The Almost Sisters

Joshilyn Jackson returns to Alabama to bring us this story full of entertaining and appealing characters, while also providing an expert look at manners and mores in the contemporary South.

Leia Birch Briggs, a comic book artist who is 38 and single, suddenly finds herself pregnant by a man she met at a recent comic book convention in Atlanta who was disguised as “Batman.” Batman was not only wearing a black costume, but was black himself, a fact that did not matter to Leia, but which will have big repercussions for the baby as well as with her very Southern white family in Alabama.

She has also just learned that her 90-year-old grandmother “Birchie” is displaying alarming signs of dementia. Wattie Price, Birchie’s BFF, has show more apparently hidden this problem successfully from the family as well as the town until now.

Leia drives down to Alabama to see what is going on with Birchie. She agrees to take her 13-year-old niece Lavender along, since Leia’s stepsister Rachel is having a crisis in her marriage to Jake.

It all sounds a bit complicated, but the author brings everyone into focus quickly with her trademark warmth and humor.

There are some villains in the piece too, such as some of the residents of Birchville (her grandmother’s grandfather founded the town) who still adhere to the prejudices of the “Old South,” or “Second South” as Leia calls it. The First South, “her” South, “was all sweet tea and decency and Jesus, and it was a real, true place.” But there was another South, “plagued still with the legacies of slavery and war and segregation.” Color continued to divide this Second South, and darkness and hate still made the territory a contested one. Leia didn’t think she could bring up her baby in this Second South. (She called the baby, whom she "knew" to be a boy, Digby, for no special reason - the name just occurred to her one day. She didn’t even know the father’s name, but she knew she didn’t want to expose Digby to the hatred and injustice he might experience in a place like that.)

Further upheaval ensues when Rachel drives down and also stays at the house. Rachel accuses Leia of expressing long pent-up resentments through the medium of her art - especially her two main comic characters, Violence and Violet.

Meanwhile, as the summer passes, Lavender is spending more and more time with two neighbor boys, Hugh and Jeffrey, and Leia worries what they are up to. She is shocked to find out what it is, and it profoundly affects all of them.

All of these plot strands collide, and secrets kept covered up in this small town come spilling out. But this is not an unhappy or scary book; it is absolutely charming, as well as intelligent, funny, and full of heart.

Evaluation: Joshilyn Jackson is an author not to be missed. As with her other books, her main female characters, who span generations, are delightful: full of spit and vinegar, loyalty to friends and family, and an underlying goodness. She also addresses the concerns of teens, young and middle aged women, and older women seamlessly, with an impassioned love and respect for all of them. Unlike many books labeled as “women’s fiction,” this author elevates the quality of her prose by integrating issues of class, race, self-actualization, and morality into her stories of the deep ties of family and upbringing. show less

Joshilyn Jackson has long been on my “to read” list, but this is the first book of hers that I’ve actually gotten around to picking up. And I loved it.

There was so much in the book that spoke to me… from a woman experiencing a pregnancy at an “advanced” age, to the trickiness of navigating life in a small town, to having a grandparent that you’re extremely close to going through medical issues. Jackson brings it all to us through the eyes of Leah, a 38-year-old comic book artist who is unexpectedly pregnant by a man she doesn’t know. When Leah discovers that her grandmother has been hiding some extreme health issues from her, she picks up her life and goes back to small-town Alabama to stay with her and convince her to show more get help. Along for the ride is her 13-year-old niece, who is escaping a bit of life drama of her own.

I loved how Jackson portrays the relationships between the women, the difficulty of trying to help an elderly relative, and the frustration of having family keep secrets from you. There is often so much that is hidden just beneath the surface, but it rarely stays hidden forever. The story also confronts the issue of lingering racism in the South — sometimes hidden, sometimes blatant — as Leah faces the prospect of bringing a biracial child into the world.

Joshilyn Jackson will definitely be staying on my “to read” list! This was easily my favorite read of 2017. show less

Leia Birch is a promising comic-book artist who learns she is pregnant with a biracial baby as the result of a one night stand at a convention. At about the same time, her grandmother Birchie has an incident that exposes her dementia. Leia is Birchie’s closest living relative, so she rushes to Birchie’s small-town Alabama home before telling either her parents or her stepsister Rachel about her pregnancy. Leia quickly sees that Birchie’s condition has been covered up for some time by Wattie, daughter of the Birch family housekeeper and Birchie’s closest friend since childhood. Leia knows Birchie should no longer live independently, but as she begins the onerous process of preparing Birchie’s move Leia discovers something show more horrible from the family’s past.

Well, that’s a lot to unpack, isn’t it? Just resolving the “something horrible” had the makings of a mystery. But there was also Birchie’s dementia, and its impact on the family. And the Birchie-Wattie shared history and adult relationship. And finally, the real theme and power of The Almost Sisters: issues of race, brought into sharp focus by racial divides in the town and Leia’s growing realization of the world her baby will inhabit, which is decidedly different from her own (white) experience. Believe it or not, it all came together in a surprisingly emotional ending.

This book was not at all what I expected, in the best possible way. Highly recommended. show less

This book started out really annoying me and ended up redeeming itself. There was one line toward the beginning where the narrator said the superpower she wanted as a kid, like most girls, was Super Pretty. If it weren't for that "like most girls" bit, I probably would have let it slide. Instead, I stewed and was pissed off enough I didn't want to finish the book until Litsy peeps convinced me to continue.
(I wanted to control time, FYI. None of that Super Pretty BS.)

