Reviews with content warning for Slavery - The Revisioners

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

11 reviews

bt_wannabe's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

3.5

A mix of historical fiction and contemporary fiction with some supernatural elements, this story weaves together the stories of multiple generations; highlighting the impact of both generational trauma and strength. The use of multiple POVs was an effective tool in telling this story. While I do think there are characters and storylines that could’ve been fleshed out a bit better to make this read more rich and satisfying, I also feel that some connections were intentionally not explicitly laid out in order to make the reader think and reflect. Overall, it’s definitely worth your time and will leave you thinking.

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beetandbaguette's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.75

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crabbytaco's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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javafenn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

It took me a few days to write a review because this book was very emotional and I needed to clarify my thoughts. The story is told from 3 different timelines involving 2 different women basically sewing together how the past affects the future generations. The realities of slavery and post slavery was tough but the horrors of slavery and all the racism that followed are real and tough. The story itself was amazing. I enjoyed the magical aspect of it and I really loved how strong Josephine and Ava truly were despite not exactly knowing it at first. Both had sons that were facing a scary world for Black men and both had passions for healing. At the end of the book Josephine suffers a horrific and graphic loss shortly after gaining a new grandchild. I needed a few minutes to continue on from that point because there wasn’t much left in the book. I was shattered when it happened. I almost felt it was unnecessary but things like that happened and I’m not one to say how racism against Black people should be displayed in a book written by a Black person. That combined with the fact that the story got a bit confusing around 2/3 of the way through is why this is 3.5 stars. It’s definitely a good book and the narrators are great but it is heavy.

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kharcourt's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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nicoleisalwaysreading's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I really enjoyed the way this read like a ghost story or a thriller with supernatural elements. I was starting to get scared for what Ava would find lurking in Martha or in her house (there were hints of actual possession, and in way, I do think Wilkerson Sexton was saying that racism is a demonic possession), and the build-up to the two key points in Josephine's story was captivating. This book was structured in an interesting and smart way. I will say, I felt like I wanted more scenes to fully play out, such as the supernatural linkage between Josephine-Gladys-Ava, more clear explanations of the Revisioners and the extent of their gifts, and how Josephine made her way to freedom as a child/with Jupiter. I have really been trying to figure out how exactly I feel about open endings, and this one was another to add to my recent list.

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technicallyaly's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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melissathejan's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

"I walk her to the fields her grandfather laid out, point out the potatoes, the tomatoes, the corn.
'You look at it from this angle and life is all the way good, baby girl,' I tell her. 'You look at it from this angle and you can have anything your little heart can dream up. Anything,' I repeat, and the lie trips in my throat, but I repeat it anyway because maybe for her it will be true. Doesn't make it any less true because I said it." (260-261)

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surefinewhatever_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

A book hasn’t made me feel this way in a long time. I completely sobbed through the final few chapters. Wow wow wow, what a beautifully woven story. Excellent storytelling, and the sense of foreboding made this book impossible to put down. So so good.

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znvisser's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It took me a while to get up to speed with the three different timelines and all the people in those, I would say I was already a third in by the time that happened. After that, I enjoyed most of the story, even though the characters were sometimes a bit grumpy and judgy towards others without it being properly shown why. And that obviously doesn't refer to Josephines wariness towards white people, but for example, it did apply to Ava towards her mother. This could have been interesting, were it properly explored, but unfortunately it wasn't. The ending tempered my positive feelings for the story that had actually started to grow: two of the stories came to a climax that seemed only included in order to shock the reader, since it wrapped up immediately and lacked any reflection on those events. And the third story extinguished by focusing on the wrong things. Therefore, I didn't feel the reader was given any closure for the story and its characters. So all in all, an ok read, but for me there were too many things off for it to be more than that.

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