By Joshilyn Jackson.
(Note: this book is a companion/prequel to the previously-reviewed Backseat Saints.)
When she was 15 years old, Arlene Flett killed Jim Beverly--school football stud and rapist-- by smacking him upside the head with a bottle of tequila. Miraculously, the body was never discovered. Arlene made a deal with God at the time: she'd stop having sex, stop lying, and would never return to her hometown of Possett, Alabama after graduation. Nine years later, Arlene's kept her end of the deal-- even if her boyfriend Burr is getting tired of this state of affairs, her lies have interesting technicalities to them, and her relatives are really effing pissed she hasn't shown up for any Christmasses.
Until her high school classmate Rose Mae Lolley, Jim's girlfriend back in the day, tracks down Arlene while she's trying to find Jim. And she says she's going back down to the olde hometowne to go looking. This freaks Arlene right the hell out. And Burr is saying that he's about ready to break up with her if this relationship doesn't progress somehow-- for example, meeting Arlene's relatives would be good, even if Burr is black, Arlene is white, and her family is full of racists. Between being about to lose Burr, the threat of Rose, and suddenly feeling like God just broke their deal, Arlene caves in and agrees to go back to Possett for her uncle's retirement party.
Interspersed with the present-day action are Arlene's flashbacks to growing up. After her dad died and her mother mentally vacated the building, she got essentially raised by her aunt Florence and grew up being close to her perfect cousin Clarice. A bad double-date led to Arlene making shocking life choices such as relieving the male half of her entire high school class (except for Clarice's boyfriend) of their virginities once they turned 16. In between Arlene trying to protect Burr from her relatives (his comments upon meeting them are pretty subtly funny) and dealing with her aunt's pissiness about her leaving, she debates on whether or not to tell Burr what happened, and if so, how.
It's an interesting book. Like the other books of hers I've read, I love the narrative voice and it's totally compelling. Arlene and Burr's relationship is very sweet, especially their car games. I also have to give points to the "Aunt Florence and Phoebe" story. Let's just say, HOLY SHIT, THIS WOMAN IS SCARY and keep your pets away from her. (Note: folks who are sensitive about pets may not want to read this.). So it's a good and entertaining read for the most part, that I whipped right through.
I will say, however, that there are twists to this story. Which is to say that (a) Arlene's holding something back from readers for most of the narrative, and (b) some things happened that she is unaware of. I'll get into that below the spoiler cut. I felt like the stuff Arlene didn't know about worked in the novel, but the other thing, not so much. Or at least, it just sat weirdly to me. Don't get me wrong, the author foreshadows all of that stuff, so it's not 100% out of the blue. But I'm not fond of being misled, and some of Arlene and Clarice's life choices just seem really off when you have to look at them later. It makes things kind of weird.
Three and a half stars.
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(a) Arlene wasn't raped by Jim Beverly-- her cousin Clarice was raped after Arlene was thrown aside and knocked out by Jim. Apparently watching the action was so traumatizing to Arlene that she spent the summer wearing black and moping, and then she decided to fuck the entire male half of the class (minus Bud) so all of them would stop ogling Clarice because boinking her after boinking her cousin just seems wrong.
Um...what....?
Other than the "I'm doing this to protect Clarice" thing--admittedly, that's the one thing about this that kind of makes sense to Arlene's twisted logic since she couldn't stop Jim before-- Arlene pretty much acts more like someone who has been through sexual trauma a lot more than Clarice does. Especially since Clarice has clearly managed to move on with her life in a way that Arlene hasn't. Now, it is pointed out that after the death of her brother, Clarice felt like she needed to present a perfect front, and I get that, but... it just feels like the wrong wires were crossed with regards to this situation. It does not seem quite right. Plus the part where you're being kind of misled throughout (really, Arlene knows she wasn't the one who was raped) is also something I wasn't terribly thrilled with. I think a scene in which Arlene and Clarice actually talked in full about this situation as adults would have helped too.
On the other hand...
(b) I think it totally works that Aunt Florence was the one who killed Jim. As Burr deduces, it's unlikely that a 100 pound girl managed to totally kill a big ol' football player with a bottle, and from what we've heard of Jim's disappearance (especially involving the car and him being seen walking around on the road), it didn't sound right. Florence as the kind of lady who SNAPS and kills when a kid of hers is killed or threatened or even kind of insulted (RIP Phoebe the chicken and Buddy the dog), so it works. I also liked how in the interview with the author in the back of the book, she says it's really a love story between Arlene and Florence. That aspect of the book really works at the end.
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