Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

Reviewed by Jennifer

Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Rating Explanation

Language: Quite a few swear words, around 40 throughout the book. Two instances of “nigger”  and one instance each of “tramp” and “slut”. Also several profanities.

Violence: A woman is hit by a car and killed. Two middle-aged women fight, hitting and kicking each other. A man mugs a woman stealing her necklace and watch. Her friend hits him with a bag full of stones and breaks his nose.

Sexual Content: A nasty neighbor is referred to as a “great gaping vagina” and a “whore-hound”. Miz Hobbs and her married boyfriend are observed as they romp in the backyard. She wears a see though robe and is naked underneath. The man asks her to do her strip tease again as he swings her bra around. He grabs her butt and breasts. He is wearing his underwear and a Zorro mask and wants her to spank him (page 119 if you want to skip it)

Adult Themes: As a young girl, CeeCee is left to care for her mother who is mentally ill. Her father is never home because he is unable to cope with his wife’s illness. CeeCee struggles with her emotions as she resents her situation and her crazy mother. She also suspects that her father has a girlfriend. When her mother dies unexpectedly, CeeCee feels guilty and angry. She is unable to forgive the father who abandoned her.

Synopsis

Although CeeCee Honeycutt is only 11 years old, she needs saving, and quick. Abandoned by her father, she is left to care for her psychotic mother who wears a tiara and a pageant dress and thinks she is still the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen.

When tragedy visits the Honecutt family, a long lost Aunt steps into CeeCee’s life offering to rescue her from her troubles.  CeeCee is unsure whether she is ready to leave her home in Ohio and Mrs. Odell, her 80-year-old neighbor and only friend. Persuaded that this could be her new lease on life, CeeCee agrees to go with Aunt Tootie and rebuild her life in Savannah, Georgia.

Savannah is full of interesting women who readily love her and help her heal. Finally in a home where she can be the child instead of the grown-up, CeeCee has the time to grieve, forgive and remember the precious moments she shared with her sweet mother.

This is truly a modern-day fairy tale complete with the fairy godmother who waves her magic wand and grants your every wish, almost. Unfortunately, when most people have really hard things happen in their lives there isn’t a long lost aunt available to whisk them away to a mansion, they just have to learn to deal with their trials.

CeeCee was a very sympathetic character and I was so glad for her to finally find peace. No child should have to deal with a situation like hers and I thought Ms. Hoffman realistically portrayed both her bitter and sweet feelings concerning her mother.

Even though it was a little too perfect, I enjoyed the book and Hoffman’s writing. She has a way with words and every once in a while had a phrase I read over and over. One of my personal favorites came from the eccentric Miz Goodpepper . “She reached out, slid the magazine from my fingers, and studied the woman on the cover. ‘I used to look just like that. But after I turned forty it was a daily struggle to keep myself up. I turned forty-five this past February, and let me tell you, every day is nothing but an insult.’ She tossed the magazine on the table with disgust. ‘Aging is a terrible slap in the face. My body betrays me every chance it gets.'”