A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty: A Novel

The Slocum women -- three generations of them -- have had their share of drama in their Mississippi upbringing. Ginny ("Big") had a baby at age 15. That baby, Liza, also had a baby at age 15. That baby, Mosey, is now nearly 15 and her family is determined that she will not fall victim to the same mistakes that they made in their young teenage years. When some small infant bones are accidentally uprooted in their backyard, the older Slocum women attempt to hide past secrets, while the youngest, Mosey, desperately tries to discover what those secrets may be.I've been a fan of Joshilyn Jackson since her earlier novels, though it's been quite a few years since I've read one. She's truly gifted at writing about southern women and their dysfunctional families. The thing I like about her is that she can take that dysfunction and overall craziness and concoct a really good story, usually with a bit of mysteriousness and a good multi-layered plot. This book was no exception. She always narrates her own audio books, and though sometimes that strong southern twang can borderline get on my nerves, I don't think it could be read any other way and still be as effective. While some of her books are stronger than others, I thought this one was a pretty good one and I look forward to continuing to make my way through the rest of her novels.

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson is my first book by this author and I thoroughly enjoyed this story about three generations of determined, spunky Southern women who lived life by their rules. They are suddenly faced with a dark family secret and each in their own way tries to solve the mystery while also trying to protect the others from the hurt that this devastating secret will cause. Bad things appear to happen to the Slocan women every fifteen years. The matriarch, Ginny got pregnant at fifteen and her family threw her out in the streets. Her daughter, Liza also became an unwed mother at fifteen. After running away and living on the streets for two years, she and her daughter Mosey showed up at Ginny’s door. Now granddaughter, Mosey is about to enter her fifteenth year and this one appears to be the worse year yet.With it’s snappy dialogue, very likeable characters and acerbic humor the author delivers a very interesting and engaging story about the troubled lives of this family of women and the strength of their love for each other.

I was pretty sure I'd like this book before I even started it. I've yet to read a Joshiliyn Jackson novel that I haven't liked. I was right.The Slocumb women are victims of a fifteen-year curse. First Ginny got pregnant at fifteen, giving birth to Liza. Fifteen years later, Liza becomes pregnant, too. Now fourteen-year-old Mosey is so paranoid about becoming pregnant (she is a virgin) that she takes pregnancy tests constantly- just to remind herself that everything is ok- that she is not a victim to the Slocumb curse. Liza has suffered a stroke which has left her unable to speak and partially paralyzed. When local handyman Tyler Baines cuts down the willow tree in the Slocumb's back yard to make room for the pool Liza needs for therapy, he makes a horrifying discovery- an infant buried in a small chest beneath the tree. Liza becomes distraught, uttering some of the only words she still knows- "My baby!" But if the baby beneath the tree is Liza's, who is Mosey? This is a hard-to-put-down story of three women facing the world head on against all odds. It is a story of love and redemption. Joshilyn Jackson keeps you guessing right up to the final page.Read this book if...*you love southern fiction*you love stories of mothers and daughters*you love a good mystery

Extremely engaging story and wonderful narration.

This was my first Joshilyn Jackson book, and to say I am completely hooked is a huge understatement. I absolutely loved this storyline. Rough around the edges, but filled with such raw emotion that I was sucked in from the beginning and left holding onto it at the end, not wanting to finish.

The story takes place in the south through a family dynamic that you can't help but love - a grandmother, her daughter (born to her at 15), and her grandaughter (born when her daughter was 15). There is a HUGE family secret that weaves its way through the story involving a very mysterious backyard find and the implications of it.

Characters are, without a doubt, superb. Jackson not only nails the three main women of the story with such accuracy (getting the "momisms" as well as the teenage angst) that it made me feel that I was in the room with them all. Along the way were some amazing secondary characters who also were expressed with such clarity that it became almost visual (Roger, Patti, and Lawrence....along with Claire, of course).

