Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - When the Reckoning Comes

This book is short but it packed a huge gut punch for me. I couldn't read it at night because I would get too upset and overwhelmed by the detail and sheer horror of everything that was happening, but I still really liked it. The writing was immersive and gorgeous, made even better by listening to the audiobook while I read along physically. I usually hate romantic subplots in thrillers and horror, but I honestly thought that the one happening here was believable and I was rooting for it. The only thing that gives me pause is that I wanted a little more from this ending and there are some things that I would like clarification on re: the supernatural element. In some ways, I totally get why it ended the way it did and why I won't get that clarification, but it would still be nice to have it not end so abruptly and to have some answers. Overall, this was a good one. Authors using horror to address real life issues are one of my favorite types of authors to read so I will definitely look out for more from this author.

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lvd92's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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? Yes

4.75

This book was such a strong work. Honestly, it was so raw, so human, so honest. However, I would not widely recommend it. This book deals with some very heavy topics, and one needs to be in a state of mind in which that can be dealt with healthily. Don't go in expecting a ghostly horror book with jump scares, etc. This is a horror book in the sense that it deals with some of the worst things white people have done to black people in the time of slavery, the lingering racism towards black people, and attempts at whitewashing how monstrous people were and still can be against those we deem other. It is such an important topic, such a vital lesson, particularly as some of us still appear to find it very hard to learn to know and do better.

As for my review of the actual book - In my opinion, this is a really strong work. The writing style worked very well for me; no purple prose, but just a very natural flow of invocative phrasing. The author uses flashbacks here and there, which I think were handled well. I love how skilled the author took us into Mira's experiences, not always knowing what she saw. The characters were very well-developed, too. I'd say that the author was pretty successful in developing particularly Mira, Celine and Jesse into complex and flawed but likeable characters. The plot may have had some pacing issues here and there, but I did not mind the slow parts. They helped me connect more with the characters and process some of the darker occurrences in the plot, and their real-life underlying inspiration. Just really solid.

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vigil's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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? Yes

2.0

this book held my attention as i read it, but once i put it down, i had little inclination to pick it up again.

i enjoyed the story, though if you’re looking for a fresh ghost story with twists and turns, this isn’t it. it’s a very classic revenge story and i think it’s strength lies more in it’s themes and how unflinching the author is in her criticism of racism, plantations, and how everyone can play into white supremacy, maliciously or not. my favorite portion of the book is towards the ending

where mira lives through the eyes of one of the slaves, and it uncovers just how horrific slavery really was, and how horrific everyone in the present is for ignoring and exploiting it.

it didn’t quite stick the landing though in my opinion. the latter portion of the book is rather unclear, making it hard to distinguish what fact from fiction and how did some of the more shocking events happen or didn’t happen. this vagueness isn’t bad in and of itself, but it makes the ending even more egregious. all the vague hallucinatory vibes disappear and the book is over because the protagonist literally says it’s over, not because anything is really done. i don’t need the protagonists to stick around and clean up the mess made by racist whites, but what about everything else? it felt like author thought she got her message across sufficiently and forgot about the story. the message it sends is good, but as a book it’s just okay.

also. i found celine’s character to be personally uncomfortable to me as a black person (but all too familiar) but i found the “poor girl dares to try to escape and gets put down like a dog by her partner” portion of the book to be rather distasteful. also a copout, no white person in this book has to personally reckon with anything. they’re either nameless racists, or end up dead.

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lindseyas's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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? No

4.75

This was another book that I read for my "Literary Hauntings" class. It wasn't like the normal "hauntings" that we'd been reading about, but it was the most realistic, and certainly the most visceral, emotional and raw. The combination of history and the supernatural is the perfect encapsulation of what the gothic really is – our pasts coming back to haunt us. The novel played perfectly into this archetype, with a tense tone and winding suspense keeping it in place. It used gore and mental anguish to create a haunting aura that has lasted with me long since reading.

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