The Queen of Palymra; Minrose Gwin

The Queen of Palmyra: A Novel by Minrose Gwin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This isn't a very likable book - it hurts in the same way that The Color Purple hurts, only Florence is white, not black. Growing up just a hair north of white trash, in Mississippi during the '60s can't have been easy; having an abusive father who hates blacks and a drunkard mother who doesn't mind them is even more difficult.

Flo's story hits all the notes you expect from a story about those types of people. Unlike The Help, the voices don't always ring true in part because often you get the grown-up woman talking about the past in a way that seems too adult. The characters also felt somewhat stereotypical, but that doesn't lessen the affect the story has.

ARC provided by publisher.

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