'A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty' by Joshilyn Jackson is a story that delves into the lives of three generations of women - Big Ginny, mother to Liza who suffered a stroke at a young age, and Liza's teenage daughter Mosey. The family is living under a curse that strikes every fifteen years, and when a box of infant bones is discovered, buried secrets are brought to light, changing the Slocumb family forever. The plot revolves around mystery, coming of age, love, and redemption, with a southern setting that combines elements of prestige and wealth with poverty and slums.
The story is narrated through alternating chapters from the perspectives of the three Slocumb women, each with a distinct voice and facing the threat to their family in their own way. The characters are well-developed and multifaceted, with secrets and difficulties that are slowly revealed, making the readers emotionally invested in the story. The book captures the essence of southern women's fiction, blending humor and heartache, along with a core of pain and heartache at its center.
Genres:
Tropes/Plot Devices:
Topics:
Notes:
Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include discussions of stroke, trauma, and family dysfunction, which may be sensitive for some readers.
From The Publisher:
A Grown Up Kind of Pretty is a powerful saga of three generations of women, plagued by hardships and torn by a devastating secret, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of family.
Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb - spirited, sassy, and on the cusp of womanhood - is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it's there. Liza, her stroke-ravaged mother, is haunted by choices she made as a teenager. But it is Jenny, Mosey's strong and big-hearted grandmother, whose maternal love braids together the strands of the women's shared past - and who will stop at nothing to defend their future.
Ratings (2)
Loved It (2) |
Reader Stats (5):
Read It (2) | |
Want To Read (3) |
1 comment(s)
Joshilyn Jackson, whom I believe is continually pigeonholed into "chick lit" or "women's fiction," continues to write strong southern gothic mystery with
A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. She focuses on three generations of women living in one house: Big, Liza, and Mosey, respectively grandmother, mother, and daughter. Big operates under the assumption that every fifteen years something terrible will happen to her or her family: at fifteen she became pregant with Liza, who then became pregnant with Mosey at 15, and this year is Mosey's 15th. Big thinks Liza's stroke is the curse come round, but the stroke leads to an unearthing (haha see what I did there) of old secrets that wind their way through multiple families in and out of the town.
I love how Mosey thinks she is grown up, and indeed she has no plans of going wild and doing the things her forebears so regret: sex, drugs, running away. But at the end of the novel she is forced to confront her past and the reality of what those things can do to a woman; she finds out who she really is and the knowledge shocks rather than settles her.
What can you read after
A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty?
When you click the Amazon link and make a purchase, we may receive a small commision, at no cost to you.
