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Lee Rozelle
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Ballad of Jasmine Wills Kindle Edition

by Lee Rozelle (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 31 ratings
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Jasmine Wills doesn’t know it, but every moment of her heretofore humdrum life is being televised on a reality TV show called Diet Extreme. And America is mesmerized. Wait till she finds out! Preston Price, the improbable impresario, is a man bent at a 45-degree angle. Or is he? Nothing is as it seems in this propulsive and slightly terrifying novel. Lee Rozelle has staked claim on a wild new territory of obsession, loss, betrayal, and unspeakable secrets. There is a surprise on every page in this breathtaking comic romp. Enjoy the ride, but hold onto your hat—the road’s a little bumpy up ahead.
— JOHN DUFRESNE, author of I Don’t Like Where This Is Going

Ballad of Jasmine Wills is a fast, furious ride and I loved every twist. Jasmine is the antihero the world needs right now—smart, resourceful, and full-bodied. A totally dark and enjoyable read.
— DANA SCHWARTZ, author of Early Birds

A zany twist on the Southern Gothic, Ballad of Jasmine Wills is a wild and heartfelt tale of abduction and revenge, body shaming and media fame. Lee Rozelle’s debut novel is the story of overweight banker Jasmine and her kidnapper, the enigmatic reality TV mastermind Preston Price. Trapped inside an egg-shaped studio in the secluded backwoods, Jasmine is tortured with haute cuisine, brainwashed with self-help videos, and badgered with cardio exercise routines for her growing mass of livestream fans. Filled with flashbacks of adolescent nuttiness and ennui in the 1980s, Ballad of Jasmine Wills goes bizarro to explore links between reality TV and the real, intervention and exploitation.
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  1. Print length
    294 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    December 3, 2021
  5. File size
    6835 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09N1D5H3B
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Montag Press (December 3, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 3, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 6835 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 294 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1940233976
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 31 ratings

About the author

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Lee Rozelle

Lee Rozelle

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Lee Rozelle is the author of novel BALLAD OF JASMINE WILLS and nonfiction books ZOMBIESCAPES & PHANTOM ZONES and ECOSUBLIME. He has published short stories in COSMIC HORROR MONTHLY, SOUTHERN HUMANITIES REVIEW, HellBound Books' ANTHOLOGY OF BIZARRO, Dark Ink Books' SHADOWY NATURES, IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE vol. 3, and the SCARE YOU TO SLEEP podcast. Learn more at leerozelle.com.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
31 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Christopher Pegg
5.0 out of 5 stars The prose is as delicious as those butter sausage biscuits (presumably from Jack’s).
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2022
Verified Purchase
Once I finished the first chapter, I couldn’t stop reading. This book is as easy to get lost in (in a good way) as the Talapoochee National Forest that it’s set in. I hate to call a book “fun” in fear that it may degrade the story’s literary value, but damn, this was a fun story to read.

The narrative drops you in this creepy & greasy world of banks, biscuits & reality television— then delivers an unexpected amount of action. While the mirror is held up to our cultural obsession with reality television and other forms of exploitative profiteering, I didn’t find the social commentary overbearing in any way. The narrative is unpredictable and keeps the reader grounded in the story. Rozelle writes the people of a place he knows all-too-well.

The characters are masterfully developed and deeply flawed. Preston & Tick are despicable. Jasmine is undeniably a legendary chiropractor, but I don’t know that I’d call myself a J-Me either. Add this one to your cart— you’ll be delighted that you did.
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Keshia Mcclantoc
4.0 out of 5 stars Thrilling and Horrific Characters
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2022
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*mild spoilers throughout this review*

On the surface, The Ballad of Jasmine Wills tells the story of Jasmine Wills, an overweight Alabama woman who kidnapped by a television producer, Preston Price, against her will, and forced to participate in a wildly popular weight loss reality show. On a deeper level, the story is psychological horror about the inner neuroses of both Jasmine and Preston themselves.

Which is say that we got a lot of moments, through both present narrative and in a multitude of flashbacks, dedicated to the inner workings of each character and I found myself having wildly different reactions to each. I absolutely abhorred Preston – he was the ridiculous woe-is-me yet wildly entitled type of man I like to deeply avoid in my own life. Throughout the novel, he psychologically abuses Jasmine under the guise of just trying to understand her but he’s actually just imposing his own flaws and insecurities onto a deeply confident woman (more on that in the next paragraph). And wow, don’t even get me started on how the nonconsensual voyeurism he participates in throughout the novel – had me crawling out of my skin. Though, of course, I always find this as a mark of good writing. If I can truly hate a character, you’re doing it right. But it did mean I didn’t enjoy the ample use of flashbacks throughout the book, as many of them were dedicated to Preston and his various creeper activities.

