Are you’re looking for an entertaining book to read? Are you also willing to briefly suspend reality--as in what are the chances that two main characters would randomly bump into each other…repeatedly. If you answered “Yes’” to both questions, then let me recommend 32 Candles. This first novel by Ernessa T. Carter will not leave you pondering the meaning of life, but I guarantee you won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough.

Growing up in rural Glass, Mississippi, Davidia Jones lives with her mother Cora, who is both an alcoholic and a prostitute. With no father in the picture, Cora treats her daughter with constant cruelty and contempt. To compound her misery, Davidia is equally ridiculed at school for her plain face and hand-me-down clothing. One night with Cora on the town, Davidia stages an imaginary Tina Turner concert. Arriving home early, Cora brutally beats her daughter for wearing her high heels. Davidia chooses to stop talking…permanently. She maintains her mute state through middle and into high school.

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The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is a book that takes a tragedy and transforms it: "When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn't happen. In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself. It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing sets. With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief, her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor and begin the difficult process of healing." (Book Description)

If you liked The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, then you may like these titles and authors:

Blue Diary by Alice Hoffman
Ethan and Jorie Ford's idyllic life is tested when a photo of the man wanted for a murder and rape committed in Maryland 15 years ago is broadcast on TV. A viewer identifies the suspect as Ethan and he is arrested. As his friends raise money for his defense, Jorie seeks information about the victim, Rachel Morris. After reading Rachel's diary, Jorie begins to wonder about Ethan.  (from What Do I Read Next?)

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
In a small Mississippi town, Harriet Cleve Dusfresnes grows up in the shadow of her brother, who-when she was only a baby-was found hanging dead from a black-tupelo tree in their yard. His killer was never identified, nor has his family, in the years since, recovered from the tragedy. For Harriet, who has grown up largely unsupervised, in a world of her own imagination, her brother is a link to a glorious past she has only heard stories about or glimpsed in photograph albums. Fiercely determined, precocious far beyond her twelve years, and steeped in the adventurous literature of Stevenson, Kipling, and Conan Doyle, she resolves, one summer, to solve the murder and exact her revenge.
Harriet's sole ally in this quest, her friend Hely, is devoted to her, but what they soon encounter has nothing to do with child's play: it is dark, adult, and all too menacing.  (Catalog Description).