So THAT's Why There Are Alligators on the Cover!

TITLE: Gun Love
AUTHOR: Jennifer Clement
PUBLISHER: Hogarth Press
PUBLISHING DATE: April 12, 2018

FROM GOODREADS:  ‘My mother called anyone or anything that seemed alone, or ended up in the wrong place, a stray. There were stray people, stray dogs, stray bullets, and stray butterflies.’

Fourteen-year-old Pearl France lives in the front seat of a broken down car and her mother Margot lives in the back. Together they survive on a diet of powdered milk and bug spray, love songs and stolen cigarettes.

Life on the edge of a Florida trailer park is strange enough, but when Pastor Rex’s ‘Guns for God’ programme brings Eli Redmond to town Pearl’s world is upended. Eli pays regular visits to Margot in the back seat, forcing Pearl to find a world beyond the car. Margot is given a gift by Eli, a gun of her own, just like he’s given her flowers. It sits under the driver’s seat, a dark presence…

Gun Love is a hypnotic story of family, community and violence. Told from the perspective of a sharp-eyed teenager, it exposes America’s love affair with firearms and its painful consequences. 

MY THOUGHTS: So every once in a while I read a book which I really really enjoy...but am not quite sure why. "Gun Love" is going on the list as one of those books. "Gun Love" takes place in Florida and is told from the perspective of Pearl, a 14-year-old who suffers from Albinism. Pearl has lived her entire life with her mother Margot in a Mercury car in a trailer park parking lot (sounds like a tongue twister). The trailer park is made up of some very interesting characters to say the least and while the Reverend is busy starting new religious outreach programs and secretly smuggling guns to Mexico, Margot is busy falling for the newest drifter in town. Pearl, she is busy accepting dares from her best friend and supporting her smoking habit by stealing from the park's inhabitants. Oh, and visiting the local dump. She enjoys doing that a lot as well.

A lot goes down in the book and saying much more would be seriously giving some things away. I really loved the characters I met, even though none of them were very likable - except Pearl. It was hard to feel sad for Margot and Pearl even though I initially wanted to because they loved their life in the Mercury. The writing is very unique and while I found it lyrical and can compare it most to "magical thinking" at times, I don't think it will be for everyone and you'll either love it or hate it. One major complaint I had with the book was how it portrayed the social worker who appears at about the midway point. I know it fit into the tale Clement was weaving, but it was very stereotypical. 

Overall, I enjoyed "Gun Love." It was an extremely quick read. Yes, there is some talk about guns but I didn't find it either positive or negative. I also don't believe Clement was throwing any personal beliefs in anyone's faces. And most of all, I did learn why there were two alligators on the cover. It was a pressing thought people!

RATING: 4 PAWS