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booktribe's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Clara Johnson, a woman able to commune with spirits, notices that something strange is going on in her community. When a spirit offers Clara a deal to save her people, and gain her freedom back from the debt she owes this spirit, she must assemble an unlikely team and complete a heist to save everyone, and herself.
The writing hooked me from the first sentence and stayed consistently engrossing! I thoroughly enjoyed it throughout and never got bored. The pacing was great. There was also a great plot and characters. i had to know what was going on in this community and with all these spirits and I wanted the best for all of the characters. I also loved that spirits were characters too. The spirit of Clara’s grandmother was one of my favorite characters. She loved Clara so much and really protected her. I also enjoyed the mention of a few important people from The Harlem Renaissance. I never read historical fiction, but I loved the atmosphere of this novel and the time period brought so much to the story.
There were a couple of things I would’ve liked to have seen though. I wish there had been more character development for some of the characters, specifically Aristotle and Jesse Lee. They didn’t have as much personality as everyone else. And the only other problem I had was that we spent almost 80% of the novel not knowing what Clara’s special gift from a spirit was because she said it was so shameful that she couldn’t speak of it and would never use it again. But, when we finally found out what it was, I was disappointed because it was so simple. I was thinking “she hates her gift so much, so it must be something that’s a big deal, like necromancy”, but it was something that’s pretty common in fantasy books. So I thought that reveal was a little lackluster.
I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. I feel like there’s potential for a sequel, so I’m hoping! I’ll definitely be reading more by Leslye Penelope. Anyone who enjoys historical fantasy, heists, and spirits who may or may not be trustworthy should check this out!
Thank you Redhook Books and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.
TW: police brutality, colorism, parental abandonment, mention of miscarriage
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment and Police brutality
Minor: Miscarriage
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