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46th out of 55 books
—
95 voters
The Sweet In-Between
by
Sheri Reynolds (Goodreads Author)
#1 New York Times bestselling author Sheri Reynolds continues to captivate in this masterful tale of redemption and finding a place to truly belong.
Kenny Lugo has grown up in a family that’s not really hers. Her mother died of cancer when Kenny was very young, and Aunt Glo–who is, in fact, her daddy’s girlfriend–took her in when her father was sent to jail for drug traffic...more
Kenny Lugo has grown up in a family that’s not really hers. Her mother died of cancer when Kenny was very young, and Aunt Glo–who is, in fact, her daddy’s girlfriend–took her in when her father was sent to jail for drug traffic...more
Hardcover, Large Print, 246 pages
Published
January 1st 2009
by Center Point Large Print
(first published 2008)
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Sherri Reynolds is one of my favorite authors and she did not disappoint with this story. Kendra, also known as Kenny, lives with her father's girlfriend while he serves time in prison for trafficking. She is getting close to being 18 and is worried about where she'll go after she hits the landmark birthday. Kenny is also getting worried about her sexuality, seeing her father in prison, watching her almost-brother get lost in a new relationship. The story just flows so well and her writing is in...more
Kendra AKA Kenny is going through a difficult period in her life. Like most characters in Reynolds's novels, she is dirt poor and living in the South. Her father is in jail, her mother is dead, and she is currently living with her father's girlfriend, Aunt Glo.
And did I tell you that Kenny binds her breasts and dresses like a boy? That, by the way, is the most intriguing part of Kenny, and Reynolds waits a good, long time to explain the origins of this behavior. No matter, as it was definitely...more
And did I tell you that Kenny binds her breasts and dresses like a boy? That, by the way, is the most intriguing part of Kenny, and Reynolds waits a good, long time to explain the origins of this behavior. No matter, as it was definitely...more
The other day I was listening to Lucinda Williams, and when I heard "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" I thought immediately of this book ("little bit o' dirt, mixed with tears"). The protagonist seemed entirely real to me--the very picture of unhinged, devastating Southern poverty and ignorance. I'm Southern myself, and I have gritted my teeth in irritation at the stereotyping and the complete-missing-of-the-boat in literary and dramatic depictions of slices of Southern life. (I could not make it th...more
This is a coming-of-age story about a "gender-confused" girl whose mother has died, and she lives with her dad's girlfriend since her dad was sent to prison for drug dealing. She also is concerned that she will be thrown out once the foster-care money stops coming when she turns 18. The story starts the night their neighbor shoots an intruder who turned out to be a college student on spring break who meant to be entering a nearby vacation home when she trespassed the neighbor's home. Our protago...more
My book selection process usually goes a little something like this: I read a review, add the book to my wish list, buy the book several months later, and then read the book months after that. So when I first started reading The Sweet In-Between, I was trying to remember what it was about that long-ago review that made me want to read this strange little book. Now that I've finished it, I still don't remember, and frankly, I don't really care. Whatever it was, I'm grateful for it, because as str...more
This was not a cheerful book to read. It tells the story of Kenny, a teenage girl who lives with her Aunt Glo (who's not really her aunt, but her dad's girlfriend) because her dad is in prison for drug trafficking and her mom died of breast cancer when she was a little girl. She was abused by her almost-brother (Aunt Glo's son), and that made her chop off her hair and bandage her breasts to look like a boy. She dresses in baggy clothes as if denying her gender will protect her from more pain.
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I picked up "The Sweet In-Between" on a whim, in the library, after reading the first page and finding myself caught up in the pithy, vulnerable voice of Kendra. Abandoned by her imprisoned father, confused by her sexual identity, and living with a woman she calls "Aunt Glo" but who isn't her blood relative, Kendra had me from the get-go.
However, as the novel progresses, the story (which had such promise) begins to fall apart. Part of this has to do with a distracting and irrelevant subplot abo...more
However, as the novel progresses, the story (which had such promise) begins to fall apart. Part of this has to do with a distracting and irrelevant subplot abo...more
Seventeen-year-old Kendra “Kenny” Lugo is the protagonist in Sheri Reynolds’ The Sweet In-Between. Her mother died from cancer when was a kid, and father is doing time for selling and taking drugs. Kenny lives with “Aunt Glo,” a former (before Mom) and current lover of her father’s, Aunt Glo’s two sons and granddaughter, seven-year-old Daphne.
Kenny’s problem is much larger than her living situation. She is petrified of what will happen to her when she turns eighteen. Will Aunt Glo kick her ou...more
Kenny’s problem is much larger than her living situation. She is petrified of what will happen to her when she turns eighteen. Will Aunt Glo kick her ou...more
Sheri Reynolds graduated from my Alma mater, so I feel an affinity for her simply due to that. In all honesty, though, she creates characters beyond the mainstream and poignantly brings them to life to face situations beyond the norm of mainline fiction. Other books by Sheri Reynolds include Bitterroot Landing and Rapture of Cannon which I also highly recommend.
