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A review by oddfigg
Gods with a Little G by Tupelo Hassman
5.0
Tupelo Hassman has shot to the top of my *holy crap this writer is incredible* list.
A coming-of-age story with such a strong and spirited voice that it basically vibrates right off the page. I was Helen as I read these pages—I felt her experience, the emotional journey, everything, deep in my soul. And I loved it.
The cover is amazing, as you can see, and it is so perfectly suited to the book, since Helen uses the idea (metaphorically and sometimes literally) of “Lost” posters throughout the book as a physical manifestation of how she’s reacting to change. I loved this aspect of the book—Her lost cat poster for a cat that went missing when her mom died is a small act of rebellion against her dad’s new girlfriend. Her (humorous) lost dad poster signifies how she’s feeling as her dad finds love again and seems to be a new and different person. This is just a small taste of the insight this book has to offer.
The writing is exquisite. Humorous, tongue-in-cheek, and witty, Helen’s voice sparkles and surprises, and I wanted her to be my best friend. The book is written from the immediacy of the teenage experience as it is being experienced, unlike so many coming-of-age narratives that are told from some point in the future by an older, wiser version of the character. Not so here. You get the straight facts, emotions, experience—just as Helen sees it.
Her specific experience, one of being stuck in a town that’s so cut off from the rest of the world that they can block specific parts of the internet and ban kids from getting tattoos based on some inane part of the Bible, is not necessarily one that is universal in itself. But her emotional experiences of first love, sexual urges, injustices, being an outcast, feeling alone, not knowing how to grieve for her mother and deal with her father moving on, and just wanting more from life hit me deeply. Not only did I feel her journey, but it felt so real.
I loved this book. One of my favorites of the year so far.
Thank you, thank you, FSG for putting this one in my hands to read and review.
A coming-of-age story with such a strong and spirited voice that it basically vibrates right off the page. I was Helen as I read these pages—I felt her experience, the emotional journey, everything, deep in my soul. And I loved it.
The cover is amazing, as you can see, and it is so perfectly suited to the book, since Helen uses the idea (metaphorically and sometimes literally) of “Lost” posters throughout the book as a physical manifestation of how she’s reacting to change. I loved this aspect of the book—Her lost cat poster for a cat that went missing when her mom died is a small act of rebellion against her dad’s new girlfriend. Her (humorous) lost dad poster signifies how she’s feeling as her dad finds love again and seems to be a new and different person. This is just a small taste of the insight this book has to offer.
The writing is exquisite. Humorous, tongue-in-cheek, and witty, Helen’s voice sparkles and surprises, and I wanted her to be my best friend. The book is written from the immediacy of the teenage experience as it is being experienced, unlike so many coming-of-age narratives that are told from some point in the future by an older, wiser version of the character. Not so here. You get the straight facts, emotions, experience—just as Helen sees it.
Her specific experience, one of being stuck in a town that’s so cut off from the rest of the world that they can block specific parts of the internet and ban kids from getting tattoos based on some inane part of the Bible, is not necessarily one that is universal in itself. But her emotional experiences of first love, sexual urges, injustices, being an outcast, feeling alone, not knowing how to grieve for her mother and deal with her father moving on, and just wanting more from life hit me deeply. Not only did I feel her journey, but it felt so real.
I loved this book. One of my favorites of the year so far.
Thank you, thank you, FSG for putting this one in my hands to read and review.