darlene shorey-ensor

When your mother kills your father by running him over with her brand new Cadillac, it affects you for the rest of your life. It certainly shatters the lives of the "Amazing Graces" - Jacki, Jenny, Jules and Joey Grace. Their dad is dead, their mom goes to prison, the family home is sold and the girls are split up. Jacki, the eldest, is just sixteen. During their previous fun-filled existence, they never would have imagined that because of their mother's rage, their futures would include drug use, mental illness, sexual abuse, loss and betrayal. They blame their mother for it all, but scrape their way through and come out stronger. Only then are they ready to learn the ugly truth about their father and how strong their mother really is. The story is written in alternating first-person narratives by each of the sisters, and then, finally, their mother and is set against the back-drop of the San Francisco Bay Area during the turbulent 1960s. Similar to Harper's Lee "To Kill A Mockingbird, "The Amazing Graces" is a powerful and poignant story about children but it is not a children's story.