I highly highly highly recommend this. It is, most of all, a book of love that knows no boundaries. I'm off to check out the others by Jackson!!!

I've read two other novels by this author, long before I started blogging, and I was less than impressed by what she had to offer in Between, Georgia and Gods in Alabama. Both of these Southern-set novels were just sort of...there. I didn't love them, didn't hate them; I didn't have enough emotion invested to feel either way. Nothing called to me from their pages; the characters weren't favorites or interesting; they simply did what they had to for the story - I felt no connection to the plots, the settings, the people. Happily for me, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty diverges from the path set down by its predecessors. The unfolding stories and pasts of these three similar but disparate women (Mosey, Liza, Ginny) is engaging from early on and the mystery at the heart of Mosey's life is both compelling and immensely readable. Ginny is 45 and the matriarch of her tight-knit, all-female family, and in her short-ish years has experienced a cyclical pattern for three periods of extreme difficulties: her 15th year, her 30th and 45th. Jackson paints Ginny as a strong, Southern woman, one who can readily buy that she and her family are cursed by the number 15, but one that steadfastly hates religion, mostly Baptists. She's just "Big" to both of her girls, and has a big personality to match her sobriquet. Ginny is a complex character: I'd say she's even more dimensional than her wild-child daughter Liza, and reading about this determined Grandma reminded me a bit of my own hard-as-nails grandma. Ginny feels real, as do most of the characters herein, and is humanly flawed. But it is her unceasing sense of humor that keeps her narrative from veering into too pessimistic of territory or from sounding downtrodden ("I'll go straight under any number of ladders if you put the right kind of pie on the other side..." p. 8 ARC) despite the biblical amounts of crap that continually fall her way during A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. While the three rotating POVs of the Slocumb women worked to illuminate each woman separately and uniquely, Ginny's POV was resoundingly my favorite to read for the entire duration of the book.Mosey is the hinge upon which this whole book turns, and surprisngly, this teenager is able to bear the pressure. While I may haaaate her name, Mosey's story is by turns funny, confusing, and emotional. While my liking for Big was immediate and I was curious about Liza from the start, Mosey was a slow-burn character for me. What really reversed my indifference was her relationship with Roger. I laughed out loud at the two of them ("he was just Roger, fixing my tit for me") when they were physcially present together: their texting drove me up a wall. Prepare oneself for 1337 speak and horribly mangled sentences when reading the interchanges between the mischievous pair. The slang felt very 'Southern' but the abbreviations and such were a bit much for me to handle.Liza is the most unformed personality among the women, but for obvious, plot-adjacent reasons. Since Liza's situation is so different from her daughter and mother, I appreciated how distinct her "voice"/thoughts were. Though this is the second book in two weeks I've read that features a female main character with a 'brain event' (The Vanishing Game being the other), Liza's story is riveting. Described as a "half girl, half hurricane", Liza was the crazy, uncontrolled member of this family tripod. Even diluted by her injuries, "Little's" narrative is easily identifiable as hers, and almost as much as I wanted to unravel the mystery of Mosey, Liza's story has a great, unpredicted, attention-grabbing twist of its own.A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is an easy, but very involving read. I'm not too proud to admit that several of my heartstrings were tugged very effectively, and unexpectedly often. I didn't cry, but my eyes did have tears in them at the resolution that Jackson extends to her readers. A slow beginning eases one into a story of what family really means and how the past does not have to define the future. This is not perfect, but it is very likeable and executed well. These are three very different women, all sympathetic despite any sins they have perpetrated. And for once, the rotating POV frame of storytelling worked very well - the breaks from each's story allowed for percolation of ideas/plots/assumptions. I had way more fun with this than I anticipated. My vote: give it a chance.

I really loved this book. It was heartwarming and funny and interesting. You really had a sense of the 3 main characters. It was a different story, well written and told with finess and a touch of humor. I will be watching for more novels written by Joshilyn Jackson.

