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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
This was a wonderful quick read. I was going to say "light" read, but some of the content is anything but light. Very engaging, wonderful characters. It's the best I've read from Joshilyn Jackson.
The thing I love about Joshilyn Jackson's novels is that they all have very different plots, but they all have a big emotional impact. This novel was so good! I loved the characters and I loved the stories that Kali/Paula's mom told. Every character in this novel has a story and they are all good stories. Nobody in this novel is perfects, they are flawed and all too real. The story tugs at your heartstrings until you just can't stop reading. I definitely recommend this book.
Another great book written and narrated by Joshilyn Jackson.
5+. Oh my -- maybe the best Joshilyn Jacksoh book yet, and one of the best books I've read in ages. Wonderful! About a hippie southern Mom and her daughter (mostly). The Mom is interested in fringe, drug-type, hppie culture, and very into Hindu gods & stories. They live like nomads, Mom hooking up with boyfriends and then sneaking off in the night when things get rough. In spite of their unconventional life, they love each other deeply. But one day the daughter calls 911, thinking the cops will pick up only the pot-growing boyfriend, and Mom is arrested too. The daughter gets sent to a group foster home while Mom serves prison time. Mom doesn't know her daughter called the cops until much later, and that breaks them. Daughter ends up a cutthroat divorce atty in Atlanta, and one day learns she has a 20-year-old brother (born in prison and given up for adoption) and a 10-yo sister.
I found this novel riveting, and devoured it in one afternoon. It’s very well-written though, and so you could read it a little more slowly!
This is a family drama, mostly about the mother/daughter relationship, with elements of a mystery. It begins dramatically, with the opening sentence. “I was born blue.” The narrator was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck – and her mother, seeing her blueness, named her Kali after the Hindu destroyer goddess.
The novel moves back and forth between the present moment – in which Kali has become Paula Vauss, a hard-edged lawyer who specializes in the messiest of divorces – and her childhood with her strange, disquieting, fascinating mother, who populates her bedtime stories with Indian gods and goddesses. When the novel begins, we know that Kali and her mother haven’t spoken to each other in years, but we don’t know why.
As we delve into Kali’s past, we explore her later childhood, when she is locked up in juvie, learning to fight. Back in the present, she is also always on the defensive, especially in her erratic relationship with the P.I. who works for her, Birdwine. The connection between them is written very deftly.
Jackson occasionally relies on the tropes you find in mysteries, but mostly she is carries you deeper and deeper into an emotional journey. She manages to be light and witty, and at the same time, intense and dramatic.
This is a family drama, mostly about the mother/daughter relationship, with elements of a mystery. It begins dramatically, with the opening sentence. “I was born blue.” The narrator was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck – and her mother, seeing her blueness, named her Kali after the Hindu destroyer goddess.
The novel moves back and forth between the present moment – in which Kali has become Paula Vauss, a hard-edged lawyer who specializes in the messiest of divorces – and her childhood with her strange, disquieting, fascinating mother, who populates her bedtime stories with Indian gods and goddesses. When the novel begins, we know that Kali and her mother haven’t spoken to each other in years, but we don’t know why.
As we delve into Kali’s past, we explore her later childhood, when she is locked up in juvie, learning to fight. Back in the present, she is also always on the defensive, especially in her erratic relationship with the P.I. who works for her, Birdwine. The connection between them is written very deftly.
Jackson occasionally relies on the tropes you find in mysteries, but mostly she is carries you deeper and deeper into an emotional journey. She manages to be light and witty, and at the same time, intense and dramatic.
This was a FANTASTIC book. A really really really good mystery. I absolutely love the main character (she's a lawyer with a very interesting backstory). There is a great peeling of the onion around that story, her family, and cases she deals with. She grows a lot as a character due to events in the book, I freaking loved it. Highly recommended.
This is probably more of a critique than a review.
I started reading The Opposite of Everyone standing in the library. I picked the book off the shelf of new arrivals and, basically, that was that; I had to read it. Joshilyn Jackson is a story teller of note. Hindu myth, dysfunctional families, the American legal profession and more - all are skilfully woven together around the main protagonist - a strong woman.
I started reading The Opposite of Everyone standing in the library. I picked the book off the shelf of new arrivals and, basically, that was that; I had to read it. Joshilyn Jackson is a story teller of note. Hindu myth, dysfunctional families, the American legal profession and more - all are skilfully woven together around the main protagonist - a strong woman.
At the beginning I found her writing style a bit "true detective-ish" but after a while either it softened or I got used to it. The story line is compelling and it consistently held my interest. At times, her phrasing was quite beautiful and the construction of the story was tight and artfully presented.
This book had a good plot in mind, but it tried to tie together myth and modern day and it fell a bit flat. A bit too modern in tone for the intentions but it was an alright read.