Review: The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray

Title: The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
Author: Anissa Gray
Format: eBook
Publisher: Berkley
Publish Date: February 9, 2019 in hardcover (Paperback is out today!)
Source: Publisher 

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "The Butler family has had their share of trials—as sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian can attest—but nothing prepared them for the literal trial that will upend their lives.

Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will. They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband Proctor are arrested, and in a heartbeat the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace. The worst part is, not even her sisters are sure exactly what happened.

As Althea awaits her fate, Lillian and Viola must come together in the house they grew up in to care for their sister’s teenage daughters."

My Two Cents:

"The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls" is one of those books that I feel like I saw a lot last year but never read the synopsis. The cover is so unmistakable though and definitely pulls you in. When I was given the opportunity to read a copy, I was captivated by the synopsis. What happens to a family when its defacto leader, Althea, is suddenly taken away and it's up to her sisters, Viola and Lillian to take her place and more importantly raise her two teenagers, Kim and Baby Vi. The circumstances are terrible and each person is trying to find their own footing again. This is a good story of love and resilience!

This book took me a little bit to get into. I was trying to figure out the placement of the characters and what roles they all played. You have a lot of different points of view to include the letters that Althea and her husband, Proctor, write back and forth to each other while they are in jail. At first, I was thrown off by all of these different narratives but eventually you see that much of the book is concerned with the characters figuring out who they are while the readers are putting together the same question. This ended up being very effective for me.

I love a good family story and this book definitely fits that bill! Viola, Lillian, Kim, and Baby Vi aren't really sure what to make of their new situation without Althea. Each of them are trying to navigate and often seem to be failing at their new roles. We see each of them, even the adults, grow in different ways throughout the book. We get insight into each of these characters throughout the book. I really felt for this family and you are certainly pulling for them throughout the whole book!

This is a great pick for those that love character-driven stories and complicated family matters!