Amazon is developing a series based on the novel “gods in Alabama,” a thriller about a woman who returns to her Alabama hometown to deal with fallout from an old murder.
Written by Joshilyn Jackson, a native of the Florida Panhandle, the 2015 novel tells the story of Arlene, who fled small-town Alabama years ago to make a new life for herself in Chicago. She’d hoped certain things about her old life would never come to light, but finds she has to return home to deal with fallout from the sins of the past. Among other things, this mission requires Arlene, who is white, to introduce her African-American boyfriend to her racist family and old acquaintances.
The lowercase “gods” in the title are the things Arlene sees as the true deities of small-town high-school life: “Jack Daniel’s, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big t--s, and also Jesus.”
According to a Hollywood Reporter story, Amazon describes the planned series as “a soapy, legal thriller that is steeped in deep Southern charm.”
Don Noble, reviewing the book for Alabama Public Radio, said that Jackson takes readers on a tour of Arlene’s teen years “with a degree of accuracy a social scientist would be proud of.” But he also found that it “descends into complete chick lit” and “vacillates, in a disconcerting way, between being a comedy of manners and misperception and a grim depiction of the sexual violence of small-town teen life.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter the show has some executive producers with significant successes in their past. They include Kathryn Price and Nichole Millard, whose credits include “True Lies” and “Bull,” and Marc Resteghini, a former Netflix executive whose portfolio includes development of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and other series.
Casting and other key details have yet to be announced. Jackson expressed high hopes on Facebook, saying that “a TRULY amazing team has gods right now.”
Jackson’s other novels include “A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty,” “The Almost Sisters” and “Never Have I Ever.”