Backseat Saints
by Joshilyn Jackson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joshilyn JacksonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2010-06-08
ISBN: 0446582344
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780446582346
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Backseat Saints
Book Review: southern sass doesn't make it any less exhausting for the reader
Summary: 3 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This was a tough book for me. I like to lose myself in books, and whether the stories are happy or sad, there *needs* to be somewhere in the book that's a "safe" spot for the reader to perch and take notice of all the action. A tiny vine of hope. Just *something* to cling to. There wasn't anything like that in this book.
Rose Mae Lolly is torn between her incredibly abusive husband and his ignorant and controlling family, and the strange warning she received from a tarot reader at the airport, who urged her to GET OUT. In her quest to find a safe way to make her escape, she dwells on her "former life, growing up in a town called Fruition, tended to by an incredibly abusive father.
The majority of the book focuses on Rose's constant efforts to avoid her husband's wrath, and it's exhausting. Rose must calculate every breath she takes, every word she says, every meals she prepares, every expression on her face with extreme care and caution, and the reader is forced to sit with baited breath wile we wait to see if Thom decides whether or not Rose deserves to live another day or not. Since it seems like just picking up and getting the heck out of there doesn't seem to be an option (isn't it, though? Several times in the book she's given an outstretched hand by people who wish to help her- Mrs. Fancy, a nurse, etc.) the reader must wait with Rose until she can break free. And it never seems like it might be coming. You constantly root for Rose, but you want her to get OUT, to get away from the chaos, and there a part of you that starts to believe that maybe Rose *feeds* off her bad luck a little tiny bit, likes the battle scars it gives her.
And while Rose waits to leave, she accidentally shoots her beloved dog (and this is probably going to be a tough part of the book for animal lovers), runs into her 20-years-missing mother at the airport, starts running around looking at graffiti for secret messages, and begins noticing various saints toting along in the back seat of her car.
Then there's a strange narrative jump- as Rose prepares her getaway, her "high school persona" jumps in and takes over the story, and the narrative switches to third-person. New characters are introduced. Some of it is sort of fascinating (I especially liked the bits about Rose's habit of "borrowing" things from people and making sure those things ended up in the right person's hands) and Johlyn Jackson is certainly a gifted writer, but overall, all the jumping around it made it difficult for me to really become wrapped in the story. And the prose is too contrived for me. I lived in Georgia for almost a decade, and some of the "southernisms" in the book made me wince a bit.
I must admit, I found this book too frustrating and exhausting to really enjoy. Yes, Rose Mae is full of southern spunk and energy, and there are some characters in the book that redeem humanity, but this isn't an adventure I'd want to take again. There was too much struggle for Rose and not enough of a reward at the end of her difficult journey away from the pain and suffering that seemed to follow her for her entire life.
Summary of Backseat Saints
Rose Mae Lolley's mother disappeared when she was eight, leaving Rose with a heap of old novels and a taste for dangerous men. Now, as demure Mrs. Ro Grandee, she's living the very life her mother abandoned. She's all but forgotten the girl she used to be-teenaged spitfire, Alabama heartbreaker, and a crack shot with a pistol-until an airport gypsy warns Rose it's time to find her way back to that brave, tough girl . . . or else. Armed with only her wit, her pawpy's ancient .45, and her dog Fat Gretel, Rose Mae hightails it out of Texas, running from a man who will never let her go, on a mission to find the mother who did.Starring a minor character from Jackson's bestselling gods in Alabama, BACKSEAT SAINTS will dazzle readers with its stunning portrayal of the measures a mother will take to right the wrongs she's created, and how far a daughter will travel to satisfy the demands of forgiveness.
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