Sutherland by Karen Trailor Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for Readers Favorite
Jennalee might be eighteen, but she is throwing a huge tantrum at having to move in the middle of her senior year, never mind that her father had a major heart attack and surgery and was told to give up his law practice and move somewhere quiet for his health, all Jennalee can see is that she had to move away from her first boyfriend and her beloved music teacher. Luckily for her, the fourth of July weekend sees the annual Sutherland family reunion at the quant hotel her parents now run. The hotel is packed full of family members that are trying to one-up the others, having affairs with each other, and all kinds of other general family feuds. Harley Laidlaw is one of the Sutherland family members, but he is nothing like the rest and an amazing violin player, over the weekend Jennalee and Harley bound over music. Sutherland is the story of a large family and their dysfunction while at the same time being the coming-of-age of Jennalee. Author Karen Trailor Thomas has created a multi-layered story.
Sutherland revolves around the dysfunctional Sutherland family, but it also is the story of Jennalee, her tantrum and the ability of an outsider to see what she is doing, how she is hurting herself to spite her parents, and to get her to focus on the big picture and stop blaming her parents for a move, that was necessary to save her fathers life, even though she won't admit it. Author Karen Trailor Thomas was able to weave two separate stories into one and create a wonderful novel of family and life. This story is definitely for the more mature reader as there is a great deal of sex and sexual references.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment