This is the first book from Joshilyn Jackson that I've picked up. I am definitely in the minority where this book is concerned. It gets a two-star rating from me because although I liked a lot about the structure of this story, but I had some serious issues with it that are keeping me from rating it higher.

What I liked:

1. The audiobook. I listened to this on audio. The author narrated this book herself, and I thought she did an outstanding job. I will say that there were moments in the middle of chapters where background music would come in to end a scene, which was really strange and a little distracting to me, but I liked it, for the most part.

2. The structure. This books follows the POV of Ginny, Liza, and Mosey, three generations of women embroiled in a family mystery. Liza, who has recently suffered a stroke, also gets her voice heard, even though she is having trouble communicating with her family. So we as readers learn about her past and the mystery unfolds as the other ladies are searching for the truth as well. We see them follow paths that we know are going to be dead ends, which is pretty interesting.

What I didn't like:

1. Serious slut/sex shaming. This is what really ruined the book for me. It wasn't just a one-time, two-time, five-time, twenty-time thing. It was woven throughout the narrative of every POV. Not a chapter went by without some sort of reference to sex as a shameful thing. Slut, skank, and whore were used liberally in this book, and there really wasn't any kind of sex-positive message at all. Neither of the elder Slocumb women made particular good decisions in regard to their romantic lives, but yeesh. This was seriously brutal.

2. Offensive language. There is a character that uses the 'n word' in this book. This character is mildly derided by one of our characters, but it's forgotten about as soon as it happens. I wish it had been called out as unacceptable, instead there is just a sarcastic comment about an old racist. Also, the character of Mosey, along with several of her teenage friends, use the word 'retard', 'retarded', and other iterations of this foul words over and over again. Mosey is mildly chided one time by Ginny, but again, it's not forceful and it keeps on happening. I have a big problem with that. I feel like having these characters use this language in this day and age is really unacceptable and irresponsible. Some may say that it's authentic, but I feel like it's really selling the younger generation short to have them using such offensive language. Between this and all of the slut-shaming language, I really found myself disliking Mosey quite a bit. She was incredibly judgmental of everyone around her. Even the girl she ended up being friends with was a target for her condescension, and I had a problem with that.

I can definitely understand that there is a huge audience for this kind of story, and I get that she has a lot of fans. I will probably try another book by this author, but it'll probably be a more recently published book, hopefully without all the sex shaming.