White Trash Alexandra Allred Books
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It all started when someone called an African American toddler "cute little niglet." White Trash was created in tribute to this unknown child. It has a hilarious cast and shocking storyline based on real people and true events in a small rural town in Texas. When Thia Franks returns to her home of Granby, Texas, the very place to which she'd vowed never to return, Granby's worst and best elements force the new single mother to face both her past and her destiny. At first, it seems that nothing has changed Chester Kennedy's goats continue to run rampant through the town, Officer Tina Wolfe stands accused of racial profiling the growing Hispanic community, Thia's gun-wielding neighbor believes a squirrel has it in for her, and the town's local newspaper owner prints only what she believes the citizens should know. But when a young black man-an upstanding and popular citizen of the small, east-central Texas town-is brutally murdered, everything changes. Everyone is being watched. Everyone is being judged. White Trash is a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud book that also serves as a bitter social commentary on American hypocrisies and prejudices. As Thia Franks comes to terms with the murder, and the small police department works the biggest whodunit in Granby history, a startling underworld of domestic abuse, gunrunning, drug use, illicit sex, and child molestation is revealed. While the murder is horrendous and some of the citizens of Granby are appalling, many stand up for what is right, and the total package is endearing. You'll want to read White Trash more than once in order to capture all of the tale's insights as it neatly summarizes the reality of every American small town peopled with neighbors you can't get away from, you can't stop talking about, and you may not want to leave.
White Trash Alexandra Allred Books
When I drive across Texas this summer I'm going to keep my eye on city limits signs. If I see that Alexandra Allred's fictional White Trash town of Granby has suddenly become real, I may back track and go around. Not because I don't want to see it, but because there's a good chance that if I do I'll get swept up into its stories and never leave.That's exactly what happened to Thia Franks. When she graduated high school, her scholarship to Duke was her one-way ticket out of town, and you probably can guess what happened. A few years later she returned home with a degree, a baby and not a little chagrin. Her aunt wangled her a temporary job at the newspaper. Thia planned her way back out of town. However, when she heard a stunningly offensive racial slur (not repeated here), she was swept up into the dramas and complexity of Granby.
Three groups make up the tiny town: Anglo, African American, and Latino. Conflicts and alliances rule the day. The newspaper office is right in the middle of most of them, and Thia right along with it.
This gallop through a few Granby months almost threw me with its shifting point-of-view and many, many characters. (A cast of characters would help a lot. I had to grab a pencil and create my own.) But I hung on and was glad I finished the ride. The stories are intriguing and the characters worth knowing, even the goats. As you might expect in a novel about west Texas, there are plenty of goats and some Port-a-potties as well.
Early on, James Otis, whom I selected to be the hero, meets a violent and inexplicable death at the end of a celebration party in his honor. Thia is there and knows all the other guests, so she must know the killer or killers.
White Trash sounds dark, and it is, but Allred's characters bring light to the situations with their ongoing, complex and sometimes very funny personal stories. Thia's aunt Cici and her unlikely romance bring not only welcome laughter, but a good measure of joy.
Once again, I learn the power of story to help us discover all aspects about life. I hope that Allred is thinking about a sequel, because I certainly want to know what happens next.
by Trilla Pando
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
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Tags : Amazon.com: White Trash (9781612131535): Alexandra Allred: Books,Alexandra Allred,White Trash,The Writer's Coffee Shop,1612131530,FICTION Humorous General,Fiction - General,Fiction : Mystery & Detective - General,Humorous,Mystery & Detective - General
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White Trash Alexandra Allred Books Reviews
Source Netgalley / Publisher ARC
Rating 4.2/5
Thia Franks has returned to her small hometown with her tail between her legs. Desperate to leave as a youngster, she left to study at Duke. Along with her degree, those 4 years have brought some hard times too. So when it starts to go south, Thia is persuaded to go back home to her mother's house in Granby, Texas, and work at the local town newspaper, The Recorder.
Granby seems to be the same, filled with the same people with unchanging mind-sets, judging her and being judged in turn. Thia is conscious of the way she is being perceived - that for all her high-talk she has ended up like the other losers - back home, right where she started, with a child in tow and a husband nowhere in sight.
