Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books - Kirsten Miller - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Kirsten Miller

NARRATOR: January LaVoy

GENRE: Contemporary Satire.

PUBLICATION DATE: June 20, 2024

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A contemporary satire about what happens in a small Southern town after a woman campaigns against controversial books. Excellent if you read it as a satire. Might ruffle feathers of a few people. Better for those who enjoy character-oriented storytelling and are liberal in their thinking.

Plot Preview:

Forty-something Lula Dean has always lived in the shadow of her arch-rival Beverly Underwood in the small (fictional) town of Troy, Georgia. Lula has finally hit celebrity status, thanks to her latest campaign: ridding the local libraries of inappropriate books. To set the right example and provide the townspeople with quality reading material, Lula sets up a Little Free Library outside her home and fills it with “wholesome” books. Unknown to Lula, Beverly’s daughter Lindsay sneakily changes the composition of the free library, by replacing Lula’s books with the banned books but retaining the original “wholesome” dust jackets. As the neighbours borrow books from Lula’s library, they realise that the content isn’t exactly what the cover promises, and see how the right book can change their lives. A secret revolution is brewing in Troy, and Lula doesn’t even know that she has caused it.

The novel comes to us as interconnected stories from various townspeople, with each chapter coming from one specific character.

Bookish Yays:

📚 A satire that works exactly as a satire should: thought-provoking, humorous, hyperbolic yet rooted in reality, and provocative. Love how the book tackles such a serious topic in a sensible and fun manner.

📚 The characters: Coming from varied age groups, genders, professions, financial status, and racial backgrounds. Beverly Underwood was my favourite. For a while, I thought she'd go the stereotypical hyper-PTA-mom way, but she turned out to be a treasure. Old Wilma Jean Cummings was another exceptional woman. A special shout-out to the Indian rep of Dr. Chokshi – I'm delighted with the refreshing authenticity of his portrayal.

📚 Despite the multitude of characters, the author writes them in a way that it is fairly easy to keep track of them. I especially loved the way she ensures that their age is clarified right towards the start of their chapter – so important to do this!

📚 The representation deserves its own Yay. Not only is the list of characters inclusive in every way, but many characters also have traumatic pasts and hardships in their present, which adds further depth to their arcs.

📚 The depiction of the small-town lifestyle through the fictional location of Troy, where everyone knows everything about everybody, and supports and gossips in equal measure. Not sure if the name “Troy” was chosen by the author to be ironic, but it made me think of Lula Dean’s library as the famous Trojan Horse, where the innocent-looking outside disguised the unexpected inside content.

📚 Each chapter is named after a “book”, with most titles being actual books, including some banned titles. Love how the title bended seamlessly with that particular chapter.

📚 The best part of the novel is that there's no generalisation. It focuses on the good as well as the bad of most of the represented segments, whether in race or religion or even location. I appreciate how the author highlighted the positives of Southern lifestyle such as the food and the hospitality.

📚 Adored the Christian content! It was so nice to see criticism against the misguided idiots who twist biblical beliefs into their own version of righteous Christianity, but without any hateful slings against the religion itself. A related quote from the book: “They are fighting for the glorious past instead of ensuring a glorious unified future.”

📚 An interesting array of relationships: parents and children, siblings, couples, friends. Loved how almost every character arc felt almost like a short story because of the detailed backstory of the relationships and issues of that character.

📚 The title made me assume that Lula Dean would be the hero of the story, the person who fills her LFL with banned books. But Lula Dean turned out to be more like Dolores Umbridge. Regardless, I loved how the book banning theme was tackled. We get to hear from both sides of the book ban argument, so obviously, we can rationally decide which side is right. (Not that there was any doubt about whom to support!)

📚 The author's note at the end of the book: honest, heartfelt, excellent! (As she too comes from the South, this is like an OwnVoices novel.) There is also a list of the books named in the chapter titles, with a mention of whether they are banned or not.

Bookish Didn’t-Make-A-Difference-To-Me-But-Could-Be-A-Nay-For-Others:

📖 By sheer coincidence, this is my third composite novel in a row, where each chapter is from a different character and hence the overall effect is like that of linked short stories. I enjoyed the shifting character perspectives, as each had enough merit on its own, and yet added to the events established until that point. But those who don’t enjoy short fiction or too many character arcs might not enjoy this novel.

📖 The book gets politically intense after a certain point, with a clear stance taken against one political party. Might offend a few readers. (Oh, and there are also many cuss words, just in case that also bothers you.)

Bookish Nays:

📕 It goes overboard on the themes:, misogyny, gender discrimination, racism, homophobia, religious discrimination, discriminatory school policies, mental health, gaslighting, anti-Semitism, closet Nazis, slavery, rape, the role of the media in spreading hate, fake news, and many more. Every single theme was important, no doubt. But not all of them needed to be in a single book.

📕 Most of the characters slot neatly into good and bad categories. There are hardly any in-between shades. I wish there had been some layers to the unidimensional portrayal, though I do understand how having so many character perspectives reduced the scope for depth in the individual arcs.

📕 The last couple of chapters were a bit dragged, and the finale was too neat to be believable. There was also an extended infodump, of which I am never a fan.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 10 hrs 12 min, is narrated by the usually reliable January LaVoy. For a book with such a wide range of characters, she did a very good job. A couple of the character voices felt a bit off as per their age or gender, but on the whole, the audiobook is fabulous. That said, it is only for seasoned audiobook listeners. Newbies might get confused with the sheer number of characters and their arcs.

All in all, I enjoyed this amazing satire that highlights the restricted thinking of many people. It is light-hearted in its approach, yet unflinching in its agenda and impressive in its declarations. The book would have rated even higher for me had the overly neat ending not spoiled my mood so much.

As the author rightly says, this problem isn’t limited only to Southern USA, and the book certainly isn’t indicative of everyone in Southern USA. But the topic and the setting are such that I can see many features being ruffled by this title. Remember that it's a satire, and is meant to be over the top.

This is my first Kirsten Miller book. And I am quite impressed by her outspoken writing style! I am surely going to try more of her works.

Definitely recommended to those who enjoy short-story-styled novels, literary fiction, hot issues, and character-oriented writing. Keeping my fingers crossed that this book doesn’t get banned. It would be quite ironic if it does!

My thanks to HarperCollins UK Audio for providing the DRC of “Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.