With empathy, grace, humor, and piercing insight, the author of gods in Alabama pens a powerful, emotionally resonant novel of the South that confronts the truth about privilege, family, and the distinctions between perception and reality—the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and who we really are.Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs’ weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a … weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman.
It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She’s having a baby boy—an unexpected but not unhappy development in the thirty-eight year-old’s life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single-motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional, Southern family, her step-sister Rachel’s marriage implodes. Worse, she learns her beloved ninety-year-old grandmother, Birchie, is losing her mind, and she’s been hiding her dementia with the help of Wattie, her best friend since girlhood.
Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother’s affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she’s pregnant. Yet just when Leia thinks she’s got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie’s been hiding. Tucked in the attic is a dangerous secret with roots that reach all the way back to the Civil War. Its exposure threatens the family’s freedom and future, and it will change everything about how Leia sees herself and her sister, her son and his missing father, and the world she thinks she knows.
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I really enjoyed this multi-generational story. Lots of turns in new directions. Very enjoyable.
It rang true to its time and characters. A very good read that deals with relationships on several levels. It never drags and turns unexpected plot corners. Its serious but also fun.
Joshilyn Jackson has written another winner! Tangled family dynamics, wonderful characters and the deep nuances of the South.
I was a little bit hesitant about this book in the beginning when I realized the protagonist was a comic book author and illustrator and it’s weaved throughout the novel. I really liked it though and if it weren’t for a few things, I would have given it five stars.
Leia realized she is pregnant after a one night stand with a Batman that she met at a comic convention. This book has a lot going on… almost too much. If you like family drama, you’ll love this book. She has a Grandma with Levy bodies (making her say crazy things), her perfect sister is going through a difficult time in her marriage, she found out she is pregnant at 38 years old and doesn’t remember the father’s name, and so much more.
I couldn’t help but see a correlation between this Rachel and Leia and biblical Rachel and Leah. The book’s title worked well throughout the book and the characters are well developed. I loved some of the author’s descriptions.
The author is an award winning audio book narrator and reads her own books. If you like listening to books, I’d recommend listening to this one!
I think this would be a good bookclub book with a lot of discussion material. Racism, parenthood, different types of Dads, the South, dementia, legal issues, marriages, teenagers, etc.
**There is a lot of language (including f-word multiple times), crude and vulgar discussions and language, talks of sex, some descriptive snippets of sex, etc.
Rated R for sure. These are the main reasons I didn’t give it 5 Stars. The other reason is so much was going on and then it all just ended abruptly and tied up with a bow.
A delightful romp with Southern characters who experienced family conflicts along with racial animosity in order to find happiness in their own way.
I listened to this book, read by the author herself. She certainly can spin a tale! At the risk of repeating myself, I say “in the tradition of Fannie Flagg (but grittier)”, Jackson creates a story of near-epic proportions, going back generations where actions have an impact on the present day in unpredictable ways. Like “Gods in Alabama”, the story is told from the first person, but all the supporting players are completely 3-dimensional and, at times, threaten to take over the narration (but in a good way). High marks! I can’t wait to read another of Jackson’s books.
Great read
I love Jackson’s worlds, filled with characters that manage to be memorable and realistic at the same time. In The Almost Sisters, Jackson tackles her beloved South’s history of, and continuing problems with, racism in the form of an unplanned pregnancy of a biracial child, and all the prejudices of a small town towards its two main elders, one white, one black. (I’m not doing the plot justice. It’s more convoluted and interesting than I made it sound. For example, there are bones in the attic) Jackson’s novels are filled with broken people working towards grace and redemption, and I loved The Almost Sisters. Go read it.
The characters were unusual. The story was funny at times and sometimes sad.
Great book for our book club. Lots of good discussion.
A good read with an interesting surprise at the end.
Received this ARC from William Morrow and recommending it to all my reader friends.
Graphic novelist Leia has a one-night fling with an enamored fan dressed as Batman. So begins this richly layered story of unplanned pregnancy, family secrets, meddling teenagers, overt and covert racism in a small Southern town. Then there’s the trunk in the attic! Personal relationships & societal pressures force us to question whether truth is a moral imperatve. So good!