In this novel we meet Kendra "Kenny" Lugo, a young woman on the brink of adulthood, but with a childhood fraught with challenging circum...more
In this novel we meet Kendra "Kenny" Lugo, a young woman on the brink of adulthood, but with a childhood fraught with challenging circum...more
Although this is my least favorite of the Sheri Reynolds books I have read, it is still an engaging story. Kenny (Kendra) is an adolescent girl, struggling with sexual identity, living in a “family” that barely makes it, financially, emotionally, socially, most of the time. A deceased mother and incarcerated father has left Kenny in the care of her Dad's girl friend, Glo, a woman who has her own children and gradnchildren to attend to, as well as Kenny. Glo is kind of a broken mother hen, she wa...more
A novel by the author of The Rapture of Canaan, it was the story of a hard-luck 17-year-old girl named Kendra and all the fears and ambivalence she encountered being raised by a stepmother, “Aunt Glo”, in a hard-luck southern family of “yours, mine and ours.” (Her mother had died of breast cancer, and her father was in jail, due to the consequences of a drug problem that was in large part due to his reaction to the death of her mother.) Although “Kenny’s” story and experience includes poverty, m...more
As usual, another fabulous story by Reynolds!
From dust jacket:
"Kendra, or "Kenny", has grown up in a family that's not really hers. Her momma died of cancer when Kenny was very young, and "Aunt" Glo is, in fact, her daddy's girlfriend, who took her in when her father was sent to jail for drug trafficking.
Nearing eighteen years old and facing confusion over her sexuality, Kenny binds her chest with ACE bandages and keeps her hair cropped short like a boy's. Her gender ambiguity makes her an outca...more
From dust jacket:
"Kendra, or "Kenny", has grown up in a family that's not really hers. Her momma died of cancer when Kenny was very young, and "Aunt" Glo is, in fact, her daddy's girlfriend, who took her in when her father was sent to jail for drug trafficking.
Nearing eighteen years old and facing confusion over her sexuality, Kenny binds her chest with ACE bandages and keeps her hair cropped short like a boy's. Her gender ambiguity makes her an outca...more
I think this is actually shelved in fiction, not YA - but it fits in both. I loved this book - it's heart-wrenching, and also totally beautiful and touching (like these moments where Kenny's aunt Glo says things like "If Kenny is a lesbian, she is OUR lesbian" and tells the prison guards not to give Kenny "a complex" about her gender presentation when they visit Kenny's dad).
It also captures some of the ruminating misery of adolescence where there do not seem to be other options...like if you a...more
It also captures some of the ruminating misery of adolescence where there do not seem to be other options...like if you a...more
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This site is called good reads. I debated even putting this on here. NOT a good read. I grabbed it off the library shelf knowing zip about it. I wish that is where it would have remained for the next sucker instead of me. I finished it today, and am not sure how or why I made it to the end. This author has a strange mind, and I need to go wash mine out with soap after reading her weirdness! I am just putting this on here as a warning, if you see it on YOUR library shelf, move on by!
p.s. I am giv...more
p.s. I am giv...more
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I have been really hesitant to read anything else by Sheri Reynolds, because she wrote one of my very favorite books of the last few years, The Firefly Cloak . I was worried that nothing else that she wrote could even compare to that lusciously beautiful book. While this book comes no where close to The Firefly Cloak , her writing talent and ability to craft a vivid location and solid characters is still evident. What's missing? The fact that nothing really happens in this book. I almost quit...more
Go figure that the very first time I see my name used for a main character in a book, she has gender identity disorder and prefers to go by Kenny -- a nickname that I spent my whole childhood avoiding. Anyway, this is a short, quick read, and Kenny is a sad, sweet character. She spends her time obsessing about a dead girl, trying to avoid attention from men, and endearing herself to "Aunt Glo," her father's girlfriend (who took her in after her father was sent to prison), so that she won't end u...more
Sheri Reynold's previous theme resurfaces in this book - the young girl's punishment and disguise of herself as a girl who is apparently not worth any attention as a human being - only a sex object. I enjoyed the book, but at times was annoyed but the excessive use of dialogue - only a personal opinion. I think it destroys the cadence of the figurative language. The ending is hopeful - not contrived - I like that. I think older teen girls would especially enjoy this novel. It would be a great bo...more
If I'd read a review of this it would have reeked of "chick lit" and I'm pretty sure the author has had other work featured in Oprah's book club, which would likewise normally be a turn-off for me. But I attended a reading at the Virginia Festival of Books that Reynolds was at and heard her read from this and decided I'd check it out. I was not at all disappointed, as it was a really good read that totally inhabited the mind of the main character (it helped that I had Reynolds' voice in my head...more
This book follows Kendra, better known as Kenny, as she struggles with her identity and a 'family that isn't really hers'. After the death of her mother, and the incarceration of her father, Kenny is forced to live with her father's girlfriend and her children. Kenny is scared of being forced out at the age of 18, but with no where to go, she struggles to make herself as useful as possible. More importantly, Kenny struggles with her sexual and gender identity, which makes this book great for tee...more
I love it when I stumble upon good books and discover another great author. This is an incredible story about a young teenage girl in the midwest who is struggling with living in a girls body and feeling like she doesn't belong....anywhere. The girl "Kenny" will totally make you cry with all she has to go through just to survive. It's gut wrenching in places and hilarious in others. The author writes similar to Billie Letts, so that's probably why I like it so much. If you like those types of st...more
To quote Publisher's Weekly: Simple prose rich with subtext, convincing dialogue and a fascinating protagonist combine to produce a heartstring-plucker that's explicit, tender, sad and hopeful.
