Sally has always looked up to her big sister, Kathy, practically following her around like a puppy dog. They are thick as thieves until Kathy hits her moody teenage years, when a year or two age difference can become a gulf between worlds. It’s difficult for Sally to handle that Kathy no longer cares about their bedtime giggles or inside jokes, and even more difficult when one of those inside jokes – their shared crush on all-American big man on campus Billy – becomes an actual relationship. And then Kathy is gone. Dead. And their family falls apart. Sally is crushed like the rest of them, but unlike her family, she remains drawn to Billy.
Love can be messy, non-linear, and broken. Kinda like grief. Sally is wracked with pain from her loss, but she manages to maintain perspective over the course of the novel’s 15 years. Like in her runaway hit, The Wedding People, Espach forces us to confront dark feelings while somehow keeping things somewhat light. This is not quite a coming of age, it’s a coming of self.
4.75 out of 5 stars.
Pair with: Irish whiskey on the rocks.
Peaches to Apples 