a grown-up kind of pretty

No homeless people in Joshilyn Jackson's novel, A grown-up kind of pretty. A scene takes place in a seedy part of Montgomery, Alabama; the kind of city area where homeless often wander around. A character could have been considered homeless after she left town, hitching rides with truckers, staying with one for a year or so, traveling back and forth across the country as he did he his delivery runs.

The same character had drug problems which often leads to homelessness. Not have a fixed, permanent address, actually made the young woman homeless.

The word homeless does show up ~ "and started battering my insides like a homeless animal."

I liked the story, which is told from perspective of three Slocumb characters. Big considers the number 15 a Slocumb curse. She became an out-of-wedlock mother at age 15; her daughter, Lisa did likewise. Big and Lisa are trying to ensure that Lisa's daughter, Mosey does not follow in their footsteps. A different kind of trouble arrives during Mosey's 15th year ~ Lisa has a stroke.

Not being able to afford physical therapy for Lisa, Big decides to uproot a large willow tree to make room for a pool in the backyard. A baby's bones are found buried under the tree, causing more troubles and mysteries to be solved.

The novel is well-written, except I had trouble reading some of it ~ not up on today's teen language usage and texting. I could not make sense out of some of the text messages. At the end I was left wondering who exactly Mosey's father is. Perhaps a drug dealer named Chuck.