I must be on a big East Coast/Southern Kick lately- or maybe I just want to read about lives more screwed up than mine. Who knows? This is the second book I've read this week that centered around a strong yet slightly eccentric main character.
In Sister Mine, Shae-Lynn Penrose, a single mom of 23 year old sheriff Clay, leaves her upstanding life as a cop in DC to return to her depressed small coal mining town Jolly Mount, PA to raise her son. Driving a cab in a town so small no one needs a cab, Shay is forced to confront the ghosts of her past when her long thought dead sister returns to town bringing with her all sorts of trouble.
Further complicating her life is a long hibernating passion for best friend, EJ one of the survivor's of the Jolly Mount 5, a mine explosion that rocketed him and his four fellow survivors into fifteen minutes of fame.
Chuck full of all the happy little nuggets that make life interesting; abuse, family stress, post traumatic stress disorder, alcohol as a coping mechanism, sex as a coping mechanism, fighting as a coping mechanism, and parental neglect, this book reminds us just why Jerry Springer is still going strong after twenty years.
I hate authors' Oprah recommends (Tawni O'Dell's Back Roads in 2000)- her list is just a little too depressing for me but this book has proven me wrong. I may have to dip back in try her other recommendations. Nah, who am kidding I have two words for you, James Frey. Full body shudder.
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