Greetings! Sonja Yoerg (the author I am featuring today) has written House Broken, The Middle of Somewhere, and All the Best People. Readers can follow her on Amazon and get emails when a new book is listed on Amazon.
All the Best People is a new
novel by Sonja Yoerg is the story of Carole LaPorte and her family. Carole is forty-four years old, married and
has three children. Lately, Carole has
been having trouble concentrating and she has been hearing things (that people
are mocking her, talking behind her back, the cat is evil). Carole is afraid to tell her husband about
her troubles for fear of ending up in Underhill State Hospital like her mother,
Solange Gifford. Alison, Carole’s
daughter, can tell something is wrong with her mother, but no one will listen
to her. She tries to find another way to
help her mother. Alison is becoming a
young woman and needs her mother’s love and guidance. Janine, Carole’s younger sister, is a widow
and has her eyes on Greg Bayliss, Alison’s teacher, as her new husband. Then April Honeycutt, the new special
education teacher, and Greg start spending time together. Janine is not going to let April take away
her prize. Solange has been in Underhill
since she was thirty-four years old. Her
husband, Osborn had her committed after the birth of Janine leaving the girls
in the care of his sisters. Carole
continues to get worse and starts withdrawing from her family. Pick up All the Best People to find out what
happens with Carole, how Solange ended up in Underhill, and if Janine gets her
man.
All the Best People shows how mental
illness can affect a family and not just one generation. The story is told from Carole, Janine,
Alison, and Solange’s point-of-view.
The book takes us back to when Solange agreed to marry Osborn. Solange came from river people in Burlington,
Vermont and Osborn from the upper class.
This pairing is doomed right from the beginning. A trial case of Ploof v. Putnam divides
Osborn and Carole as well as the citizens of Burlington. The changing viewpoints made it difficult to
get into the story. I wish the story had
been told from third person. The pace of
the book slowed down considerably during Solange’s story which I did not enjoy. How Solange ended up in Underhill was a necessary
part of the story. However, it was predictable
by delving into the division of the classes.
I knew where the story would go as soon as the read that Solange and
Osborn were from different sections of town.
I give All the Best People 2 out of 5 stars. The book is full of
unlikeable characters. The only person I
found endearing was Lester. I found
information to be repeated often throughout the story and the ending was a letdown. The book could have used more editing and a reduction in length (it was too long). A blue box and a pearl figure prominently into
the story, but I did not get why (except to represent water). The blurb for the story hints at magic, but
the only magic is Alison reading spells from books (there was a definite lack
of supervision). I was never able to get
into the All the Best People. I did like
some of the references to shows and items from the 70s (I was a little girl in
the 70s). The author handles the serious
issue of mental illness very well. She
showed how mental illness was treated in the late 30s and in the 70s. All the Best People was not the right novel
for me, but I do recommend Ms. Yoerg’s House Broken.
Thank you for visiting today. I hope you found my review helpful (I struggled with this one). I will return tomorrow to review Bearly Departed by Meg Macy. It is the first book in A Teddy Bear Mystery series and will be published on May 30. May you have a pleasant Friday. Take care and Happy Reading!
Kris
The Avid Reader
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