On the other hand – I loved Jasmine. She was spunky and confident and surprisingly in tune with herself, her own emotions, and desires. Especially for a woman who all the other characters perceived as being practically a nothing person. Her Southern sass was incredible and her lack of shame for her White Trash ™ background was also thrilling. We need more characters who love being from the South and embrace all the supposedly “trashy” aspects that come along with it, including ample love of Mello Yellow and Southern comfort food. I also loved her insistence that no matter how much weight she lost, she was still a fat person, and that she planned to get fat again the moment she escaped Preston’s clutches. Though, I do wonder if Jasmine is actually fat. Throughout much of the early half of the book, other characters perceptions of Jasmine describe her as morbidly obese. And even Jasmine herself, in the earliest moment of body dysmorphia within the narrative, seems to view of herself as a walking disaster. But then Jasmine weighs herself at the start of the Diet Extreme and she’s only 248 pounds. Let me repeat, 248 pounds! Which honestly, is barely overweight at all and possibly even closer to average depending on Jasmine’s height and muscle mass (details we didn’t get in the book). I’m not sure if her weight, and the overblown perceptions of it, is a lack of understanding of how weight works on women from the author or some larger commentary about women and their bodies in general. Preston, all those associated with the Diet Extreme show, and everyone else is Jasmine’s life perceives her as extremely massive because how dare a woman not be perfect, petite, and as tiny as can be at all time???

All of this to say as a novel of character studies, I found The Ballad of Jasmine Wills to have deeply compelling writing, vividly horrific prose, and both deeply disturbing and thrilling moments for me as a reader, where I both wished for the characters’ demise and rooted for them with all my hearts in equal measure. I do, however, think the book lacked a little bit as far as having a cohesive plot went. The first two thirds of the novel, I feel, had a clear sense of what is was doing – delivering a delightfully horrific story of these two characters while making larger commentary on the society’s perception of fat people, the grossness of reality tv, and the way some truly messed up people can come in the most normal of packages. But the latter third of the narrative really fell apart for me – there felt as if there was no explanation or reason for all the betrayal and sudden violence from all the characters, when really, Jasmine was the only character who had reason to be justifiably violent. And I didn’t quite follow the various relationships between the crew of Diet Extreme and all the choices they seemed to suddenly be making, without rhyme or reason. It felt, very much to me, like the story began with a focused, sensible plot and disintegrated into an incorrigible mess just for the sake of a chaotic, exciting ending.

Overall, though, I enjoyed this novel. It was a reading experience both exciting as it was appalling, in larger part because of Rozelle’s keen eye at creating deeply formed Southern characters without falling into any stereotypes. Anyway, off to get some sausage biscuits for Jasmine!
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Jordan Rose
5.0 out of 5 stars Just as much about Preston as it is Jasmine
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2022
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This book was a great satire and I would definitely read it again. It has a lot of southern centric humor and unique characters that really drew me in and captivated me. Of course, the star of the story is Jasmine with all her spunk and all her pain, but really Preston is just as important. This story characterizes the producers of reality TV and brings to light the overall sickness of individuals who are willing to constantly film a person's struggle for profit. Overall, I was very pleased with this book. The only criticism I can give it is that the pacing towards the end of the story seems a little too fast compared to the rest of the novel. It just seems to cut off in a sort of sudden way and I wish the final scene was a little more drawn out. Other than that, this book was great. If you need an easy read filled with freaks and melloyello, definitely pick this one up.
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tampanews
5.0 out of 5 stars A cult classic in the making
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2022
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Rozelle's novel is a genre-bending read that embodies both the zeitgeist of this surveillance-encroaching age and its insatiable need to turn seemingly anyone into a celebrity of the moment. It's also a novel that walks the line between parody and the scares of having a psychotic on the loose.

The narration and plot are a sort of stream-of-consciousness of where it perceives us to be yet also a reflection on the times that brought us here. The writing takes a lens to where we are and to our recent past, too. And it does so by examining a space both frighteningly bland (how many McDonalds can one figuratively stomach?) yet thankfully also ultimately unable to fully decouple/wash itself away (so far at least) from a sense of its geographical place. Some of the strongest writing comes from when that writing delves into the minutiae of that space.

Aficionados will happily want to revisit the wide-ranging expanse this novel covers and search for its nuggets.
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