This is the story of a 17 year old living in Virginia. Her mother is dead, her father is in jail, and she is living with her father's girlfriend, Aunt Glo. She is gender-confused, and her own story combined with the story of her unusual family make it an interesting and quick read.
This is the story of a 17 year old living in Virginia. Her mother is dead, her father is in jail, and she is living with her father's girlfriend, Aunt Glo. She is gender-confused, and her own story combined with the story of her unusual family make it an interesting and quick read.
This book was filed with the adult books but it would be a valuable read for a high school student. The sexual picture painted of the surrounding 'Southern' culture is rough and intimidating. The story concerns the interaction of that exterior life and the unformed interior life of Kendra - Kenny. There is no hard line drawn by the author between what influences come from outside and which are internal. The story is a positive one of learning to live in your own life.
Not my favorite Sheri Reynolds book, but it's still fantastic. Not a neat and tidy novel in a pretty little package. Instead, it's ugly and messy and a quick photograph of someone finding hope amongst all the rubble of life - starting to get her shit together in life. My very favorite author in the world wrote one book. My second favorite has only written four. Life is not fair (as Reyolds demonsrates without question in every one of the four)...
Once again, Sheri Reynolds has fully engrossed me as she introduces me to Kenny-a gender confused teenager living in a "less than traditional" family in the South. I found myself simultaneously feeling sorry for Kendra/Kenny and yet in the end I knew that Kenny had strength of character that, while rare, was going to overcome the difficult hand she had been dealt by life and rise to something greater than from whence she came. Bravo Sheri-like "Rapture of Canaan", this book was a great read!
A “gender-confused” 17-year-old girl is living with her dad's girlfriend while her dad is in jail, and fears she will be kicked out when she is 18. She binds her breasts and drinks only at night so she won't have to go to the girls' bathroom during the day. A touching story about a very likable teenager who does the best she can but always thinks she isn't good enough. Short at ~200 pages, and well worth the reading time.
Found this on a list of 100 feminist YA novels to read and loved it. Couldn't put it down, and I so wished I had had books like this when I was a teen. I don't remember ever reading a book that suggested I was not the only teen in the world struggling with identity or teasing. Nothing in common with Kenny, except the continual search for identity in those difficult years. Loved this story.
This is one of those novels with ordinary dialogue about extraordinary circumstances...Kenny (Kendra) is a mixed-up teen in a really whacked out family. It's a wonder that she is somewhat normal at all. Dad in jail, mom dead from cancer, Kenny confused about her sexual orientation, death in apartment next door. Sounds like a mish-mash but wonderfully blended by author Reynolds.
This book deals with poor American families in a matter of fact, sometimes funny way and somewhere along the line it sucker punches you with the sheer power of blossoming female sexuality.(Sorta the same way the protagonist gets sucker punched with her own sexuality.) Well written, easy to read, with authentic voices and characters. I enjoyed it immensely and was sad to finish it.
A good COA story. I did not feel the depiction of a girl living in Southern poverty was stereotypical. The main character, 18 year old girl suffering from gender-confusion, was by far the most powerful character with the others being about 2.5 dimensional. Also I do not think she was suffering from gender-confusion but knew what awaited her when she developed.
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Sheri Reynolds is an author of contemporary Southern fiction.
Sheri Reynolds was born and raised in rural South Carolina. She graduated from Conway High School in 1985, Davidson College in 1989, and Virginia Commonwealth University in 1992.
Her published novels include Bitterroot Landing, The Rapture of Canaan (an Oprah book club selection and New York Times bestseller), A Gracious Plenty (98), Fire...more
More about Sheri Reynolds...
Sheri Reynolds was born and raised in rural South Carolina. She graduated from Conway High School in 1985, Davidson College in 1989, and Virginia Commonwealth University in 1992.
Her published novels include Bitterroot Landing, The Rapture of Canaan (an Oprah book club selection and New York Times bestseller), A Gracious Plenty (98), Fire...more
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“When Constance was born, Aunt Glo named her after the dormitory she lived in at college: Constance Hall.”
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