I have to start with the disclaimer that I love books and stories set in the south. So based on that I loved this book! If you remove my bias, I enjoyed this collection of stories told from multiple characters’ perspective in the 1960’s and later the 1990’s. It took me awhile to read because I put aside reading during the holidays, my bad. This book narrates from all walks of life- white upperclass children/ housewives and the black “help” (my personal favorite characters) that raised them and tended the house and farm. Plus the crazy stories of the Ya-Yas. The stuff that was legal back then is nuts! All so interesting to read about. Although this is a work of fiction it could have easily been factual.

I’ve never read any of the other Ya-Yas books so this review is stand alone. I’d probably give them a shot though.

Easy read, little bit disturbing, and I found it validating to realize how difficult it is to navigate a relationship with someone who has hurt you and also loves you deeply (I.e. a parent).

I liked this book, it probably deserves 3.5 stars, but having read (and loved) The Divine Secrets first, I found too many inconsistencies between the books, and even though this was written first (I think), I read this second, and so it is the loser in my estimation. I also found that in this book Vivi and Buggy had almost no redeeming characteristics; I thought this was sad because in The Divine Secrets they're presented as far more than a mere sum of faults. I think some of the characters were more identifiable in Divine Secrets and only sketches in this book, and the thread holding these sketches together was flimsy.

It is clear that this book was written without the intent of the following 2 novels (of which I have only read one other thus far). Vivi is not at all likeable in this book. You don't have to like a character, but this book makes her completely unredeemable as a character in general. There is no going back. That is why I think that the author never intended to write "The Divine Secrets of the....." or the author just didn't care that Vivi is a shitty person and mother. Whatever.

This book was just meh for me. I liked the different perspectives in this book because in the 2nd (the one people usually read first - the divine secrets) the narrator is unreliable and completely one sided. In this book we can see clearly that Vivi is indeed off her rocker (which is fine). Also it seems like Sidda is a completely different character in this book - everyone describes her as sweet and not the morose, depressed and anxious Sidda from Divine secrets. So basically that means that Sidda as a character has gone backwards in development, which is kind of bizarre.

This book wasn't for me and makes me kind of hate that the Ya-yas basically enabled Vivi to be a shitty person and mom.

Should this book come with trigger warnings on physical and sexual abuse? You bet! Many hate it because it’s a much darker in depth look at these complex characters from the divine secrets but it was already truly there, it just didn’t show its fullness. This story is full of brokenness in multiple people that sadly trickled on to other people but in the end through one of the main characters you see even through the darkness and brokenness she still remembers the good side of that very troubled broken person. I can understand why many didn’t like this if they especially focused on the movie that made it look like Vivi only had this one tremendous breakdown but nothings ever really that black in white. She is such a complicated person and honestly so many of us deal with different types of disfunction’s in families along with addictions that take over. It had sad moments but there was still something about it that made you think things could still be ok somehow. We are all broken. Some more then others. It’s how we come out to rise above and not let it turn us. If your looking for a lite fluffy girly read try the traveling sister pants book! If you want a complex read that dives into the old south where things are not always what you think and while yes there are some happy moments, there are often horrible sad ones from a dysfunctional family that seems to pass it down to generations and it presents itself again and again but in different ways along with different addictions and coping mechanisms. I found it interesting. Many liked Vivi’s character cause of the movie with her sassy parts and good moments but it was obvious she was a complex woman and as you learn more about her you dislike her character even more and that’s ok! Stories have characters sometimes your not suppose to like or that shake you to your core. I think she had severe mental illness with addiction. Doesn’t excuse any of it but gives you something to ponder on. I wouldn’t call this a feel good book so if that’s what your looking for I suggest finding something else.

Spoiler alert!!!

I read this book after I read the two Ya Ya books. I rated it as if I’d read it without having read the two later books. On it’s own, it’s an interesting and painful book about the lives of children growing up with alcoholic parents, one of whom is a child molester and physically abusive. The father turns a blind eye to his wife’s horrifying violence and sexuality with her children, often coping by simply absenting himself. I don’t think it’s too far off the mark for how incest and abuse damage children.