This is the first book I have read by Ms Jackson. I thought it was very good. Loved the strong female characters, the humor and the southern setting. I will definitely read other books.

I adored this book. I loved the characters, I loved the structure, with the story passing from woman to woman, and I loved the voices of the characters -- the words they used and how the language flowed.

Sometimes when I read a book that has pop culture references, they seem jarring, like they pull me out and I think, well...that's going to be dated in a few year...but the references Jackson used seemed just right.

I have enjoyed reading her blog, but haven't always quite enjoyed her books as much as the blog, at least not until this book.

Every fifteen years, trouble comes knocking on the door for the Slocumb women. First it was Virginia, and then her daughter Liza. Now 15 year old Mosey is facing this curse. Yet the trouble is fall out from years of secrets kept from her by her mother and grandmother.As the secrets are literally unearthed in their own backyard, Mosey suddenly is forced to question not only what is going on, what secrets they have, but who she is as well. Having always been a good girl, in the shadow of her rebellious mother, now Mosey feels perhaps rebelling will reveal who she is and who she is meant to be.With the help of a couple of misfit friends, Mosey sets out to solve several mysteries that are tightly interwoven. Nothing is as it seems, including Mosey, Virginia, and Liza. She must unravel their past to know her own.The women in this novel are strong, feisty and warm Southern women. The other characters are all well developed, interesting and integral to the story. A perfect combination of fun and heartache, full of twists and turns, this novel is perfect summer reading.I will be reading more by Joshilyn Jackson, very soon. I hope for more like this!

Every 15 years, something bad happens to Ginny Slocumb. She got pregnant when she was 15 and her daughter, Liza, went and did the very same thing. Now, as her granddaughter, Mosey, approaches her 15th year, "Big" (as Mosey calls her) and Liza "Little" are determined to protect her from making their mistakes. Liza's wild personality is buried in the effects of a stroke, potentially caused by a drug habit, and Big is already overwhelmed, keeping Mosey safe and trying to reach through Liza's disability, when the removal of a willow tree from the backyard unearths a buried secret that could tear the family apart. With different chapters told from the perspective of each of the three characters, Joshilyn Jackson crafts an engaging story with fully developed and unique characters, a plot that sustains suspense, and distinct language that enhances the characters' differences as much as their ferocious love for each other. One of those rare novels that perfectly balances plot, characterization, setting, and language. Highly recommended.

This is about three generations of women. Ginny had her daughter Liza when she was 15 and her daughter had a baby, Mosey, also at the age of 15. Liza has had a wild life filled with drugs. She disappeared for a few years when her daughter was a baby and came back with a toddler in tow. She got her life together but Ginny did more of the child rearing. Both Ginny and Liza are trying to raise Mosey not to make the mistakes they made but for this family, every 15 years seems to bring a drastic turn in their lives. Now Liza is recovering from a stroke and a secret is uncovered under a tree that has been cut down in the back yard. There are bones of a baby buried in a box. Whose are they? The story is told alternately from the points of view of all three. The past is revisited, investigated and pulled apart. Everything changes. Through it all, the strong bond between grandmother, mother and daughter keeps them going. I liked this book, and i liked the characters and the sub plot which has to do with the daughter's recovery from the stroke.

