Off to a Good Start!

Earlier this week I started reading A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty.  It was one of my recommended reads on Goodreads, and they pretty much hit the nail on the head.  The plot description sounded interesting and it actually reminds me a lot of Jodi Picoult, one of my favorite authors.  One of the biggest similarities is in the organization of the text.  Picoult often has stories that are told from multiple different first-person perspectives where she changes the speaker each chapter.  A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is organized the same way.

I am 19% into the novel (reading on my Kindle) and here is the gist of the plot thus far.  It follows the tale of three women in the same family.  First is "Big" the grandmother, second is Liza, the mother, and third is Mosey, the daughter.  There are fifteen years between each of them, so both Big and Liza were teen mothers and have this gnawing fear that Mosey will turn out the same way.  But, there is more to the plot than that.  Shortly after Mosey was born, Liza and Mosey disappeared from the town for two years and returned to Big when Mosey was a toddler.  Liza had an accident and had some handicaps the year Mosey turned 14, so Big was essentially raising Mosey as well as providing care to Liza.  Then one day it happened.  Some workers were cutting down a tree in the front yard when they discovered a buried box.  Inside the box were the remains of a baby and an outfit Big remembers buying for Liza when Mosey was born.  The workers call the police and immediately we see the thoughts of both Mosey and Big.  Big immediately jumps to the conclusion that the remains are those of baby Mosey and that Liza had kidnapped another girl when she was missing for that time period.  Mosey thinks maybe her mom has another baby that died before her.  All we know from Liza is that she screamed, "My baby!  My baby!" when the box was found.

I have so many questions:

• Whose remains are inside the box?
• Was Mosey kidnapped?
• Where did Liza and Mosey do during that time period?
• Who is Mosey's father?

Based on the clues in the book, I am going to infer that Mosey was kidnapped.  There was a vivid character description early on in the book where Big is describing Mosey and how she doesn't look anything like her and Liza.  I guess I have to keep reading to find out!

I found this video about the author because this is the first book I've read by her.  I love the way she talks about characters and how they develop in her head.  She actually isn't talking about this novel but does talk about character development and has some tips that would be helpful to any writer.