Summary: When Arlene Fleet headed off to college in Chicago, she made three promises to God: She would never again lie, she would stop fornicating with every boy who crossed her path, and she'd never, ever go back to her tiny hometown of Possett, Alabama (the "fourth rack of Hell"). All God had to do in exchange was to make sure the body of high school quarterback Jim Beverly was never found.
Ten years later, Arlene has kept her promises, but an old school-mate has recently turned up asking questions. And now Arlene's African American beau has given her a tough ultimatum: introduce him to her family, or he's gone. As she prepares to confront guilt, discrimination, and a decade of deception, Arlene is about to discover just how far she will go to find redemption - and love.
I listened to the audiobook for Gods in Alabama and I loved it! I found myself cracking up laughing about so much of it. The story itself isn't funny, its sad and tragic, but Joshilyn Jackson has a way of writing and describing things that's just hilarious. My favorite part was when her boyfriend, Burr, met her family for the first time and her mother is marvelling over how he doesn't talk like a black man and his reaction to that. I was howling laughing.
All the characters were wonderful and believeable. I really liked Arlene. She was a crazy good time. I would have liked to have gotten a little background on how she and Burr got together, but that's not really a huge deal. I know it was through his mother, but it wasn't really explained further than that.
The audiobook reader was really good. I think she had the whole Alabama thing down really well. The only thing I didn't like about it was it had random background music for dramatic effect that I thought was really distracting and kinda cheesy. The first time I heard it I was looking around my car like "what the hell is that??" I didn't like it!
I will most definitely be going back and reading everything Joshilyn Jackson has written. Backseat Saints is up next because it's kinda like a spin off of Gods in Alabama.
Sounds like a great book I need to add to my TBR pile or should I say tower? Thanks for the great review!
ReplyDeleteYea, can't you just see a small town country girl bringing home an African American boy as her boyfriend. I thought the family would all have heart attacks. I loved this book. It was tragic and funny and I'll have to look for her other book. If a book makes you laugh out loud when you're reading it, you know it's good!
ReplyDeleteHeather