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A review by carolineinthelibrary
Jell-O Girls: A Family History by Allie Rowbottom
3.0
This was not the story I was expecting but I didn't hate it. Being from an area very close to LeRoy, NY, I was interested to read a book about the impact that Jell-O had on this small town. Rowbottom really focuses more on her family and the effect silence, cancer, and mental illness had on them and that they just so happened to be so closely associated with the Jell-O fortune.
My biggest critique is that up until nearly the end of the book, it's hard to know who Rowbottom is talking about because her voice seems SO far removed from the story. I wasn't sure who Mary was until about book two because I had forgotten that she very briefly mentions Mary as her mother in the beginning of the story. It feels like Rowbottom is intentionally removing herself from a story that is just as much her own as it is her mother's.
My biggest critique is that up until nearly the end of the book, it's hard to know who Rowbottom is talking about because her voice seems SO far removed from the story. I wasn't sure who Mary was until about book two because I had forgotten that she very briefly mentions Mary as her mother in the beginning of the story. It feels like Rowbottom is intentionally removing herself from a story that is just as much her own as it is her mother's.