BUT. The other books, written later, go on to present that same woman as damaged but basically a good person. Maybe a histrionic and definitely narcissistic, but a mother who loved her kids and did the best she could in spite of her own difficult upbringing. No, no, no, no, no. She was a monster. I felt like everything I thought from the later tow books got upended when I read this one. I absolutely loathe that sort of inconsistency in a series. And it makes me suspicious of the values of the author.

"I'm writing a novel called After the Hurricane. I don't have the plot worked out, but that's definitely going to be the title"

This is one of the books which you have to separate the author's ability to write from the characters they write. And, of course, being a "my-dysfunctional-family" story with duel perspective, everyone is both the bad guy and the good guy.

So, a very dysfunctional, abusive family lives in the heart of the bayou in Louisiana. Part 1 is their stories, and part 2 is their reflections. The story line wasn't good, but Wells' ability to write isn't what I'm criticizing.

I read Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood years and years ago. To be honest, all I can remember was weeping buckets and feeling the pain of screwed-up lives.

Little Altars showed up in a Free Library when I needed a fast, light read so I picked it up. It was an indeed an easy read but also seriously depressing. "Looking for my Mules" which was the short story that started the collection, is located near the end of this book, and it exhibits to a T the dark side of Viviane. "Looking for my Mules" made me weep as I am dealing with my own mother's declining memory, and made me dislike Viviane immensely. If you read this first, you will know what is waiting to slam you upside the head: a whole load of nastiness. I was shocked because my memories of Divine Secrets contained some element of cheerful gaiety...only after I read the author's introduction did I realize that Little Altars was written first.

This is a dark portrait of a sad, dysfunctional family. That the children survive to adulthood with some semblance of normalcy is a miracle. The mother's behavior is inexcusable until you realize Viviane has major mental health issues, probably familial as her mother isn't exactly normal either. The stories, or chapters, build in intensity over time until the reader wants to call in child protective services and get Viviane committed for everyone's good.

Ironically, despite not thinking this book is great literature, it still has a timely message. Our society allows the neglect of children in the care of mentally ill parents, and neglects the mentally ill altogether. The stigma of mental illness needs to be addressed and services need to be improved. We will, and should be, judged by the care we offer to the members of our own society. Mental illness knows no socio-economic, gender, or racial boundaries; services should not either.

I had no idea that the divine secrets of the yaya sisterhood was a series, so I am diving in.

Not what I expected from this book and I have read them the wrong way round.

This collection of related vignettes tells the story of a family in rural Lousiana. It starts in a humorous tone, with tales of the mother and friends (the Ya Yas), but turns serious, perhaps a little too abruptly. It has one of the best stories I have ever read--the chapater about Looking for Mules, which mixes strands of aging, poinancy, and lost opportunities. Really wonderful. I strongly recommend this book.

This book was unexpectedly good. I initially started "The Divine Secrets" and midway through I found out that this was actually the first one in the series. It's amazing how Rebecca Wells managed to create something so funny, yet so scary. It was actually terrifying to witness the alcoholism, violence and sexual abuse that can just linger behind the image of an apparently happy family. The book deals with all the social issues that plagued the American society in the 60's: the suffocating guilt inflicted by the Catholic mindset on the children in states such as Louisiana, the racism, the Vietnam War, the loss of farmland and the malls that take over the cotton fields, women who hate their children because they feel their lives could have been better had they not married young, alcoholism, poverty, sexual abuse, mental illness. The book seems like chick-lit (though I think it's just because of the cover) but it was incredibly well-written and it somehow managed to tackle all these poignant social issues in a funny way.
The thing that made me really love this book was the fact that I could literally feel it, everything was such a sensory roller-coaster. I could actually smell and feel the hot Louisiana air, Willetta's fried catfish, the huge pecan trees, the bayou and the interminable cotton fields. I could hear the sound of ice cubes hitting the glass (''it's cocktail hour in Louisiana"), the belt hitting the flesh of the children and I could touch the coolness of a glass of coke drank by the pond where the Walker children, the Ya-Ya's and all their children go swimming during summer. There is nothing more valuable than an author who can actually make you smell and hear and touch the life of her characters.