4.5 stars

I'm a person that rarely reads the backs or jackets of books when I'm browsing. I go right to the first sentence to get a sense of what is within the pages. Silver Sparrow begins: "My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist." And it was very hard to put this book down after that.

A heaving, lyrical book that takes us into the minds of two girls who happen to be half-sisters--but only one of them knows it. Born within months of each other to different mothers, one 'legitimate' and the other a secret, their adolescence becomes a burdened playground of their parents' interactions and pasts.

The novel is emotionally exhausting, as a friend commented in our group discussion about the book. There was so much to consider here, and Jones writes her characters with such depth that it's hard to extricate yourself from the engulfing sadness of their lives. And by the end, I think I wanted more from the leap forward in time, to feel something like closure and goodness for these now-women. But the reader doesn't find that, and is instead greeted with an ending much more realistic and plausible.

Bravo to Jones, a wonderful and deep-thinking writer who writes such propulsive novels--I cannot wait for more of her works. I'm sure I'll remember Dana and Chaurisse (much like Celestial and Roy) for a long time.