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beverleefernandez's review
3.0
Solemn is a story of what-ifs and what could happen. Solemn is the daughter of Bev & Earl, sister of Landon. This is somewhat of a distinction in Bledsoe, MS for it's framed as town ensconced in poverty & "broken" homes. Solemn's life is far from idyllic. She's a witness to a horrific act & that's the beginning of the end.
In this book, the author uses a lot of imagery & Solemn has an active imagination. I think Ms. Buckhanon's writing technique is strong. Personally, I think the story was left unfinished, which is how life works often. The reader can only imagine what happens to Solemn & Majority after they reach their destination, if Bev & Red's relationship will ever be repaired, if the mystery surrounding Pearletta's death is solved.
In a not so obvious way, Ms. Buckhanon touched on issues of importance; specifically the effects of poverty on families, how black people are treated by the police, how people relate to each other.
This book is different from any I've read & it was a challenge to finish. Since I like to be challenged, that isn't a bad thing. I had hopes of Solemn finding peace, but it's not going to happen in a way I imagined, such as a neat ending. Instead, I'll think that Solemn gets out of the truck & makes a life for herself in a positive manner.
In this book, the author uses a lot of imagery & Solemn has an active imagination. I think Ms. Buckhanon's writing technique is strong. Personally, I think the story was left unfinished, which is how life works often. The reader can only imagine what happens to Solemn & Majority after they reach their destination, if Bev & Red's relationship will ever be repaired, if the mystery surrounding Pearletta's death is solved.
In a not so obvious way, Ms. Buckhanon touched on issues of importance; specifically the effects of poverty on families, how black people are treated by the police, how people relate to each other.
This book is different from any I've read & it was a challenge to finish. Since I like to be challenged, that isn't a bad thing. I had hopes of Solemn finding peace, but it's not going to happen in a way I imagined, such as a neat ending. Instead, I'll think that Solemn gets out of the truck & makes a life for herself in a positive manner.
em_reads_books's review
Decided to abandon this one, which is too bad because it has some really lovely writing in places and I see rave reviews for her other books. But I guess there's a reason this one is much lower rated, it was going slow and rambling all over the place and I kept putting it down and not picking it up again.
readermonica's review
This book is killing my wonderful book high that I was riding after finishing The Obelisk Gate, so I am going to abandon it for the time being. I'm getting frustrated with the dialogue and 'feel' of the book. Although the book is set in the late 1990's, the main characters and community come through as if they are living sometime before the Civil Rights era. The way language is used, the casual mention that no one in the community votes, the community is a trailer park where the people have been 'tricked' into being tenants (there are even outhouses that were communally dug), every man introduced so far is unlikable, and finally the fact that a baby goes missing and the police want to wait at least 24 hours to investigate have all contributed to me needing to walk away from this one. All of this may have been fine if the writing had caught me up, but unfortunately that isn't the case so far.
This may be a case of me not being in the right frame of mind to take in and appreciate this story. I may someday come back to this one; especially since this was, admittedly, mostly a cover buy and I bought the hardback edition. I hate the idea of having paid for a hardback and can't even finish it-that hurts my cheapskate soul. No rating on this one.
Where you can find me:
•(♥).•*Monlatable Book Reviews*•.(♥)•
Twitter: @MonlatReader
Instagram: @readermonica
Facebook: Monica Reeds
Goodreads Group: The Black Bookcase
This may be a case of me not being in the right frame of mind to take in and appreciate this story. I may someday come back to this one; especially since this was, admittedly, mostly a cover buy and I bought the hardback edition. I hate the idea of having paid for a hardback and can't even finish it-that hurts my cheapskate soul. No rating on this one.
Where you can find me:
•(♥).•*Monlatable Book Reviews*•.(♥)•
Twitter: @MonlatReader
Instagram: @readermonica
Facebook: Monica Reeds
Goodreads Group: The Black Bookcase
opalthefruit's review
3.0
~copy kindly sent to me by the author for review purposes via goodreads~
Probably 2.5 stars.
I had much more of a problem with the pacing than I did with the plot. This was often hard to keep up with, it would change subject quite abruptly to the extent where I thought a character was dead for about 50 pages but it turns out they weren't? Also wasn't sure what decade it was set in for a little while either. I was left with more questions than answers, so many mysteries that weren't solved or were only partially explained. I feel like this would have worked better with either fewer plot threads or a much longer page count.
I really liked the characters we did get to know, though. Solemn was great and I'd happily read more of her story, along with Bolden and Akila.
A small niggle is also that there were a lot of typos in this, idk what the editors / proofreaders were doing.
Probably 2.5 stars.
I had much more of a problem with the pacing than I did with the plot. This was often hard to keep up with, it would change subject quite abruptly to the extent where I thought a character was dead for about 50 pages but it turns out they weren't? Also wasn't sure what decade it was set in for a little while either. I was left with more questions than answers, so many mysteries that weren't solved or were only partially explained. I feel like this would have worked better with either fewer plot threads or a much longer page count.
I really liked the characters we did get to know, though. Solemn was great and I'd happily read more of her story, along with Bolden and Akila.
A small niggle is also that there were a lot of typos in this, idk what the editors / proofreaders were doing.
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