Review Detail

Jinny Buffett lives in a crappy apartment complex in Hollywood, Florida. Her daddy is long dead and her mama works as a cocktail waitress but moonlights as a hooker in every hotel in Hollywood.
When one of Jinny's teachers, Ms. Fleming reaches out to her, because she wants to help Jinny to find an exciting project in school that she can get involved with, all Jinny can think about is what her mama will think. Ms. Fleming wants Jinny to succeed and rise up from her life of poverty, especially since she is an incredibly smart student and gets straight A's.
So Jinny reluctantly decides to start up a book club, thinking no one will be interested, but is surprised by how many of her classmates have signed up.
I think Jinny is a wonderful and complex character; I love that she loves books. She doesn't think she's meant to be anything more than she is, believing that where she is and how she lives is where she belongs. This is fueled even more by her mother who puts it into her head that she's white trailer trash and only acts smart, so she'll look dumb.
As for Jinny's mother, whose name is Crystal, I think she was such a horrible, selfish character and a horrible mother who secretly resented and was jealous of her daughter; this is eventually explained later on why she is like this. She's hardly around and makes Jinny fend for herself most of the time, and instead of just having fun and being a kid, Jinny has to worry about rent and food while her so-called mother goes away for days or weeks on end.
Not all of the supporting characters are terrible, however, like Jinny's best friend Thomas. I loved the scenes with Jinny's friends. Ms. Fleming was a wonderful character as well; I thought it was so sad that Jinny didn't realize just how many people cared about her, that she wasn't as alone as she'd thought. But I'm happy she started to realize people aren't as bad as what her mama always told her.
I enjoyed this book immensely; terrific writing and characters, realistic and authentic. Some parts were a bit depressing, but by the end it does offer the chance of hope, that against all odds you can do anything, and by the end I believed without a doubt that Jinny Buffett could and would do great things.