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doesn't mind being caught up in family drama. Being busy keeps the water at bay—the water of memories, of Katrina, of past trauma.
So when Tennessee Williams—a rich white boy named after the writer—asks her out, she hesitantly says yes. He'll be like a library book, she figures, something to read and return. Falling for him is another burden she can't afford to carry.
Tennessee has always lived his life at the mercy of his mom's destructive creativity and his dad's hypermasculine expectations. Jessamine's caring and aloof nature is a surprisingly welcome distraction. While she fights her attraction to him, Tennessee is pulled into her
inner family circle and develops a friendship with Joel's boyfriend, Saint Baptiste. Together Saint and Tennessee bond over the difficulty of loving the emotionally unavailable Monet twins.
As senior year progresses, old traumas and familial pressures rise higher than hurricane waves. Can this group of friends make peace with each other, their families, and most importantly, with themselves?
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
December 5, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9798889563297
- File size: 355316 KB
- Duration: 12:20:14
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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May 16, 2022
Clarkson follows a group of New Orleans teens coming together to overcome past traumas and carve new paths forward in this weighty debut. Black 17-year-old Jessamine Grace Monet plays things close to the vest. Burdened by her memories of Hurricane Katrina and facing college in the fall, she has more to worry about than love. But when white 17-year-old Tennessee Rebel Williams arrives in New Orleans with his bigoted father and emotionally absent mother, there’s an immediate connection between the two. Meanwhile, Jess’s scholarly—and closeted—twin brother Joel maneuvers advances from a classmate, while the twins’ out and proud trans cousin Solange navigates her disappointed mother’s declining health. As the teens’ lives converge, they must learn to open up to one another and confront their respective pasts to make way for their futures. Though a shifting tone can undercut heavy moments, and a character’s undisclosed mental illness leans on stereotype, Clarkson eschews tidy relationships and characterizations in an emotionally extravagant, slowly paced depiction of complex familial circumstances and young love’s trials. Ages 14–up. Agent: Rachel Brooks, BookEnds Literary.
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