liza that renders her mute and crippled, leaving her husband "Big" to care for her. Wanting to put a pool in the yard for Liza's water therapy, Ginny has a willow uprooted, unearthing the bones of a baby-Liza's baby. This macabre discovery sends Mosey, Ginny, and Big in search of answers about the baby and Mosey's identity. Their quest, told in alternating points-of-view among all main characters, uncovers an old feud between Liza and best friend Melissa, an illicit affair, the vengeance of the thwarted party, and drug addiction long hidden. Along the way Mosey puts her life in danger and learns a thing or two about family. Jackson's newest (after Backseat Saints) is highly immersive, evoking the suffocation of rural Mississippi and using a teen pregnancy mystery to create a compelling page-turner. While Jackson doesn't entirely avoid cliches, the care that she's taken in developing the relationships between the Slocumb women makes up for it. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
From Library Journal:
Jackson (Backseat Saints) has written an unusual Southern family saga revolving around three generations of lonely, hardscrabble Slocumb women. Grandmother Ginny is the glue that holds them together when her ex-drug addict daughter, Liza, has a severe stroke, leaving her voiceless except for a few vowel sounds. Fifteen-year-old granddaughter Mosey is the same age her mother and grandmother were when they had their daughters, but Mosey isn't like her forebears; she's scarcely been kissed by a boy. When Ginny decides to pull out the old willow tree in the backyard to make room for a pool to use in rehabilitating Liza, a shallow grave is uncovered, revealing a small skeleton dressed in tattered baby clothes and unleashing a series of events for which Liza seems to have an explanation-but she can't tell. The story is told in the alternating voices of the women as the mystery unfolds. VERDICT Liza, as the unreliable narrator, is used to perfection in this warm family story that teeters between emotional highs and lows, laughter and tears. Book groups will eat this up. [See Prepub Alert, 7/18/11.]-Stacy Alesi, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., Boca Raton, FL (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Jackson, Joshilyn.
Adult Fiction JACKSON
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From Publishers' Weekly:
The Slocumb women suffer from an unfortunate curse: every 15 years something bad happens. Ginny gave birth to Liza when she was 15. And Liza had Mosey when she was 15. Now it's Mosey who's 15, and she's nervous. But the curse strikes in a different form, bringing a stroke to Liza that renders her mute and crippled, leaving her husband "Big" to care for her. Wanting to put a pool in the yard for Liza's water therapy, Ginny has a willow uprooted, unearthing the bones of a baby-Liza's baby. This macabre discovery sends Mosey, Ginny, and Big in search of answers about the baby and Mosey's identity. Their quest, told in alternating points-of-view among all main characters, uncovers an old feud between Liza and best friend Melissa, an illicit affair, the vengeance of the thwarted party, and drug addiction long hidden. Along the way Mosey puts her life in danger and learns a thing or two about family. Jackson's newest (after Backseat Saints) is highly immersive, evoking the suffocation of rural Mississippi and using a teen pregnancy mystery to create a compelling page-turner. While Jackson doesn't entirely avoid cliches, the care that she's taken in developing the relationships between the Slocumb women makes up for it. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
From Library Journal:
Jackson (Backseat Saints) has written an unusual Southern family saga revolving around three generations of lonely, hardscrabble Slocumb women. Grandmother Ginny is the glue that holds them together when her ex-drug addict daughter, Liza, has a severe stroke, leaving her voiceless except for a few vowel sounds. Fifteen-year-old granddaughter Mosey is the same age her mother and grandmother were when they had their daughters, but Mosey isn't like her forebears; she's scarcely been kissed by a boy. When Ginny decides to pull out the old willow tree in the backyard to make room for a pool to use in rehabilitating Liza, a shallow grave is uncovered, revealing a small skeleton dressed in tattered baby clothes and unleashing a series of events for which Liza seems to have an explanation-but she can't tell. The story is told in the alternating voices of the women as the mystery unfolds. VERDICT Liza, as the unreliable narrator, is used to perfection in this warm family story that teeters between emotional highs and lows, laughter and tears. Book groups will eat this up. [See Prepub Alert, 7/18/11.]-Stacy Alesi, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., Boca Raton, FL (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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