Great writing and interesting characters combine for a complex and moving coming-of-age story.
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SUMMARY
Tullulah James would be lost if it were not for her old older brother, Griff, and her Southern grandmother. Her parents are volatile and erratic and are rarely even home. Tallulah has taken personal responsibility for shielding the family‘s reputation and for raising her younger twin siblings.
Following a family death and abandonment Tullulah sets out alone for a new life in California. But her dysfunctional childhood makes it difficult for her to develop close relationships. When disaster strikes her family once again, she must return home to pick up the pieces and is finally able to uncover long held family secrets.
REVIEW
This is Tullulah’s coming of age story and is set in Mississippi in the tumultuous 1960s. Tullulah narrates the complicated story and her character is both brave, and vulnerable. She tries so hard to make the family right, and you so want her to succeed. My favorite part of the story was when she takes her grandmother’s boat downriver river to gather mayhaws to make jelly for a mother’s day gift, but gets in over her head when a storm approaches.
I’m not really sure what the “myth of perpetual summer” is, but the book is a satisfying read despite a slow start. It’s a emotional story of a once prominent family that is burdened with the blood of mental illness and its’ declining reputation in the community. THE MYTH OF PERPETUAL SUMMER addresses a wide array of additional topics including murder, suicide, cults and bullying, There is a diverse cast of interesting characters, but my favorite was the blue-eyed Ross, who is from New Orleans and is a modern day knight in shining armor for the James family.
SUSAN CRANDALL is a critically acclaimed author of women’s fiction, romance suspense. She has written several award winning novels including Back Roads (2003) and Whistling Past the Graveyard (2014). Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of The Myth of Perpetual Summer in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher Gallery Books
Publication June 19, 2018