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Eating The Cheshire Cat: A Novel
Eating The Cheshire Cat: A Novel
Eating The Cheshire Cat: A Novel
Ebook310 pages4 hours

Eating The Cheshire Cat: A Novel

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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The debut novel from the author of Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge, a fast-paced and unforgettable reinvention of Southern gothic set in Alabama.

In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, beauty is as beauty does, with axes and knives and killer smiles.

Sarina Summers and her mother will stop at nothing to have it all. Nicole Hicks harbors a fierce obsession with Sarina, which repeatedly undermines Mrs. Hicks’s ambitious goals. Bitty Jack Carlson, a nice girl from the wrong side of the tracks, is caught in the crossfire but struggles to succeed outside the confines of this outrageous yet eerily familiar Southern community. It’s survival of the fittest. Which girl will come out on top?

Eating the Cheshire Cat lures readers into a world of perfectly planned parties and steep social ladders, where traditional rites of passage take unpredictable and horrifying turns as the dreams of three girls and their overbearing mothers collide. Traipsing from summer camp to the University of Alabama’s Homecoming game, this fast-paced and unforgettable novel will keep readers guessing until the bitter end.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherScribner
Release dateDec 15, 2015
ISBN9781501142116
Eating The Cheshire Cat: A Novel
Author

Helen Ellis

Helen Ellis is the author of Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge, Bring Your Baggage and Don’t Pack Light, Southern Lady Code, American Housewife, and Eating the Cheshire Cat. Raised in Alabama, she lives with her husband in New York City. She is a poker player and a plant lady. You can find her on Twitter @WhatIDoAllDay and Instagram @AmericanHousewife.

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Rating: 3.625 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

8 ratings6 reviews

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  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    This book isn’t humorous at all..frankly it is horrifying. The first chapter made me sick. With all that is happening in the world today, go for something more uplifting This is dreadful.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The anti-"Ya-ya Sisterhood." What it's really like being female in the South, speaking as someone who grew up in New Orleans.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wow! This book was a whole lot of crazy rolled into one. You have your three main characters Nicole, Sarina and Bitty jack. This story begins when the are children at camp and goes on until they are in college. This book was really interesting once you start reading its hard to put down. I couldnt believe the Moms of Sarina and nicole they are nuts! so, Overall I gave this book a 5/5 its a really ( cant believe it) kinda read. I would definitely recommend this.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    VERY STRANGE! Luckily, that doesn't bother me a bit! The very weird nature of some of the things in this book is good for keeping the attention of the reader. I used it for UIL Prose piece while I was in high school. Reactions = gasps every time!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    If you appreciate a darker sense of humor, this is a book for you. If not, you might only end up wanting to throttle the cast.Sarina Summers is perfect in every way. Except for her pinky fingers. Their slight crookedness mars her style, and so when she is 16, she gets drunk and has her mother break them.Nicole Hicks lives across the street, and has idolized Sarina her whole life. Her mother is nicer, her life is better. As long as you keep her happy, she'll return the favor. And all Nicole wants is to keep this balance. So much so that she intentionally fails 10th grade, thinking it will better her chances for a friendship, when in fact it proves to be her undoing.Bitty Jack Carlson grew up in a small town, on a Summer Camp. Summers, she attends. The rest of the year, she's home-schooled. The year Sarina attends, life changes forever.Caught using a hairdryer in an unusual fashion by Bitty Jack's father while he's changing a light bulb, Sarina cries abuse. Camp maintenance workers are no longer allowed into cabins without staff invitation, and her father is not allowed to work in them at all during summer, but otherwise, things mostly blow over. Until years down the line when Bitty Jack is dating Sarina's first boyfriend, and Sarina's life is coming apart at the seems.Sarina hatches a plan to get Stewart back. The plan? Out herself as an abuse survivor at a Take Back the Night rally, where both Stewart and Bitty Jack will be there to hear. The back-lash causes the Camp to come under siege by the Press and thus ends the Carlson's have always known. So when Nicole Hicks climbs through Bitty Jack's window late one night with her own plan, rather than being afraid, Bitty Jack is mesmerized.She has few details. They need to hijack the mascot uniform from Stewart. That's all she knows. From the President's Box she looks on, and as we wait for Nicole's plan to hash out, we come to find Bitty Jack had one of her own.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    i've actually read this book a number of times. i find it amusing each time to the next. lets put it this way: it really has a twist at the end. i tend to value the endings of books. if a book has a boring or typical ending, i won't like it as much. this one really didn't disappoint me.

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Eating The Cheshire Cat - Helen Ellis

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