Synopsis from Goodreads
With empathy, grace, humor, and the piercing insight, the author of Gods in Alabama pens a powerful, emotionally resonant novel of the South that confronts the truth about privilege, family, and the distinctions between perception and reality the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and who we really are.
Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs' weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman.
It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She's having a baby boy - an unexpected but not unhappy development in the thirty-eight-year-old's life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional, Southern family, her step-sister Rachel's marriage implodes. Worse, she learns her beloved ninety-year-old grandmother, Birchie, is losing her mind, and she's been hiding her dementia with the help of Wattie, her best friend since girlhood.
Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother's affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she's pregnant. Yet just when Leia thinks she's got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie's been hiding. Tucked in the attic is a dangerous secret with roots that reach all the way back to the Civil War. Its exposure threatens the family's freedom and future, and it will change everything about how Leia sees herself and her sister, her son and his missing father, and the world she thinks she knows.
Thoughts Before Reading
I have been wanting to read this book for a while! I think the synopsis of this book is so interesting! I love that she works with comic books and that she gets pregnant by a one night stand. I think this adds some humor to a book whose main plot is dealing with some hard issues like her grandmother being sick, having to deal with what to do with the house that has been in her family for generations, and then whatever this unknown dilemma is. This is just a lot of things to deal with for anyone plus dealing with it all while being pregnant along with the complications of being a single mother. I cannot wait to jump right into this book.
(1/4/19)
Halfway Through Check-In
****Spoilers Below****
So the old ladies were hiding a box of bones in the attic?!
Apparently, Leia and her grandmother are the last two living Briggs and Birchie is the last relative that Leia has that is blood-related. Right now only her niece knows about Leia being pregnant. It seems like Leia's stepsister is living the ideal life but when this book starts and Leia goes to visit her sister and tell her about the baby she runs into her brother in law who is in the moment of getting kicked out of the house. Once inside the sisters talk about everything going on and immediately start planning on going to Alabama to be with Leia's grandmother. The daughter ends up overhearing everything that goes on between her parents so Leia's sister decides that she should go to Alabama with Leia. On the way, there is when the niece finds out about Leia being pregnant. I think it is nice that it helps her niece feel better to know that her aunt is pregnant and so far she is the only one that knows about the baby.
I'm really hooked on this book so far and I'm loving audio books. I'm a slow reader.
(1/4/19)
(1/4/19)
Final Thoughts
****Spoilers****
I ended up really loving this book! I loved the characters, all of the different situations that were going on, and just the book overall. Even though I really loved this book I did give it a 4 out of 5 stars. The only reason the book didn't get all 5 stars was that I feel like there was just so much going on and the majority of the book was explaining the issues and the consequences that went along with them, which was amazing and part of why I loved the book. But even though all this was going on I feel like it was also a downside because everything ended up being solved but I feel like the ending was really rushed. I would've loved to have more happen in the ended versus it all being rushed together. Maybe even a second book! Which if there is a second book then this would absolutely be a 5 out of 5 stars. I just wanted more, like what happened with Leia, Batman, and the baby!
The book starts with Leia pretty much finding out that she is pregnant after having a one night stand with Batman and she is trying to tell her sister that she is pregnant, which she goes quite a while before she decides to try and tell her family about being pregnant. But as soon as she gets to her sister's house she runs into her brother in law which just so happens to be the boy that she lost her virginity with! Yet somehow she never told her sister about this and she never really does tell her throughout the whole book. I think that is the one thing that doesn't really get told. Then after she calms her sister down she gets the call about her grandmother in Alabama and decides she needs to go down there. This is the main two things that the whole book is about, her sick grandmother and the fact that she got pregnant by a one night stand. This crazy town just adds so many layers to the book, which I loved! There is very little about this book that I did not love.
I'm just going to end this discussion here because I really do not want to give away the huge plot twist that is involved with the bones and these two crazy old ladies, and even though I have given away some spoilers here in this post I know none of them are the major ones and I think I could honestly talk about this book forever.
So far 2019 is doing pretty well it's only the 7th day into the year and I've already finished 3 books if this year keeps up with this momentum I'm definitely going to hit the 40 books for the year in no time.
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