ISBN: 978-1-62420-308-4
Author: Jessica
Evans
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Excerpt Heat
Level: 1
Book Heat
Level: 2
TAGLINE
Hippie Mafia is a story of urban redemption,
examining how greed and loyalty influence decisions in a sub-culture that is
generally accepted as being peaceful and without strife.
BLURB
Hippie Mafia is a multi-voice
narrative that examines gender roles within the constructs of urban identity.
The antagonist of the work, Mason, is the antithesis of the female archetype,
both in her decision making skills and in the progression of her character
through her stand-alone agency. The female protagonist, Amy, is one who
responds to the situations she finds herself in as one might expect of a
standard female character. It is the hope of the work that these two
conflicting female identities will help the reader to begin to understand and
examine ways in which female characters do not need a male counterpoint to
advance their own stores.
REVIEW:
Hippie
Mafia
The
Granola Gang Book One
By Jessica Evans
4.5 stars (out of 5)
Review by Nancy Dafoe
Refuting the claim that Hippie Mafia is
strictly a Southern California cultural phenomenon, propelled by drug users and
dealers, Jessica Evans takes readers deep into a group within the
counterculture of Cincinnati, Ohio in her new novel Hippie Mafia: The Granola Gang. As benign and healthy as the
subtitle sounds, Evans’ gang is anything but hearty or harmless to each other.
Betrayal ultimately strains and unravels the bonds found in what was once a
tight-knit “family” of drug users chasing Phish on the circuit.
Propelled by the rawness, as well as naturalness of dialogue, the
narrative moves with agility and acceleration until the denouement:
“‘Hello,’ I offer. She looks around
the room like she's seeing it for the first time, too.
‘Like these kinds of accommodations,’
she snickers.
‘Excuse me?
‘You know, a room like this,’ she
says, waving her hand, ‘with four blank walls and nothing to do or anyone to
see.’
‘I've been in worse places.’”
This is a subculture the author appears to know
intimately, with knowledge of “moving weight,” yet Evans’ narrative is
empathetic. At the center of this group of friends, who grow, cook, sell, and
use, are the slightly unusual best friends Mason Williams and Dugan Reeves, and
brother and sister Amy and Ghost Barnes. Mason is a lesbian with a tough outer
shell and a soft inner core. Dugan is half in love with Mason, as well as in
love with Amy. Their lives of casual and serious sex, love affairs, fighting, stealing,
drug use and selling, parallel their individual and collective search for
redemption on the less-than-prosperous streets of Middle America in Cincinnati.
We come to know Amy, Angela, Beata, Mason,
Ghost, Dugan, Nola, Ian, Julian, and Theseus intimately, these characters who
took communion in drugs on tours. Their sacrament, however, comes with an end
date. Almost from the opening pages, we know it will be Mason who betrays the
family, but Evans’ story examines people, not caricatures, the how and why, as
much as taking us inside the limits of loyalty and love within this
counterculture.
Brother and sister Amy and Ghost may be the heart of the Granola
Gang, and Ghost quite possibly dispenses the wisest words, even from his
tentative stance: “‘All
I'm saying is you're too narrow. Your focus is too pinpointed. It's always
Dugan. Dugan can't just be your whole world. Let this be it, man. Get your ass
out of there while you can still remember who you are.’”
Mason and Dugan spur the action, but it is Theseus and Julian who
symbolically orient this novel that is as much about love and fumbling attempts
at redemption as drugs, violence, and betrayal.
EXCERPT
Amy shakes her
head and looks at Ghost. He wonders just what his sister is thinking, and why
he can't see the same kind of rage he's feeling in her.
"So, what?
We need to go get you packed?" Ghost's mind is thinking ahead to the
logistics of getting Amy out of the apartment in Norwood. He knows Julian has
an extra room at his spot in Mount Auburn he would gladly offer up to Amy.
"Your
girls know? Beata? Who did you tell?"
"I
couldn't," Amy starts, shaking her head, "I couldn't call anyone. The
only one who knows is you. Beata would've come last night."
"So would
I if you would have called me right after it happened. You shouldn't have
waited. I would have been right there."
"But I
know you. Your temper. Really, I was worried about what you would do."
"You mean
you were worried I'd force you to make the right choice is more like it."
