The Almost Sisters

Leia Birch Briggs is a comic book writer/illustrator who finds her own life in upheaval when she discovers she's pregnant after a tequila-infused one night stand with Batman. This particular Batman is black, so Leia will be raising a bi-racial baby in a somewhat conservative family. Life gets further complicated when she hears from the Birchville's grapevine (a town her ancestors established in Alabama) that her beloved grandmother Birchie is suffering from dementia. It all gets a bit worse when she heads to her sister Rachel's brunch to share her baby news with family and passes Rachel's husband Jay storming out the door, clothes packed in garbage bags - apparently the marriage is in trouble. Rachel needs time to get things together, show more so she implores Leia to take daughter Valentine with her to Birchville to see what's going on with Birchie, and figure out how Birchie's best friend Wattie managed to keep it all from her. And just when you think things could get any more convoluted, Birchie and Wattie unearth an old trunk from the attic and attempt to steal away with it in Leia's rental car. The car crashes at the end of the driveway, and when the trunk is opened, a full skeleton is revealed. Who is in the trunk and how did it end up in Birchie's attic?

This is a beautifully crafted novel, probably one of the best I've read this year and certainly one of the best LibraryThing Early Reviewers titles I have been awarded. There are more than one pair of almost sisters here. Leia and Rachel are step-siblings, Birchie and Wattie are like sisters even though Birchie is white and Wattie is black, because they were raised and nursed together by Wattie's mother. And threaded throughout this novel is the story of Violet and Violence, Leia's characters in her comic series. How these relationships work and don't work is a regular theme through the novel. We also examine the idea of racism, and how Leia both romanticizes this wonderful town of Birchville where she spent her summers as a child and how she sees the town as it is, part of the world in which her biracial son will grow up. Characters are richly drawn, people are funny, fun, happy, sad, confused, scared - in a word, real. Except, of course, when Birchie sees the bunnies, but you'll have to read the book to learn more about those. show less

The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson is a very highly recommended novel about family, aging, privilege, and the South. This incredible novel has it all - memorable, quirky characters, remarkable writing, and an outstanding plot. The Almost Sisters may be my favorite novel by Jackson to date (which is special because I have loved all her novels), and is a contender for my top ten books of the year.

Leia Birch Briggs, 38, is a successful comic book artist who was in the bar at a comics convention when she met Batman and fell hard. "Plus, tequila never was the handmaiden of good decisions. I’d asked him up to my room. We’d started kissing in the elevator..." The result is Leia is pregnant with Batman's child. All she remembers is that show more he is black so her child, a boy she calls Digby, will be biracial. She wants Digby despite the fact that "I’d walked away from every man I might have married. No, I’d run. The playground song in my head went: First comes love, then comes hideous betrayal, then comes endless regret requiring expensive therapy. It was a terrible song. It didn’t even rhyme. But it was mine, and I hadn’t made a family, even though I’d wanted one. I still did."

Before she has a chance to break the news to her family, her step-sister Rachel's marriage implodes on the same day her 90 year-old grandmother Birchie makes it known in some very public comments while at church that she is slipping into dementia. Leia ends up taking her 13 year-old niece, Lavender, with her as she heads to Birchie's home where she lives with her life-long friend Wattie in a small Alabama town. Leia is now faced with cleaning out the family home and finding some place safe for Birchie and Wattie to live - and they don't want to leave. She also still needs to tell her family she's expecting. But nothing is as simple as a to-do list and even more surprises and complications await her in Alabama than she could imagine.

Jackson always writes funny, quirky, unique characters that are memorable and resonate with you long after the novel is over. The Almost Sisters is no exception. I loved the characters in this novel. I love Leia, Birchie, Wattie, Lavender, Rachel, and Batman. (It helps that we do geek in my home.) I also love how Jackson portrays families here: messy and complicated, but supportive even while shaking their heads at the events that are unfolding and secrets that are revealed. And the humor throughout the novel is integrated perfectly into the characters voices and actions.

The the quality of the writing is phenomenal and the pacing is perfect. I was caught up in the narrative from beginning to end and enjoyed every turn and new revelation that came along. Jackson has an understanding, empathetic way of handling some serious issues, including aging grandparents, blended families, contentions between sisters, the existence of privilege, and racism. She does it so gracefully, with humor and insight, that you won't realize at first how skillfully she has covered some serious topics.

I agree with the Kirkus review that said The Almost Sisters is "A satisfying, entertaining read from an admired writer who deserves to be a household name."

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
on 7/31/17: http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2076953437 show less

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway and I found it an engaging, well-written story, with likable, well-developed characters tackling social issues like racism, unplanned pregnancy, aging, and complex relationships.
The title is a double entendre. The "Almost Sisters" could be Leia, the heroine, and her stepsister, Rachel, very different in looks and personality but raised since the age of three by Leia's widowed mother and Rachel's divorced father. Rachel is married to Jake (a.k.a. J.J.), Leia's former best friend and first love, the first man who broke her heart.
The "Almost Sisters" could also be Birchie, Leia's 90-year-old paternal grandmother, wealthy descendant of Birchville's founder, and her best friend Wattie. After Birchie's show more mother died in childbirth, Wattie's mother, Vina (Birchie's white father's black housekeeper), became a surrogate mother to Birchie. Birchie and Wattie live together in the Birch family's Victorian mansion, which is full of secrets.
The "Almost Sisters could also be Violet and Violence, alter ego characters in the graphic novel that made Leia famous among the comic book/superhero crowd.
When the story opens, Leia finds out she's pregnant, the result of a drunken one-night stand with a black fan dressed as Batman. Before she's able to break the news to her family that she's about to become a single mother to a biracial son, Rachel's marriage implodes and Birchie suffers a very public dementia-like episode. Leia must travel to Birchville to sort out new living arrangements for Birchie and Wattie. Rachel asks Leia to take her teenage daughter Lavender along while she handles details of her separation from Jake.
Lavender is the first to discover Leia's pregnancy, and she disagrees with Leia's desire to raise the baby alone. She tracks the father on social media and secretly contacts him from Leia's Facebook account.
In the meantime, human bones are found in Birchie's attic, and there's a strong possibility they might belong to Birchie's father. Leia has to figure out how to keep her grandmother and Wattie out of prison while repairing relationships and building a new one with a man who wants to help raise his son.
I think there could be a sequel! 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

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

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

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