A Greyhound of a Girl

A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle
3/5 stars
Amulet Books, 2012
201 pages
Middle-Grade Contemporary Fantastical

Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

While sister-sister relationships are my weakness, I love exploring any stories that feature female relationships. In this case, we have four generations of mothers/daughters. The main character is Mary, a twelve-year old struggling with the hospitalization of her beloved grandmother who is fighting death. Then Mary is visited by a ghost; in fact it is the ghost of her great-grandmother Tansy, who died too soon. Rounding out the group is Mary's mother.  These four will embark on a road trip together to usher in the next phase.

This is a fast easy read although I found the writing a little twee. "Grand" was used a lot as Tansy's favorite descriptor and one which the other women adopt. Needless to say it drove me crazy although imagining the characters saying this in their Irish accents helped a bit. Mary's mother Scarlett also had her own annoying quirk, which was ending every sentence in an explanation point or points. This one was easier to skip over but it grated.

I guess my problem with this book is that I didn't really see much character growth or plot movement. The big conflict is whether or not the family can face the death of the grandmother. By the end of the book, we have a greater understanding of the formative events in each lady's life and can see how much they mean to each other. But it didn't hit me hard and left me with a meh feeling at the end. I just wondered why this book was written and why I read it (it was the cover, which I think is beautiful although it also makes me think of an Austen novel...)

Overall: A sweet quiet book but not anything that made me excited. May be better for younger readers; would be interested to know their opinion.

Cover: I do think the cover is very beautiful-I love the swirly fonts, the flowers, and the silhouettes.