Reason for Reading: I love southern fiction and have had this author on my want-to-read list for some time now. I actually own one other of her books (I won it) but haven't read it yet and finally got around to reading her with this book. I just love the cover! I used to have a few gingham summer dresses as a kid.I adored this book! What a beautiful, touching story. Set in Mississippi, each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the three women, each 15 years apart in age: Mosey is 14-turning 15, her mother Liza is 30, and Ginny, *her* mother, the grandmother, is 45. I loved every single one of these characters and simply took them into my heart. The story was sad and touching, yet full of hope against all odds. A despairing story that was uplifting at the same time. There is a mystery in the plot and I came up with a solution pretty much near the beginning which was continuously confirmed for me throughout the book, so I was quite shocked when 2/3 of the way through my theory became impossible and the mystery sorted itself out in a completely different direction. I loved this as I figure out mysteries too easily and like it when I'm wrong! I only had one problem with the book and that was that it was a slow read for me, I really don't know why but every time I picked it up I seemed to be reading at a very lazy pace. I was loving the book, but nothing could make me read at my normal speed until the last third of the book when the solving of the mystery comes into play and the action picks up, that part I read quickly. Now there is nothing wrong with a slow read, sometimes a book just demands that you take it in at a leisurely pace and mull it over. I actually kept wishing it was warmer out and I was reading the book under a tree somewhere. Trees are a symbol in the book. This will make a good vacation read, perhaps to take to the cottage with you. I will certainly be adding Joshilyn Jackson to my list of regularly read authors!

4.5 stars - I really enjoyed this book. I love Joshilyn Jackson's sense of humor. She makes me laugh even when talking about such severe topics that are presented in this book.This is a book about a mother, Ginny (Big), a daughter, Liza (Little), and a child, Mosey - who is Ginny's granddaughter and Liza's daughter... or so you're told. Ginny believes that every 15yrs God comes after her and causes trouble which started when she became a mother at 15... then 15 yrs later she became a grandmother... 15 yrs later is no different. Liza has a stroke and when a skeleton of a baby is found in her yard there is much debate over who that baby is and then... who Mosey is...A lot of family dynamics and secrets here, along with a dose of jealousy and out right hatred all fought and won with the right amount of love.Definite recommend.

Another wonderful southern novel, with strong woman as central characters, and enough plot twists and turns to keep the story moving quickly. Jackson always manages to come up with such quirky, yet human characters and a plot line that has the reader quickly becoming emotionally involved in the story line.Loved the teenagers in the story and most especially loved Big. Charming and enjoyable.

A Grown Up Kind of Pretty was not quite as outrageous as the other two Joshilyn Jackson books (Between, Georgia and Gods in Alabama) that I've read, but it certainly wasn't about your quiet unassuming, average everyday folk, either.Mosey Slocumb is fifteen, an age that would be hard enough on its own without the whole town watching you, just waiting for you to get pregnant. After all, it's what the Slocumb girls do when they're fifteen, they have babies. Mosey's mama did, Liza did and her mama, Big, did, too.With Liza recovering from the stroke she suffered several months ago and Mosey still flat as a board and not interested i boys, there's really no worry of her getting pregnant but soon that's just about the last thing on their minds . . .A tiny grave is unearthed when a tree is taken being taken out in their backyard. Finding out just how it got there - especially with Liza unable to talk to them about her more than checkered past - will push all three past where they thought they could go.Mosey, Liza and Big (her name is Ginny but Mosey calls her big - and Liza did when she could speak so she's refereed to as Big in the chapter titles and most of the book) are certainly not a conventional family but they are a strong one. Big, especially, has gone through a lot in her, really, rather short life. We learn of the hardships she had after having a baby at fifteen and then later on when Liza was older and now after Liza had her stroke, but she does an excellent job keeping the three of them together. She is the one working, hard as she can, to keep them all together and safe after the grave is found in the backyard and stirs up all kinds of potential trouble for them.I loved that chapters were told from each of their points of view so we got to see a bits of their past as well as how each of them viewed the current goings on. Not having it be told by one, first person narrator also allows the reader to see things about each character that they would not have allowed the other characters to bear witness to and third person would not have worked as well with Liza being one of the main characters - or working the memories, past events in.The multiples first person narration was a great way to tell A Grown Up Kind of Pretty.The ending was fantastic in terms of the familial relationships and each characters story getting wrapped up. We got to see how they each grew and developed because of the different things that happened and how their relationships with each other were different. I was a little disappointed about how the legal part of things wrapped up, though. I was curious for the whole book how that was going to go - and at the end kept wondering how it was going to conclude with such a little bit left - and I'm not sure it really did get resolved.Part of it obviously did and the characters seemed happy with it and maybe I'm wrong but it just seemed like legally there would have been more required. (Maybe not, though.)This book was just about as great as Joshilyn Jackson's first two!Rating: 8/10(read from NetGalley)

