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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Slavery
Moderate: Death
Minor: Pregnancy
I made it through this book! Now, back to reading cliff-hanger unreliable narrator mysteries and trashy romance. This was for book club, so I made an effort, even though I found it to be a bit of a slog. Please tell me a couple more times about how often you vomited during your two week sea voyage from England to America. Thankfully we don't have scentovision. I get it. We need to understand that Honor is literally trapped in America as she wouldn't survive another transatlantic ship voyage. But Jamie Fraiser overcame near death by sea sickness and then ended up sailing the Atlantic several times, but I digress. Sea sickness is not that interesting.
And neither are quilt patterns. Please, tell me more about the different piecing of the patterns and whether one is clearly inferior to the quilting Honor learned in England. All of this reminded me of a truly awful community theatre musical called "Quilting!" that my mom had dragged me to see with her in the late 1980s. I am terrified of quilts still to this day because of that awful musical. Yikes, quilts!
Ok, other than the overly detailed descriptions of sea sickness and competitive quilting, there was some interesting things going on in this book. I won't name them all, but they include:
1. Quakers living in Ohio prior to the Civil War
2. Just how snobby some Quakers are to each other, while still calling each other "Friend". Me-ow!
3. Said Quakers were anti-slavery, yet still reserved a "negro row" for the black members of their society of Friends. Um, ok.
4. The underground railroad and how a couple links of it wandering through rural Ohio may have operated.
5. The business model and work ethics of a bounty hunter who specialized in tracking down escaped slaves. But yet was sexy.
6. Ok, that last piece was the most interesting part of the book, how Honor could be attracted to this slave hunter despite her staunch abolitionist convictions.
7. Quaker courting practices. Seriously, maybe you should read this book just for that.
There will be things to discuss at bookclub. This is my second Tracy Chevalier novel, the first was a remake of Othello called, New Boy and that was awesome. I was a little disappointed because this seemed overly flowery with the details, scant on the action, days were a tedious ordeal, which sounded realistic, but not that enjoyable. New Boy was short, fast paced (all in one day) and the mounting tension was excellent. But then I'm not a nut for historical fiction. It was alright.
And neither are quilt patterns. Please, tell me more about the different piecing of the patterns and whether one is clearly inferior to the quilting Honor learned in England. All of this reminded me of a truly awful community theatre musical called "Quilting!" that my mom had dragged me to see with her in the late 1980s. I am terrified of quilts still to this day because of that awful musical. Yikes, quilts!
Ok, other than the overly detailed descriptions of sea sickness and competitive quilting, there was some interesting things going on in this book. I won't name them all, but they include:
1. Quakers living in Ohio prior to the Civil War
2. Just how snobby some Quakers are to each other, while still calling each other "Friend". Me-ow!
3. Said Quakers were anti-slavery, yet still reserved a "negro row" for the black members of their society of Friends. Um, ok.
4. The underground railroad and how a couple links of it wandering through rural Ohio may have operated.
5. The business model and work ethics of a bounty hunter who specialized in tracking down escaped slaves. But yet was sexy.
6. Ok, that last piece was the most interesting part of the book, how Honor could be attracted to this slave hunter despite her staunch abolitionist convictions.
7. Quaker courting practices. Seriously, maybe you should read this book just for that.
There will be things to discuss at bookclub. This is my second Tracy Chevalier novel, the first was a remake of Othello called, New Boy and that was awesome. I was a little disappointed because this seemed overly flowery with the details, scant on the action, days were a tedious ordeal, which sounded realistic, but not that enjoyable. New Boy was short, fast paced (all in one day) and the mounting tension was excellent. But then I'm not a nut for historical fiction. It was alright.
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved this from the first few words!
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ça m'a donné envie de faire des édredons en patchwork, merci Honor
adventurous
dark
informative
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I learned a lot about Quakers and the history of Ohio
Solidly ok. It was compelling enough that I kept reading and wanted to know what happened to the characters but I didn't particularly like them. There was a huge focus on quilting which I am not interested in. I thought there would be more focus on the Underground Railroad but that was just a small part of the story. The sexual tension between her and Donovan made no sense to me. I did find the dynamics of Quaker community to be interesting and enjoyed learning about that. Overall, I liked it well enough.
I was misled by the title of this book, I thought that it dealt with the end of slavery in the United States. Instead, it is the story of Hope, a Quaker who decides to come to America after her fiance falls in love with someone else and breaks off their engagement. Her sister was going to America to marry and Hope decides that she wants something different. Once in America, she ends up in Ohio in the midst of runaway slaves. America does not end up solving Hope's problems and she is left feeling even more out of place than she had in England. I enjoyed reading about how conflicted the Quakers are when faced with having to make a choice between doing what they felt was right and following the law.