Have No Shame by Melissa Foster

Have No Shame

by Melissa Foster

***NEW YORK TIMES & USA TODAY BESTSELLER - HAVE NO SHAME***

Amazon's HOT NEW RELEASE in HISTORICAL FICTION & COMING OF AGE from BESTSELLING, AWARD-WINNING author MELISSA FOSTER

GOLD MEDAL, Southern Fiction, READERS' FAVORITE AWARD FINALIST, Historical Fiction, READERS' FAVORITE AWARD



* Book Club Recommendation * Contact author Melissa Foster to Skype with your book club.



Where civil rights and forbidden love collide...



The racially-charged prejudice of the deep South forces eighteen-year-old Alison Tillman to confront societal norms--and her own beliefs--when she discovers the body of a hate crime victim, and the specter of forbidden love turns her safe, comfortable world upside down. A meaningful combination of romantic suspense and coming of age at its very best.



"This book will resonate with readers who enjoyed Kathryn Stockett's, THE HELP, Julie Kibler's, CALLING ME HOME, John Grisham's, A TIME TO KILL, Sue Monk Kidd's, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, and Kathleen Grissom's, THE KITCHEN HOUSE."



PLEASE NOTE: This book contains TWO versions of this novel. Readers have the option to read with or without the southern dialect in the narrative (two versions, one novel, one purchase). Both versions reflect the exact same story, with the only difference being the style of the narrative.



SUMMARY

Alison Tillman has called Forrest Town, Arkansas home for the past eighteen years. Her mother's Blue Bonnet meetings, her father toiling night and day on the family farm, and the division of life between the whites and the blacks are all Alison knows. The winter of 1967, just a few months before marrying her high school sweetheart, Alison finds the body of a black man floating in the river, and she begins to view her existence with new perspective. The oppression and hate of the south, the ugliness she once was able to avert her eyes from, now demands her attention.



When a secretive friendship with a young black man takes an unexpected romantic turn, Alison is forced to choose between her predetermined future, and the dangerous path that her heart yearns for.

Reviewed by stressedrach on

5 of 5 stars

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Have No Shame is a compelling read. Alison is the main character she is eighteen years old. It is 1967 and after she finds a dead coloured man washed up at the river it changes her racist and bigatory views which she had been brainwashed into to, of coloured people for the better. Of course this man is someones father.

The small town in which they live are separated whites and blacks, her boyfriend thinks it’s fun to beat up a coloured boy because of this colour. Alison feels it is wrong but trying to stop him just doesn’t work.

She befriends Jackson who is coloured and their love for each other is amazing, but it is also very dangerous with the white people being racist.

I really enjoyed this book. It is true to life of what was happening back in the 60′s and in some cases even now. It gives you food for thought.

Fantastic book from a fantastic author.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 13 June, 2013: Finished reading
  • 13 June, 2013: Reviewed