This book had me fighting the air.
Bakersfield, Georgia, 1958: Thirteen-year-old Tangy Mae Quinn is the darkest-skinned of her mother Rozelle’s ten fatherless children. She’s also the brightest but that doesnt matter to Rozelle, who considers Tangy her ugliest child. Rozelle is violent toward her children, especially Tangy, and she doesn’t value their education, pulling them out of school when they turn twelve so they can bring money into the household by working as maids, in the fields, or at “the farmhouse,” where Rozelle sleeps with men for money. But Tangy has the opportunity to be the first of the siblings to graduate high school. Will Rozelle stand in her way?
Rozelle not letting the men know they have children is one thing, but her being a lazy bum is another. She has this attitude that her kids are obligated to care for her when it’s the other way around. She takes all their earnings, which she doesn’t use to provide them with necessities and has the nerve to not want them to leave home when they come of age, partly because she has abandonment issues, but mostly because she doesn’t want to lose their checks.
Despite missing a lot of school, Tangy is the smartest student in her class and she refuses to drop out. Her older sister Tarabelle hates Rozelle because of what she makes her do for money but she can be just as hateful and antiblack as her mother. They both think Tangy’s uppity for not wanting to quit school to work, but she feels pressued into earning her keep in order to protect her younger sisters.
It’s clear Rozelle has undiagnosed mental disorders, but I couldn’t empathize with her because of the types of abuse she subjects her children to at her own hands and the hands of racists. They have to contend with Jim Crow South and come home to a white presenting mother who not only does’t shelter them but upholds the ideals of white supremacy under her roof. She calls them names and accuses them of things she does. And just when I thought she couldn’t get any worse, interesting revelations are revealed about Rozelle.
In spite of everything, Tangy still loves her mother. I just hoped that she wouldn’t love her enough to put her desires ahead of her own.
Bahni Turpin is spectacular as all characters. The way she changes her voice ever so slightly and sounds like a completely different character is insane. Her performance gives the sense that Rozelle’s not just evil. She still needs her ass whopped, but she might need meds, too.
TW: racial discrimination/slurs, antiblackness, verbal and physical child abuse, graphic descriptions of violence, murder, sexual assault, abortion, infanticide
The Bookishevy Book Blog 