“This quiet gem of a debut novel projects sincerity through its tightly focused vignettes…Paul captures the convincing voice of Dorothy…Paul’s sure grasp of her narrator’s voice and keen observations make both the ordinary and unusual aspects of one childhood shine.”
~ Publisher’s Weekly
“A Girl, In Parts avoids the majority of coming-of-age drama, managing to show there are just as many ways to write about becoming an adolescent as there are adolescents. One tough heroine and a clear-eyed author…First time novelist Jasmine Paul has crafted an elegant coming of age story in 97 perfectly told vignettes.”
~ Kirkus
“Paul captures the pain and confusion of adolescence, the struggles of poverty, the psychological impact of abuse, and the small rebellions that make ‘coming of age’ a true passage to a new state. Her prose is realistic, her vignettes illustrative. Recommended.”
~ Library Journal
“Jasmine Paul…manages to add a unique voice to the genre…Honest, plucky, funny, and sharp, Dottie is a refreshingly unsentimental and entirely sympathetic young heroine.”
~ The Baltimore Sun
“Delectable and knowing…Paul’s clear-eyed and spunky distillation of how a girl becomes and adolescent makes A Girl, In Parts memorable.”
~ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“A young Spokane writer’s debut novel is a gritty, winning tale.”
~ Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“Gritty and realistic, A Girl, In Parts is never sentimental about wither poverty or childhood. Dorothy is a tough and winning character, a true-to-life heroine perfect for the twenty-first century.”
~ Forbesbookclub.com
“A Girl, In Parts captures the fiery, conflicting impulses of adolescence through the experiences of one sharply perceptive young girl…Jasmine Paul’s first novel has a convincing narrator whose smart insights keep otherwise trite scenarios fresh…The writing in A Girl, In Parts can take you by surprise…Paul has mastered the voice of a keenly observant, sensitive youth…Dorothy makes for a believable and admirable young heroine that teens will relate to and whose story they will enjoy reading.”
~ The Portland Oregonian
“Her choice of narration is bullet-quick and sharp…First-time novelist Jasmine Paul deserves plenty of kudos for creating this Dorothy for us. Despite her tornado bravado, she is a brave realist at heart.”
~ The Bellingham Herald
“…The next big…literary phenomenon…keen observations, quick intelligence and gravelly sense of humor…Unflinching and utterly without self pity…a resilient but oh-so-real heroine and for being written in a fresh, authentically, young voice.”
~ The Pacific Northwest Inlander
In the early 1980s in Martinsburg, West Virginia, Dorothy lives with her bar tending mother, her bar-attending stepfather, and her sweetly precocious little brother. Dottie’s nine, plagued by insomnia, asthma, earaches, and bad teeth. She is lonely and insecure, but her intelligence and keen sense of perception enable her to see every vivid detail of her impoverished rural surroundings and the strange characters around her. When her family moves to Eastern Washington State, Dottie – confused, petulant, feeling more alone than ever, and furious at her changing body – battles her way through junior high, where she finds a measure of success and recognition in sports and academics. But her hard-won little victories are tempered by her troubled family and friends and she finds solace and distraction in alcohol, cigarettes, and general misbehavior. Dottie – nicknamed Utah by her teammates from the Colville Indian Reservation – becomes a star basketball player, falls in and out of love (more than once), and finally confronts a new, devastating emotional setback. But Dottie is indomitable: she emerges triumphantly as a young woman with limitless dreams and confidence in an uncertain world.
Both gritty and lyrical, The Ghosts of Anne & Sylvia is a winning collection of poetry that pays homage to the friendship and written work of Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath. Amber LaParne and Jasmine Paul present a unique book that showcases poetry as “story,” with each poet’s work complementing the other as well as interweaving similar themes. The Ghosts of Anne & Sylvia is an illuminating collaborative work, groundbreaking in its brashness and flawless in execution, culminating in a fantastic read with an intelligently hopeful ending.
Jasmine lives in Oregon with Dan, Floyd & Mini. She’s hoping to adopt a dachshund sooner than later.