She settles into her old life grudgingly. Old friends have moved on with their tired, desperate lives. The multi-racial town seems calm and uneventful on the surface, but is a hotbed of abuse, racism, incest, drug-use and gunrunning under the hood. When a hispanic man is severely injured in a grisly prank, tensions get heightened. Then one of Thia's Afircan-American friends is murdered and she starts getting mysterious phone-calls hinting at the identity of the murderer.
This book is an atmospheric account of small-town life in rural Granby. If you haven't lived in a small Southern town, Allred brings it to life for you. There are many characters in this book but all were fleshed out beautifully. We root for Thia herself because she is a bold, upright sensible young woman who cannot tolerate racism and injustice. She also has a spry sense of humor, and we get to read her tongue-in-cheek accounts of the townspeople. Also endearing are her mother and aunt, while Officers Wolfie and Foxie add spice to the mix with their no-nonsense philosophy of hating everyone equally.
Allred excels in creating a sprawling story with nuanced details. The many characters in the book are tied through to the main story with well-etched out back-stories. The book's tone feels authentic. Allred displays impeccable command of the story's pace - she balances out the humorous, quixotic segue-ways about life in Granby with plot elements which keep the book chugging away. White Trash is well-paced, sauntering through Granby giving us a good feel for the place and its people, but ratcheting up the tension as things hot up.
This was an engrossing read. If you liked "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett, I'd highly recommend White Trash.
Ms. Allred's first book shocked me, then made me laugh in the opening chapter. This one made my jaw drop when I read what those women called that baby. I wanted to immediately see some kind of justice, or apology, or growth in this town.
Then the murder happened and everyone was pointing fingers and there were mobs and sadness and distrust was growing by leaps and bounds.
In the middle of all of the drama, there were moments of outright hilarity. Have you ever heard of fainting goats? I hadn't, then there they were, in downtown Granby. Two of the best supporting characters ever, Officers Wolfe and Fox, women who fit together like PB&J, are right there in the middle of the mess...and one of them has her gun drawn! Maybe you should put your coffee down when you get to that part.
Once again, Ms. Allred gives us a good, hard look into small town life as Thia, who has returned to Granville with a child in tow, reintegrates herself a world she had hoped to leave forever.
As tension rises over the murder of a well-loved young man, truth makes it's way through the racism, the phobias, the prejudices, and yes, the love and joy that living in a small town (or even a big one) provide.
Not everything is black and white, there are shades of gray and you'll enjoy the journey as Thia finds her way back home.
FIVE BOOKMARKS to Ms. Allred for showing us how to live well and honorably.
Thia's journey was one you'll follow, wishing her well every step of the way.
*Full disclosure time. I was the proofreader for WHITE TRASH and also got the ARC from NetGalley and TWCS.
When I drive across Texas this summer I'm going to keep my eye on city limits signs. If I see that Alexandra Allred's fictional White Trash town of Granby has suddenly become real, I may back track and go around. Not because I don't want to see it, but because there's a good chance that if I do I'll get swept up into its stories and never leave.
That's exactly what happened to Thia Franks. When she graduated high school, her scholarship to Duke was her one-way ticket out of town, and you probably can guess what happened. A few years later she returned home with a degree, a baby and not a little chagrin. Her aunt wangled her a temporary job at the newspaper. Thia planned her way back out of town. However, when she heard a stunningly offensive racial slur (not repeated here), she was swept up into the dramas and complexity of Granby.
Three groups make up the tiny town Anglo, African American, and Latino. Conflicts and alliances rule the day. The newspaper office is right in the middle of most of them, and Thia right along with it.
This gallop through a few Granby months almost threw me with its shifting point-of-view and many, many characters. (A cast of characters would help a lot. I had to grab a pencil and create my own.) But I hung on and was glad I finished the ride. The stories are intriguing and the characters worth knowing, even the goats. As you might expect in a novel about west Texas, there are plenty of goats and some Port-a-potties as well.
Early on, James Otis, whom I selected to be the hero, meets a violent and inexplicable death at the end of a celebration party in his honor. Thia is there and knows all the other guests, so she must know the killer or killers.
White Trash sounds dark, and it is, but Allred's characters bring light to the situations with their ongoing, complex and sometimes very funny personal stories. Thia's aunt Cici and her unlikely romance bring not only welcome laughter, but a good measure of joy.
Once again, I learn the power of story to help us discover all aspects about life. I hope that Allred is thinking about a sequel, because I certainly want to know what happens next.
by Trilla Pando
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
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