I LOVED this new novel from Joshilyn Jackson. Being from the south myself, I love the setting and characters in her novels and where they take you. It's so refreshing to see her going back to her mysterious roots after the last couple of books. This one reminds me more of the style of The Girl Who Stopped Swimming. Definitely would recommend this to any and all Joshilyn Jackson fans!

bloody loved this... onto this authors next book. I want to read them all!

I literally cannot get enough of this incredible author. Not only is she a brilliant writer but a mesmerizing narrator. I will keep listening as long as you keep writing. Thank you for the many hours of sheer pleasure.

This is the second book of hers I have listened too, and I believe it’s just as good, she is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine, I love her humor, how engrossed you get in the story and how relatable the characters are. Wonderful wonderful read!! Can’t wait to read or listen to more!

Excellent. Her best book yet. Once I started, I couldn't put it down and stayed up way too late last night to finish it. Definitely a keeper.

I really enjoyed this book. It was along the lines of "Where the Heart Is." The characters are ones that are easy to identify with and the mystery of Mosy's identity and Liza's past are really intriguing.

I listened to the audio version and really enjoyed having the author read the story. She put so much passion into the characters. The chapters are told from the views of Ginny (Big), Liza (Little) and Mosey. Ginny had Liza when she was 15 and Liza had Mosey when she was 15. But did Liza really have Mosey? After the willow tree is dug up in the backyard to make room for a pool to rehab Liza who has had a stroke, a box with baby bones are found under the willow tree.

This unleashes all kinds of crazy. Liza's sassiness comes out and she slowly comes back to life. Mosey and her best friend Roger start doing research to find out who she really is. Roger is really good at research. The research sends them down many different paths.

I loved every single character in this book. There were times I was laughing out loud and times I thought "oh no." I really, really enjoyed this story and recommend it. If you like audio books, then listen to it. Joshilyn's southern accent is fantastic to listen to.

I really enjoyed the characters in this story.

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is the kind of novel that sweeps you into its' pages and doesn't let you go. Told from three different viewpoints, it is the story of Ginny (aka Big), Liza, and Mosey. Three generations of Slocumb women discovering each other's secrets while trying to keep the most important secret from destroying them all.Whew! This book carried me away into the story that the author had to tell and into the lives of the Slocumb women. I was easily entranced as I began to uncover some of the hidden secrets with each of the main characters. The story was told from three different viewpoints which had me wary at first, because I think that it is something that is difficult to pull off. And pull off well at that....but that is just what this author did! Each voice for the women was different and distinct from one another. I didn't have any problem differentiating between the main characters when the viewpoints switched while I was reading. Actually it made the reading experience that much more unique as we were able to see how each character was affected by the different secrets revealed throughout the book. I loved how the different storylines connected and intertwined with one another. I thought at the beginning that I had the book figured out but by the end I had realized that I was completely wrong in my expectations. This is my third book by this author and she is now going on my must read list!All in all, this was another amazing read by this author. I loved the characters that she created in this story and was sad to see the book end. This is a book that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend. A very enjoyable read that had me thinking about it for days afterward. And if you haven't had the chance to read anything by this author I would also highly recommend Gods in Alabama. That was another amazing read as well!Bottom Line: Another must read by this author!Disclosure: I was lucky enough to get my copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley!

In A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson three generations of Slocumb women are struggling to get by in their small Mississippi town while facing incredible odds set against them. Ginny, who is called Big by her daughter and granddaughter knows that every fifteen years something bad happens to Slocumb women and they are on the cusp of that bad year. When Big was 15, she had her fierce daughter, Liza. History repeated itself when Liza had her daughter at 15. Now Mosey is fifteen. Mosey has faced a life time of being warned about and away from this curse, but the curse may be taking other directions for this generation. Liza has had a stroke and then a small grave is unearth in the backyard. Can Big hold her family together while trying to find an explanation? And will Mosey discover the answers she seeks?

