BETWEEN, GEORGIA broke my heart in more ways than one.
First there is the fact that Joshilyn Jackson’s writing is so masterful and authentic that anyone else with the temerity to try and write a Southern novel will feel like an imposter. Her voice, her characters, the setting, and the sheer excitement of the plot are fantastic enough to make me feel I need to dump my work-in-progress and start all over again.
Ms. Jackson starts the novel in media res, a fancy term for cutting straight to the chase, and what a chase it is, this gripping and yet poignant tale of a “red-headed stepchild” that turns the concept upside down and inside out. Nonny Frett is the darling of two feuding (and somewhat feudal) families. She is their peacemaker and their greatest hope, and yet she is also so clearly their compassionate beneficiary. The frailities of her family show up against a frieze of their strenths, it’s a tableau of Gothic proportions while also striking this reader as completely fresh and inarguably true. Most compelling for me was the way in which the characters tended one another with an almost paranormal sense of delicacy, punctuated by the odd deadly swipe with the bon mot on crack or the reptilian clumsiness that will strike a chord way down inside the place where Hallmark don’t go.
I inhaled this book, I savored this book, I hated to have it end. Joshilyn Jackson is the real thing. Go buy this book and don’t bother making any other plans for your weekend
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