LOOKING FOR SALVATION AT THE DAIRY QUEEN

Catherine Grace Cline’s mother drowned when she was 6. Since then, Catherine Grace has been impatiently waiting for her 18th birthday, when she can say good-bye to her sister, Martha Ann, her Baptist preacher daddy, and the small, boring town of Ringgold, Georgia. Narrator Tavia Gilbert brings Catherine Grace to life, filling her voice with the all frustration, sorrow, boredom, and longing of a young woman who is determined to find her life anywhere but at home. Gilbert’s narration actually makes the story better than it is. As the author tries to work in every cliché of Southern fiction, the characters remain flat and the plot overworked, and the listener is left wondering where it all went wrong. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2012]