The chapters in Joshilyn Jackson's A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty alternate between the three Slocumb women. Each woman has a distinct voice in her chapter and there is strong character development for each woman individually. What they are thinking can be very different from what they are sharing with each other, especially since Liza is essentially nonverbal, but each of them is facing the threat to their family and the questions the mystery brings head-on, in their own way.

Why, oh why, did I wait so long to read A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty? This is an outstanding novel by a most accomplished writer. I've enjoyed every book Jackson has written and this incredible novel is no exception. The multilayered plot is complex and I appreciate how additional information was slowly discovered. And I completely understood Big hiding her suspicions from Mosely while Mosely is doing the same. I was absolutely spellbound and immersed in this novel. You couldn't have torn me away from reading it. And when I finished reading, I knew that I had just read something splendid, flawless, and sublime... and perfect. When I was done there was not one thing I would have wanted differently. Bravo, Joshilyn Jackson!

Jackson has a new novel being released this November, Someone Else's Love Story, and I am going to just preorder it now and schedule time to read it right away.

Very Highly Recommended - one of the very best

10 audio discs3.75Multigenerational saga of the Slocumb women of Mississippi, bound together by love and secrets.In alternating chapters we meet 14 year-old Mosie, her 30-year old mother Liza and her 45 year-old Grandmother Ginny.

I knew I really enjoyed this book when I realized that I never - not even once - looked at the percentage of book I'd read so far on my Kindle. I can't give it 5 stars because some of the language was, in my opinion, a little stilted and cheesy. I've never been to Mississippi, so maybe they really talk like that, but whatever, it got on my nerves a tad. But overall, I just really got into the story. Isnt' that what reading's about?

This book doesn't have all of the charm I'm used to in a southern novel, but it still holds its southern novel title in its social interactions. It was especially a good read for me because of how close I am to my mom, even though we don't always see eye to eye.

Audiobook performed by the author.
4.5****

Excerpt from the book jacket: When a long-hidden grave is unearthed in the backyard, headstrong young Mosey Slocumb is determined to investigate. What she learns could cost her family everything… Every fifteen years, trouble comes after the three Slocumb women: a child on the cusp of womanhood searching for her true family; a woman whose fight to protect her daughter will toss her headlong into a second chance at first love; and a lost soul rediscovering her voice.

My reaction:
Wow. I was mesmerized from beginning to end. Jackson writes the kind of Southern fiction I absolutely love – full of bigger-than-life characters facing “un-possible” plot twists, and sprinkled with colorful dialogue and idioms. She also writes strong female characters and all three Slocumb women show strength, albeit in different ways. Big, as matriarch, has the advantage of maturity and experience; she fights hard to maintain a stable family environment for her daughter and granddaughter. Liza shows the kind of strength and determination required to survive and recover from a debilitating stroke. Mosey has the strength of character that comes from knowing that she is loved and treasured. All three make their share of mistakes, but all face their future with a determination to succeed and the knowledge that they will always have each other to count on.

The chapters move back and forth between these three women and their various points of view. In this way the reader is privy to more information than any one of the women has, but that doesn’t mean I knew the solution to the mystery much sooner than the characters did. The only reason I don’t give the book five stars is that I was disappointed in how Liza and Big behaved around certain men. Liza, in particular, didn’t seem to have learned much from having had a child at age 15, except perhaps refining her ploys for not getting caught. But this was really a small part of the book.

Jackson read the audio version of the book herself. She is a talented voice-over artist and was easily able to give each woman enough individuality that I had no trouble telling them apart. She has good pacing and a style of reading that is just perfect for her novels.