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I don’t know whether I feel like I just made three new best friends or if I just lost them. This was one of those books where I truly felt like I was part of the characters’ lives, if only for a little while. I didn’t want it to end.
Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean have been best friends since high school, when they earned the nickname, “The Supremes.” Now that they’re “women of a certain age,” they’re still fast friends–practically family–but they’ve hit a period of change. Odette, like her mother before her, has started seeing dead people. Clarice is getting tired of her husband of 40 years running around. Barbara Jean is as beautiful as ever, but is she strong enough to make a fresh start?
I can’t quite say that I cried with these amazing women, although that was a close thing a time or two, but I definitely laughed with them, rejoiced with them, worried with them, and felt like I was living with them.
Odette is strong like the sycamore tree she was born in. She generally says what she thinks and gives everyone else their marching orders. The other Supremes and her husband James see that she has a gigantic heart under all that bullying though. One scene when she was a teenager facing down Barbara Jean’s abusive stepfather had me laughing ’til I cried–on my way to work! I am not a morning person in any way, shape, or form. To be laughing at that hour of the day is pretty much unheard of.
Clarice can be a bit snobbish, but she’s getting better as she gets a little older and wiser. She’s been handicapped to be that way by her awful Mama. As she’s growing, she’s leaving her Mama’s shadow behind, becoming her own woman, and finding her way to the life she really wants to live. I had to cheer for her.
Barbara Jean has had it rough from the beginning. She’s experience more loss than anyone should ever have to experience. It’s left her wounded and making decisions that aren’t necessarily in her best interest. But she’s a sweet soul who would do anything for anybody. She’s the peacemaker of the group and always has been. She’s just gotten to a point where she’s tired.
The novel follows a year in their lives and flashes back into the past to some of the high points and a lot of the lows that they got each other through. Their friendship just felt incredibly real.
I mostly enjoyed the narration by Adenrele Ojo and Pamela D’Pella. I don’t know who read which part, but the narrator who read Clarice’s section was great. The one who read Odette’s sounded a bit too much like she was just reading the text to me, rather than narrating, but when she read dialog, she really came to life. I’m also not clear why there were only two narrators in a book featuring three female points-of-view.
This is just a feel-good book that has left me sorely missing The Supremes. I’m glad for the time I got to spend with them though. Highly recommended. Thanks to Christina at Reading Extensively for bringing it to my attention.
Find author Edward Kelsy Moore on his website, Facebook, and Twitter.
Buy The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat at
I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site. My opinions are completely my own.
2 Comments
I am so glad you enjoyed this one too! One of my favorite books I read this year and I loved listening on audio book. It definitely made me laugh and nearly cry at times too. I loved that scene you mentioned with Odette as a teen. She was so fierce and brave.
Luv your review.