“Clement makes all of these things true at once: A gun is a valentine, a secret-bearer, a penitent, a world destroyer, an exposed belly, an insurance policy, a sudden act of God.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
This is the story of Pearl, a young girl and her single parent Margot, who have left a home of comfort to live in Central Florida. They live in their car, Pearl sleeping in the back seat. They find a trailer park and they park their car there and make it a home.
Occupied by only a few homes, they quickly make friends. Pearl becomes best friends with April May. Her mom works cleaning a building. All is well until a man named Eli Richmond makes his appearance.
Eli runs guns with Pastor Rex who takes in guns to get them off the street, they clean them up, and then resell them in Mexico. Pearl needs to stay away from the car when Eli is visiting with Mom, so she is growing up fast in some ways that a girl her age shouldn’t.
Eli will give Margot a gun for her own protection. The love of guns in this trailer park is so evident as every trailer seems to have at least one.
Things will change forever for Pearl in one quick moment and then her story will change completely. Pearl will then make decisions which are destined to alter her life forever.
Don’t let the title of this book fool you. It isn’t necessarily a book supporting gun ownership. It’s more a book about how such love can hurt you and ruin your life. It’s a book about how sometimes whatever comes around, goes around. Very different storyline, well written, and well worth reading.
Reviewed by:
Richard Franco
Added 27th July 2018