"Something
like that," Amy says into her palms. "Like I don't think he set out
to do it. I'm sure he was stressed, and whatever he was on didn't help.
Probably, I should have just left when he started yelling like that."
"So what,
now you're justifying his behavior? You sure this is the first time?"
Ghost squints his eyes at Amy, trying to read into her.
She nods her
head but doesn't say anything, confirming Ghost's suspicions.
"Right,
well. We still need to get you out. Since no one knows, I'll just tell Julian
your spot has ants or something. I don't know, I'll figure it out. We need to
get back over there and get you a bag of whatever you need. I'll handle getting
the rest of your stuff out later."
His mind in
overdrive, Ghost sees him helping his sister move out of the apartment. He's
never disliked Dugan, but he's never been a big fan either. There's something
to be said about a dude who has a chick for a best friend. Something about that
has never sat well with Ghost, and looking at his sister's face, he wonders if
he's known something like this would happen all along.
"Ghost, I
can't do that."
"Why are
you arguing this with me, homie? I don't get it."
"It was an
accident, man. I can't just get up and leave over something Dugan didn't mean
to do."
"Yes, you
can. You should. You will." Ghost lets the words sit between he and his
sister before going on. "When we were little, there were a million times I
wanted to be able to do something to save you. To save us. To get us out of
that bullshit we had to deal with. I couldn't then. Had no money, no heat, and
no options. Now I can. You need to listen to me, Amy. Listen hard. You say this
was the first time, we both know that's probably not true. But this was
probably the worst so far. You think he's just going to stop? That all of a
sudden a chump ass dude like Dugan is going to realize he shouldn't go around
hitting females? You have to see it's just going to keep getting worse. I mean,
you have to. Until the next time you call me, it's not going to be about a
black eye, but a broken arm, or getting shoved down the stairs, or a slug in
the chest. I get that you want to be solo and indie and all that. Cool, I dig.
You can't do this on your own, and you can't go back to him."
"I don't
know what to do." Amy reaches for her cheek. "I hear you, brother. I
really do. Promise this was the first time, but I can see how you might think
otherwise. Thing is, I know you're right. I can't just leave. I can't abandon
him like that. I know he didn't mean it. I called you because I was scared.
Looking in the mirror and seeing this is not the way to start a morning. Shit
freaked me out, and I didn't know what to do. Just running away isn't going to
solve this problem either."
Ghost shakes
his head. "Amy, you realize how you sound right now?" he asks.
"I mean really. I've watched you over the last few years let yourself get
so wrapped up in this dude, you've lost all your drive. Remember when you were
a person outside of Dugan? There was this whole other life you always talked
about, the one where you're getting out of the city, doing something with
yourself. Now what? Dude's clocking you in the jaw and you're growing boomers
in your spot? How is that any different from the shit we saw growing up? Thank
god you're not pregnant at least."
Ghost's voice
has been steadily rising. A few of the early morning coffee sippers are cutting
sideways glances at their table. Ghost realizes they're being observed and
tries to dial it back in a bit.
"All I'm
saying is you're too narrow. Your focus is too pinpointed. It's always Dugan.
Dugan can't just be your whole world. Let this be it, man. Get your ass out of
there while you can still remember who you are."
Amy stares at
her brother, unflinching. Her eyes move in a pattern from the table to the
sugar canister to Ghost's eyes and back, a constant revolving circle, as if
she's running on a wheel. She sits like that for a while, and Ghost doesn't say
anything, hoping his words are sinking in and will have some effect. He's
already cleared his schedule for the day so for the first time in a while, he has
nowhere else to be, nothing more important to do than to sit and vibe with his
sister, to protect her the ways that she protected him for so many years. He
finishes his coffee and stands up.
"I'm
getting another one. You need an answer by the time I get back."
Amy looks at
the line, four people deep, and then down at the ground. She doesn't say
anything to Ghost, but nods her head. Her mouth forms into a flat line and she
starts chewing her cheek.
"You're
going to chew a hole in your cheek, kid," Ghost says lightly, putting his
hand on her shoulder. It's a throwback to something their mother used to say
before she went off the deep end and landed herself in prison. Amy smiles wanly
and pats Ghost's hand.
"Sounds
like something Mom used to say," she replies.
"I'll get
you another cup," Ghost says as he walks off.
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