….a coming-of-age tale that bears the marks of the Southern childishness of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and the heartbreak and insanity of Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone…..Sumner’s language is both plain and beautiful, and occasionally she can turn a phrase to take your breath away: she describes a bell toll as “heavy with doom, like the crow of the rooster on cold back mornings.”

Claire Zulkey
Pop Matters

In The School of Beauty and Charm Melanie Sumner has created a perfect blend of humor and satire…At its heart, The School of Beauty and Charm is the story of a family trying to cope with a devastating loss. 

Pam Kingsbury
Southern Scribe Reviews

Remarkable ironies and insights guide these wholly original characters into a world you’ll never want to leave.  The darkly comic brilliance of Melanie Sumner shines on, and if we’re lucky, will do so for a long, long time to come.

Jill McCorkle, author of  Life After Life