Julie's Review: A Grown Up Kind of Pretty

Summary: Every fifteen years, trouble comes after the Slocumb women. Now, as their youngest turns fifteen, a long-hidden grave is unearthed in the backyard. Headstrong young Mosey Slocumb is determined to find out who used their yard as a make-shift cemetery, and why. What she learns could cost her family everything.  As forty-five year old Ginny fights to protect Mosey from the truth, she’s thrown back into the arms of the long-lost---and married---love of her life. Between them is Liza, silenced by a stroke, with the answers trapped inside her. To survive Liza's secrets and Mosey's insistent adventures, Ginny must learn to trust the love that braids the strands of their past---and stop at nothing to defend their future. ~joshilynjackson.com

Review: What works so well for A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is that it is told from 3 different points of view. I can't imagine it working with a singular view point. What also works is that each voice is so clear and different from the next, that the names at the beginning of the chapters aren't needed. Ms. Jackson has written a witty, heartbreaking and heartwarming novel. At times you find yourself cracking up and other times you are close to tears. While the story is ultimately about family, it is a mystery as well. It is this mystery that makes Mosey question who she is and who her family is. It is this mystery that makes Big fight that much harder for family.

There is a lot going on in this novel but not in such a way where it is too hard to follow. What Ms. Jackson does an excellent job of is tying it all back together. Now this doesn't mean that the book ends up tidy and with a big bow, it doesn't but that's ok. In the end you know these characters are going to be ok.

I will have to say that I didn't particularly like Liza, even in the end. I thought she was selfish and self-centered, even in her current state. She didn't care who she had hurt and if she hadn't had the stroke, she'd probably still be doing the same things. Saying all that, it's not that she was evil, she did have a heart but she was weak when it came to men, especially married men.

I will be making time to read the backlog of Ms. Jackson's books, so if anyone has a suggestion on where to start, I'll take them.


Final Take: 4/5

Thanks to SheReads.org and Ms. Jackson for an autographed copy of the novel. 

Note: A few of us on Twitter had this novel in our TBR piles, so we all decided to read it together. Some finished quicker than others but it was fun. We had a hashtag #grownuppretty, if you want to look at the talking that ensued.