A review by inliterarylove
All the Best People by Sonja Yoerg

5.0

All the Best People is a wonderful, heartfelt novel about mental illness, secrets and family. The book is told through the eyes of 3 generations- Solange, her daughters Carole and Janine, and Carole's daughter Alison. Solange is a "pirate" from the wrong side of the tracks and marries Osbourne, from a prominent family. She is committed when Carol is just a young child and Janine, a newborn, has yet to be named. Next, Carole begins to hear voices as a mother to adolescent Alison (and her twin teenage boys), while working in her husband's shop. She is terrified and ashamed to end up like her mother and tries to hide her illness, but it becomes harder the longer she tries. Janine never really knew her mother, or her father, and is a narcissistic addition to the storyline. Other than Osbourne, it gives you someone to dislike and look forward to seeing if she gets her just desserts.

Yoerg goes back and forth, through each female's eyes, to show what it's like to deal with a mental illness, to have a family with a mental illness and the ramifications of it all. The reactions and emotions are real, raw and fantastically written. I savored this book, hoping it would last just a little bit longer. I know you will too.