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allicatca's review
4.0
I read this with my 10 1/2 year old son and we both enjoyed it very much. As with the previous two books in the series, there was a lot to talk about: pop culture in the 60s and 70s but this time we also had to talk about the Ku Klux Klan which was an uncomfortable but important thing to discuss especially since we are living in 2022 and there is still so much awful rascism.
This book has plenty of humor and a good amount of drama. I am impressed with the writing.
My favorite character voice: Fern!
This book has plenty of humor and a good amount of drama. I am impressed with the writing.
My favorite character voice: Fern!
appaloosa05's review
Lots of things happening, so many that I feel this tale lost some of the realism, but there was enough suspense to keep me reading.
shelhamm9's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
alicebme's review
4.0
Audio book is spectacularly performed! More immediate than the first 2 and so honest. NYE road trip.
gmamartha's review against another edition
4.0
These voices combine with the southern summer to provide a feel of family and personalities all their own.
liliantreacy's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
roseleaf24's review against another edition
3.0
This ended well, but I did not enjoy this finale to the Gaither sisters' series as much as the other two installments. I didn't get the sense of the current events and the setting as much as I had in the other two books. This surprised me, as I actually felt like the down home setting came across more clearly when it wasn't the actual setting of the book. The integration of the events and the racial tone of the setting felt more forced. I really didn't understand Big Ma's actions, I found the Big Ma/Ma Charles/Miss Trotter relationships confusing, and I didn't like how much responsibility everyone put on Delphine without acknowledging their own wrongdoing when it proved to be too much for her.
bickie's review
4.0
In the summer of 1969, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern travel from their home in Brooklyn to a small town in Alabama to visit their grandmother, Big Ma, who moved from their house back in with her mother after the girls' father got married. They are thrilled to find their beloved Uncle Darnell there, clean after turning to drugs upon his return from Vietnam. They are not so thrilled to learn that the sheriff in town is part of the Ku Klux Klan. The third in a trilogy covering this tightly-knit but unconventional family. Ages 10+
onceuponacarm's review against another edition
5.0
As good as the first two. The Gaither head to Alabama to spend the summer with Big Ma and Ma Charles, across the creek from their cousin JimmyTrotter and his great grandma. The girls' relationships with each other are the main focus of the novel, as the family begins to change and Delphine is worried that things are falling apart and she is desperate to hold everything together. (She's also reading Things Fall Apart, which she is disappointed in because none of the characters are any good--I like that she said that, as I generally prefer stories with at least once character I really like. In the Gaither/Charles/Trotter/Johnson family, everyone does things they shouldn't, but that's what makes them come alive. There's no one "good" character, but I can honestly say I like them all, as I feel like I understand them. I haven't yet read Things Fall Apart, but I hope that's the case with that book, too, and that Delphine eventually finishes it and figures out that no one is perfect and everyone is just doing the best they can.) Vonetta steps up the theatrics, fueling the feud between her great-grandmother and her half sister. Fern reads Charlotte's Web on the bus ride south and is awakened to where meat comes from. She refuses to eat the Wilburs or chickens or cows, tearing up when she realizes what happens to her family's animals when they stop being useful or meat is on the menu. Vonetta picks on Fern mercilessly for this, while Delphine is extra harsh toward Vonetta in return. What's more, Uncle Darnell is back in the picture since he's living with Big Ma, but Vonetta refuses to forgive him for stealing from them in the last book. All this family feuding, plus the news of a new baby, comes to a head when disaster strikes.