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Summary
Summary
A Grown Up Kind of Pretty is a powerful saga of three generations of women, plagued by hardships and torn by a devastating secret, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of family.
Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb-spirited, sassy, and on the cusp of womanhood-is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it's there. Liza, her stroke-ravaged mother, is haunted by choices she made as a teenager. But it is Jenny, Mosey's strong and big-hearted grandmother, whose maternal love braids together the strands of the women's shared past--and who will stop at nothing to defend their future.
Author Notes
Joshilyn Jackson graduated with honors from Georgia State with a degree in English literature. After earning her Master's in English at the University of Illinois in Chicago, she taught university-level English.
Jackson's short fiction has been published in many literary magazines and anthologies, and plays that she has written have been produced in Chicago and Atlanta.
Gods in Alabama, Jackson's first book, won SIBA's Novel of the Year award in 2005 and was a #1 BookSense pick. Between, Georgia was also a #1 BookSense pick, which gave Jackson the distinction of being the first author to receive that status in two consecutive years. Jackson also won the Listen Up award from Publisher's Weekly for her audio book reading. Her newest book is entitled, Backseat Saints.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Many writers shouldn't narrate the audio editions of their books; it's always a disappointment when a talented author who's not equally gifted as an actor decides to go the DIY route. Thankfully, that's not the case with Joshilyn Jackson, whose wild, dark humor shines all the more brightly when she narrates her own work. Like her other novels, this latest is set in the rural South-and the voices and accents Jackson creates for her characters are utterly believable. She ably brings to life three women at different stages of life: Ginny, a resourceful 45-year-old grandmother caring for her 30-year-old daughter, Liza, who suffered a debilitating stroke, and her granddaughter, Mosey, a 15-year-old girl who is determined not to become a pregnant teen like her mother and grandmother. When a backyard tree excavation unearths an infant's bones, all three women encounter family secrets that test the strength of their love. Jackson's high-pitched, fast-paced narration serves the story well. A Grand Central hardcover. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
Jackson (Backseat Saints) has written an unusual Southern family saga revolving around three generations of lonely, hardscrabble Slocumb women. Grandmother Ginny is the glue that holds them together when her ex-drug addict daughter, Liza, has a severe stroke, leaving her voiceless except for a few vowel sounds. Fifteen-year-old granddaughter Mosey is the same age her mother and grandmother were when they had their daughters, but Mosey isn't like her forebears; she's scarcely been kissed by a boy. When Ginny decides to pull out the old willow tree in the backyard to make room for a pool to use in rehabilitating Liza, a shallow grave is uncovered, revealing a small skeleton dressed in tattered baby clothes and unleashing a series of events for which Liza seems to have an explanation-but she can't tell. The story is told in the alternating voices of the women as the mystery unfolds. VERDICT Liza, as the unreliable narrator, is used to perfection in this warm family story that teeters between emotional highs and lows, laughter and tears. Book groups will eat this up. [See Prepub Alert, 7/18/11.]-Stacy Alesi, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., Boca Raton, FL (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.