The Almost Sisters

by Joshilyn Jackson

Leia Birch Briggs is a comic book writer and illustrator, tasked with writing a prequel for her most loved character Violet. However Leia discovers that a one-night stand with the cute black "Batman" she met at a comic convention has resulted in pregnancy, and now it's difficult come up with Violet's beginnings. Her mind is consumed by her pregnancy.

The first person she wants to tell is her grandmother, "Birchie," who lives in Alabama. But she soons find out that Birchie has been diagnosed with Lewy Bodies, a form of dementia. Birchie mostly sees bunny rabbits everywhere - doing what they do best. Birchie and her bosom buddy Wattie have tried very hard to hide the disease, but after the recent church fish fry it can't be hidden any longer. And because of her outburst, a few members can no longer show their faces at the little Baptist church. Leia realizes that she has to help her grandmother. However, before she leaves home, she also finds herself in the middle of the marital woes of her half-sister Rachel and winds up taking along her niece, Lavender.

Conversation during the first dinner hints of the trouble that is on the horizon. Birchie flatly refuses to go into assisted living, but just in case she's forced, she orders that a trunk be moved into Leia's car and she and Wattie attempt to drive off with it. But as they're driving out of the yard, Wattie accidentally backs into the mailbox and the trunk is discovered. In front of nosy neighbors no less. Neighbors who have called the police who feel they need to open the trunk - the trunk that contains human remains!

So the book about the comic book writer who gets knocked up by a black Batman is about to become much more interesting than I originally thought.

It deals with small southern town values, prejudices, rape, bi-racial children, two churches within a church, two towns within one town, and "almost sisters" or does the word "almost" really apply?