Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson

Joshilyn Jackson has been one of my favorite authors since I read gods in Alabama in 2006 as a creative writing student. I can’t count how many times I’ve gone to see her on book tours, and I can’t count how many giveaways I entered to get an ARC of this book. I was so excited to win an ARC from William Morrow and started reading as soon as I got it.

Jackson always had some Southern gothic vibes layered on top of quality literary fiction, and she successfully pivoted to domestic suspense with her last release, Never Have I Ever. The Southern gothic still applies to this genre as well, as she’s as good as ever with Mother May I. The suspense is well done, and it’s impossible to know what’s going to happen because there are so many options. The loose ends all get wrapped up in the conclusion, though, and the payoff is worth it. I can’t recommend this one enough.

Joshilyn Jackson

I read gods in Alabama in 2005 and it changed my life. Seriously. I have loved books and authors before, but the style of this writing and the story itself was so perfect… yet seemed like something I could write. Not in a way where I would scoff and say “Even I could write that!” But in a way that pushed me to write so I could love a book of my own as much as I loved that one.

I got to see Joshilyn Jackson speak at Square Books not long after her first book was published, and saw her a time or two after that as well. Her voice is amazing and her personality is so fun and charming. I used to read her blog obsessively, and her personality came out there too. This led me to feeling like I knew her, and that we were best friends… Which got super awkward when I saw her in 2017 at the American Library Association’s Midwinter conference in Atlanta. I greeted her like an old friend, but she is amazing and gracious and gave me the LAST ARC of her upcoming (at the time) book, which I dove into as soon as I got back to the hotel.

I have all of her books and love them and can’t wait to read more by her. As soon as I read her first book, she catapulted into my Top 5 Authors of all time, but as she writes more and more, she’s made it to that number one spot of Favorite Author by being consistently fantastic and innovative with her stories, while staying true to her writing self.