Secret Lives
by Berthe Amoss
I guess sometimes there's a reason why a book goes out of print. And the reverse, too--I'm sure there are a number that stay in print but ought to bow graciously out. I don't fret about them because they aren't on my reading list.
So as to this one...I wish I had my 99 cents back.
It's about a girl (Addie) growing up in New Orleans, raised by her two maiden aunts and their colored housekeeper. The housekeeper's granddaughter comes to visit and together, the girls attempt to discover the secret of Addie's mother, killed in a tsunami when Addie was a baby. The mother is a mystery--how could a person be so beautiful, talented and perfect as she was described, and be for real? No one is that perfect, are they?
Mixed in is a good bit of adventure and a lot of growing-up angst, and I sort-of think that if I'd read it as a pre-teen, I might have liked it a little. A little. It just...didn't age.
I wonder why Lizzie Skurnick liked it enough to include in her list?
Maybe she liked the portrayals of the girl's Aunt Eveline and Uncle Malvern. They were some kooky adults. But the heroine--I didn't like her at all.
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