But I did continue the book and ended up loving it. This is a bit of a weird book, genre-wise. The cover looks like it is a contemporary fiction book that is marketed to the "women's lit" crowd (oh, how I hate that term). But the main character is a huge geek, a popular show more comic book writer and artist, and got knocked up by a cosplay Batman. I noticed that a number of reviews noted that the comic book stuff was a bit of a turn-off. I argue that the cover is a bit of a turn-off for the geeky lit crowd who is really who the book should have been marketed for.
(Note to marketing people: know your audience!)

The plot was incredibly compelling, full of small-town politics and small-mindedness (but also community), racial tension, family secrets and mystery, and questions of what makes a family. I ended up loving the book a lot. The plot was twisty and while I thought I had it all figured out, it still managed to throw me some curveballs. show less

Joshilyn Jackson has been writing novels that have been characterized as chick-lit/women's fiction for years. And they sort of fit that designation, with personable and likable main characters who fall in love while dealing with quirky family situations. Jackson is also an able writer, with the sort of light effortlessness and dialogue that is better than found in most novels and underneath the enjoyable and humorous stories is a sharp edge of substance.

In The Almost Sisters, a successful writer of graphic novels finds herself pregnant after an encounter with an attractive Batman at a ComicCon. Thirty-eight and financially secure, she accepts that this may be her only chance to have a child. As she's bracing herself to break the news show more to her mother and stepfather, her family situation turns to chaos. Her half-sister is considering divorce and her teenage niece is upset and in the small town of Birchville, Alabama, her grandmother has just had an episode at the church fish fry that shows she may be too elderly to continue to live independently. Leia takes her niece and heads for Birchville, where she finds the situation much, much worse than she'd thought.

There are plenty of humorous situations and heart-warming reconciliations, but Jackson is doing more than just entertaining. While her earlier novels have dealt with serious issues like domestic violence, The Almost Sisters takes on the racial tensions of a small Southern town. Leia, forced to examine social structures, comes to the realization that there are two Souths.

The South I'd been born into was all sweet tea and decency and Jesus, and it was a real, true place. I had grown up inside it, because my family lived there. Wattie's family owned real estate there, too. The Second South was always present, though, and in it decency was a thin, green cover over the rancid soil of our dark history. They were both always present, both truly present in every square inch, in every space, in both Baptist churches, at both tables. show less

The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson is a William Morrow publication.

An insane and highly addicting concoction of quirky southern drama-

Set in Alabama, this story centers around Leia Birch Briggs, a comic book illustrator, trying to give her most famous character new life with a prequel. But, her personal problems soon take precedent over her career difficulties, when, after tying one on at a comic convention, Leia discovers her one night stand with ‘Batman’ has resulted in an unexpected pregnancy.

But, before she can properly absorb her own situation, she must travel to a small Alabama town to look after her grandmother ‘Birchie’ who has been diagnosed with a form of dementia, but also finds herself embroiled in the marital show more woes of her sister Rachel and winds up taking care of her teenage niece, Lavender, temporarily.

If that wasn’t enough to deal with, a trunk containing human remains, is discovered in Birchie’s possession, making her a witness? Suspect? No one really knows, but the whole sordid truth is about to come spilling out.

Initially, Leia feels ill equipped to handle all this drama, consumed as she is with her own dilemmas. But, with Lavender’s insights and meddling, Leia begins to slowly step up to the plate, gaining a new level of maturity, taking charge by doing what she must for her grandmother, niece, sister and her unborn child. Maybe not quite like her alter ego comic book superheroes, whose character run along side Leia's, but enough to keep her family from falling completely apart.

This book is filled with zany, quirky, and flawed characters all facing heavy, life altering situations, and they are nearly all related to or deeply connected to each other, making the situation even more volatile.

The story is complex, an odd mingling of old southern ways of thinking with modern phrasings and forward thinking, tinged with just a tiny bit of Southern Gothic. While heavier issues are explored, like race, and dementia, as well as the need for forgiveness, the story didn’t become too overburdened or heavy until the last few chapters, where any lighter tones all but vanished and a very dark story emerged.

But, overall, the heavier atmosphere mixed surprisingly well with the lighter narrative, and of course any story that features a mysterious, old family secret, a little romance, and a little southern fried drama, is right up my alley.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author, but now that I have had a taste of her work, I believe I’ll have to have a second helping!!

4 stars show less

Leia, a graphic novel author/artist with a substantial cult following, gets cozy with a Batman-becostumed fan at a comic con and now finds herself pregnant. But she decides to keep it to herself, at least for now, because her grandmother’s health – physical and mental – is failing, and she needs to focus on trying to convince Grandma Birchie and her lifelong best friend, Wattie, to move into assisted living. And then she – and the rest of the town – catch the two elderly friends trying to sneak a trunk with human bones in it out of the house, and all heck breaks loose.

There’s quite a bit more to this one than I have the energy just now to summarize, with more side stories (Leia has her own almost-sister, who in turn is show more having *her* own problems, the mysterious Batman Daddy plays a significant role, and even Leia’s graphic novel is a side plot, too), and it’s all excellently interwoven into an entertaining and deeply felt tale. Every character is nicely crafted, and there are some fun twists that may not be terribly shocking but are well turned out just the same. Definitely recommended. show less