Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Review for My Kind of People by Lisa Duffy


My Kind of People
by 

publication: May 12th 2020 by Atria Books


From the author of The Salt House and This Is Home comes a profound novel about the power of community and a small town’s long-buried secrets as a group of New England islanders come together for a recently orphaned girl.

On Ichabod Island, a jagged strip of land thirteen miles off the coast of Massachusetts, ten-year-old Sky becomes an orphan for the second time after a tragic accident claims the lives of her adoptive parents.

Grieving the death of his best friends, Leo’s life is turned upside down when he finds himself the guardian of young Sky. Back on the island and struggling to balance his new responsibilities and his marriage to his husband, Leo is supported by a powerful community of neighbors, many of them harboring secrets of their own.

Maggie, who helps with Sky’s childcare, has hit a breaking point with her police chief husband, who becomes embroiled in a local scandal. Her best friend Agnes, the island busybody, invites Sky’s estranged grandmother to stay for the summer, straining already precarious relationships. Their neighbor Joe struggles with whether to tell all was not well in Sky’s house in the months leading up to the accident. And among them all is a mysterious woman, drawn to Ichabod to fulfill a dying wish.

Perfect for fans of Celeste Ng and Ann Leary, My Kind of People is a riveting, impassioned novel about the resilience of community and what connects us all in the face of tragedy. 

My Thoughts…

Leo comes to Ichabod Island to be the guardian of his best friends ten-year-old daughter after they were killed in a car crash.  He comes from busy big town Boston to an island where the neighbors are all in your business, gossip runs wild, people don’t hold their tongues and always know what is best for you, and the place that he was born but never really fit into.   But mostly there was a sense of community, of love, and support.   The people of Ichabod Island genuinely love Sky and want what was best for her.

The characters are not perfect.   There is alcoholism, mental illness, cheating but there is also love, friendships, hope, and family.  Each character was likable in their own unique ways, some harder to like than others.   They were real, they were true, and they each had their own reasons for being how they were, and I was not the person to judge them.  I was curious as to their backstories and where their lives would lead them.   There was anticipation with each new chapter as to what mystery would be shared and who it would affect most. 

Lisa Duffy is a must-read author.  I recommend reading all of her books. 

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Lisa Duffy is the author of This is Home and The Salt House, named by Real Simple as a Best Book of the Month upon its June release, as well as one of Bustle’s Best Debut Novels by Women in 2017, a She Reads Book Club selection and Refinery 29’s Best Beach Reads of 2017.
Lisa received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Massachusetts. Her short fiction was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her writing can be found in numerous publications, including Writer’s Digest. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and three children.

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