MADreads

Cici's family moves from Taiwan to Seattle when she's twelve and it's a shocking adjustment. They leave her A-má (grandmother) and many traditions behind. Cici is determined to bridge the gap by exploring more American customs and cuisine and by vowing to bring her A-má to Seattle in time for her 70th birthday. 

Since I came across gods in Alabama a dozen or so years ago, I’ve been a fan of Joshilyn Jackson. Her writing is so enjoyable, witty and astute, her characters unconventional but winning, that I always look forward to her books. The Opposite of Everyone didn’t let me down. The narrator, Paula Vauss, is a hard-edged, biracial divorce lawyer in Atlanta, known for making the bad guys pay up.

Moira is a senior in high school when her best friend, Nathan, dies of cancer. Nathan was not only her best friend, he was Moira’s only friend, the only person she thought she needed or wanted in her life. Before Nathan got sick, Moira spent more time with him and his family than her own. After he was diagnosed with cancer, she started skipping classes and meals to spend every minute she could with him. Moira’s world crashes when Nathan dies, and her parents are at a loss as to how to help her. They decide to send her to Castle School, far from home, deep in the woods of Maine.

Mystery devotees could long argue over what period represented the peak era of American noir/mystery writing, but it’s likely all would agree that the 1940s would be high on everyone’s list. With such luminaries as Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, and Dorothy Hughes established and up and comers Mickey Spillane and Jim Thompson making their mark in the pulp magazines, the culture of World War II America was ripe for literary inspiration.