The Almost Sisters

A Novel

By: Joshilyn Jackson

Narrated by: Joshilyn Jackson

Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

With empathy, grace, humor, and piercing insight, the author of Gods in Alabama presents a powerful, emotionally resonant novel of the South that confronts the truth about privilege, family, and the distinctions between perception and reality - the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and who we really are.

Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs' weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman.

It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She's having a baby boy - an unexpected but not unhappy development in the 38-year-old's life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single-motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional Southern family, her stepsister Rachel's marriage implodes. Worse, she learns her beloved 90-year-old grandmother, Birchie, is losing her mind, and she's been hiding her dementia with the help of Wattie, her best friend since girlhood.

Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother's affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she's pregnant. Yet just when Leia thinks she's got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie's been hiding. Tucked in the attic is a dangerous secret with roots that reach all the way back to the Civil War. Its exposure threatens the family's freedom and future, and it will change everything about how Leia sees herself and her sister, her son and his missing father, and the world she thinks she knows.

©2017 Joshilyn Jackson (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Fantastic!

Joshilyn Jackson is a great storyteller, and listening to her delightful voice relate this story was pure joy - I laughed, I cried, I marveled at the talent that created such a multi-faceted novel that deals with some serious issues. Throughout, her incredible facility with words pulled me in and held me fast. Her characters are believably human, and flawed - as all of us are, in our own unique ways.

Meh

Hard to stick with as it moved pretty slow with excessive use of adjectives and descriptive text. Did have some surprises which is the only reason I stuck it out

Beautifully written!

I couldn’t put it down!
The author did a spectacular job of merging the genteel south with a nouveau marvel-esque subplot to wind its way around an incredible story of long-suffering friendship and sacrifice.

Brilliant !

Love this Author!

Joshlyn Jackson is an amazing author! This is the second audiobook of hers I have listened to and I’m not stopping now.
To read your own book with varying voices, inflection and love is an amazing talent.
Thank you for narrating your own stories!

Loved this book!!

Best book I've read in a while! We need a sequel!!! How is Wattie? Does Leah & Batman get together? How is little James? Rachel, Jake & Lavender? I feel like I know these people!!

A must read!

Loved it! Once again, Joshilyn Jackson writes and narrates another wonderful story. Her characters are heartwarming and quirlky in the best possible way.

I wanted to love this.... but.....

This is my first Joshilyn Jackson book. I so wanted to love it. I kept going and going because the narration was so good. But you rarely got to hear all the parts. There's not enough story and not enough interaction with the characters. It's just the narrator going on and on and no and on and on..... I want to hear more of the characters like it would flow like a story. But it was one character practially telling the whole thing. I wish I could say I fnished it, but I got very bored. I kept trying. The narration is supberb. Wish I would have heard that more with more of the charcters. I stopped about half way through

Fantastic Reading

The author who I am told studied drama reads this book and does a fantastic job of bringing the characters to full life. I was engaged from the first chapter because of this. The only reason I give 4 stars instead of five is because I think reading it I may have missed out on a lot of the cultural nuances and personality traits that probably only come through in the reading. This isn't a weakness, I'm just noting that other people who read this in my book club weren't as engaged and I think it has to do with how you interpret the dialogue and so on the written walk through you may miss out on that, possibly. But myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

WOW!!

Very few words words to write after having just completed this audiobook. Except you know, this was an absolutely lovely story. I can't say what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't what I received. If this says anything, I have already picked up another one of hers, The Opposite of Everything.

Excellent story, don't listen around kids

Excellent story, many plots woven together around themes of family, sisterhood, the South, racism, hope, forgiveness, redemption. The profanity and some adult themes made it hard for me to listen (had to wait for time alone or earbuds.)