A review by scorpstar77
The Opposite of Everyone by Joshilyn Jackson

5.0

Paula Vauss is a ruthless, take-no-prisoners divorce attorney - if your soon-to-be ex-spouse is somehow breaking into your house and peeing in your makeup to mess with you, she is the one you want on your side. Unfortunately, almost no one knows how fragile she is on the topic of family. Raised by a hippie-wannabe-Hindu-but-actually-more-like-a-white-Southern-gypsy, Paula was actually named Kali after the Hindu mother goddess. She never knew who her father was (or what her race is - she's a mix of something but has never been sure what), and her mom, Kai, raises her in a roving hippie lifestyle, moving from town to town, from boyfriend to boyfriend, always the two of them a team that can't be destroyed...until Paula does something that seems unforgiveable, and the two are torn apart for decades. Paula has toughened herself up, but when a cryptic note comes from Kai indicating that she'll be dying soon, Paula sort of falls apart. And then she has to put herself back together when a series of really unexpected family secrets are exposed, and she has to get everything back in order - her career, her love life, and the family she never thought she'd have.

I love every book this woman puts to page, but I think this one might be her very best. The pace of the story is always driving forward, forward, forward - much like Paula herself. It's a mystery and a family drama all rolled into one, told both in the present day and in flashbacks to her life with Kai as Kali. I've always said Between, Georgia was my favorite of JJ's books - and it is definitely at the top for me, in large part because I identify so strongly with Nonny - but on a storytelling craft level? This book is the best book she's ever written. And that is high praise coming from someone who has loved all of her books!