A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty
A Novel
-
-
4.3 • 138 Ratings
-
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
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.
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 clich s, the care that she's taken in developing the relationships between the Slocumb women makes up for it.
Customer Reviews
I Have Found a New Author!
I have been binge reading 3 of Joshilyn Jackson’s books - Gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia and now A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. One is better than the next one. I love her characters - they are real and down to earth and make me laugh out loud sometimes. I will read anything this author writes. Read her! You won’t be disappointed. 👍
Great Read!
Going to find more books by this author.
Didn't want to put it down!
This was my first book by this author but now I'm looking forward to reading more. It took a full chapter and a half to understand the dialect (and I'm from the South, so this shouldn't be that far a stretch for me) but once I did I really got into this book. The storyline and characters are compelling and I found it to be a complete page turner. In fact, I read the last half in one day because I couldn't put it down. Excited to read Jackson's other novels now!