Reviews with content warning for Abortion - The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

I absolutely loved this book. I normally don’t like to read books about black
Trauma. I like to escape when I read this book was beautifully written. It had so much history and connection. It focused on real family ties and generational trauma. But also the overcoming. Highlighted the importance of storytelling and family history.

Content Warnings

readandfindout's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

Style/writing: 4 stars
Themes: 4.5 stars
Characters: 4.5 stars
Plot: 4.5 stars

Content Warnings

bookishkellyn's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective

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

5.0

This is probably the best book I’ve ever read in my entire life. The author has a way with words and combined with her extensive research, she weaves an immersive fictional but realistic tale about a multigenerational family–mostly seen through the eyes of the main protagonist (Ailey) from childhood to adulthood. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew these characters after experiencing the highs and lows with them. I enjoyed reading every bit of this almost 800-page masterpiece.

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noteworthy_fiction's review

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Should have read the content warnings first. This book is VERY well written and I hope we get more from the author, but I cannot do 20 pages of child abuse in the middle of an already sad and trauma filled book that already included child abuse. Reader beware!

Content Warnings

all1thegr8's review

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad 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

A beautiful tale of one Black family’s lineage and a woman’s growth into fully understanding her roots.

Incredible writing and storylines. Jeffers makes great use of 797 pages; although the book is certainly long, it’s length feels appropriate for the depth and vastness of its contents (creating meaningful storylines for over 300+ years of characters & discussing themes of their life is not easy!)

Think I will need significant time to digest this novel. While it’s depth and vastness can be an asset, these qualities can also make it difficult to discern critical takeways, at least immediately.

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risqkae's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

kelly_e's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-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

5.0

Title: The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
Author: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Genre:
Rating: 5.00
Pub Date:

T H R E E • W O R D S

Sweeping • Tender • Rewarding

📖 S Y N O P S I S

The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the Problem of race in America, and what he called "Double Consciousness," a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s Problem on her shoulders.

Ailey is reared in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother’s family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma, as well as the whispers of women—her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries—that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead.

To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family’s past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors—Indigenous, Black, and white—in the deep South. In doing so Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story—and the song—of America itself.

💭 T H O U G H T S

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois has sat untouched on my shelf for far too long simply because of its sheer size. A yearly reading challenge prompt ('read a 600+ page book') forced my hand and I couldn't be more grateful! This is proof that I shouldn't leave big books sitting on my shelf.

This novel is a long journey, but it was worth every single minute. Following the sweeping history of one American family over centuries of the colonial slave trade, through the Civil War, to our own tumultuous era. It's a work of fiction, yet these characters felt so real. So alive. I was rooting for their victories and sympathized with their pain. Ailey (the main story teller) is researching her families history and I was along for the ride. My heart felt for Lydia as well. These two sister's weaved their way into my brain even when I wasn't reading.

The writing is absolutely beautiful and layered. It was easy to read 100 pages in one sitting without noticing the passage of time. The family history is interwoven seamlessly with the modern timeline. The narrative certainly tackles a lot - race, history, identity, privilege, intersectionality, identity, culture, womanhood and shared trauma - and yet it all comes together so flawlessly.

This book is one for the ages - equal parts compelling and moving. Although lengthy it easily could have been longer. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is an experience all of its own. It's demanding, challenging, and incredibly well-researched. I will be finding a special place for this one on my favourites bookshelf. Definitely check out content warnings beforehand as this is no easy journey and being in the right headspace is necessary.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• lovers of the family saga
• readers who love beautiful writing
• bookclubs

🔖F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Even in a place of sorrow, time passes. Even in a place of joy. Do not assume that either keeps life from continuing."

"But first you got to get out of the library sometimes and meet somebody, 'cause it ain't legal to marry books."

"These are the incongruities of memory. It is hard to hold on to the entirety of something, but pieces may be held up to light."

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