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melissa_cosgrove's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Child death, and Violence
Moderate: Drug use
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Unsettled is the story of Ava, her son Touissant, and her mother Dutchess. It’s set during the 1980s in Philadelphia and Alabama. Ava and Touissant end up in a homeless shelter after her abusive husband kicks her out. Ava reconnects with Cass, Touissant’s father, and they move to a community he leads focussed on Black liberation. It’s safe to say this is not the utopia they might wish it to be. Meanwhile Dutchess is struggling since Bonaparte, the Black owned town where she lives, is on the verge of extinction. The first section of the book set in the family shelter was probably my favourite. I found the conditions in the shelter, the attitudes of the staff and the bureaucracy surrounding it to be both infuriating and eye-opening. This book had a lot to say about race and the many ways it affects the lives of Black Americans, and about intergenerational trauma, how one event can affect those not even born when it occurred. By and large it is a depressing read, although there is a glimmer of hope for the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, and Police brutality
annreadsabook's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Ayana Mathis’ second novel introduces us to an estranged mother-daughter pair, Dutchess and Ava, as they lead their lives separately but always bound together by their shared memories and traumas. Set primarily in the 1980s, Ava and her son struggle for some semblance of normalcy during a stretch of houselessness that lands them in a community living facility in Philly. All the while, Ava fights the ghosts of her past that threaten to uproot her present and future. Meanwhile, Dutchess and her small-town Alabama community members wage a continual battle against nearby white townspeople who have been terrorizing them for years.
Each of the characters in this book is plagued by a profound sense of disquiet, some of which is inflicted upon them by others, by themselves, and by a profusely anti-Black and anti-Black woman society. And both Ava and Dutchess in particular are painted as deeply flawed characters; Ava, with her derision of the other unhoused people in her vicinity, and Dutchess, a mother who failed her daughter in countless ways. Mathis shows us a family that at every turn contends with its painful past and uncertain future, striving for dignity and peace in a world so bent on withholding it. I was fascinated in particular by Mathis’ depiction of Ava’s struggle for dignity as dependent on chipping away at others’—she wades deeper and deeper into the waters of “respectability” until she finds herself in a highly undesirable position for both herself and her son Toussaint. Although I found the book a bit difficult to get into at first, once I was in, I was hooked. And the last 25%? Wowowow! 😵💫😳😱
This is a great novel for those who enjoy deeply flawed characters, books that examine mother-daughter and mother-son relationships, and who just to dive into a “recent history” historical novel. Thanks so much Knopf and Netgalley for the e-ARC! I’m excited for more people to read this one.
Each of the characters in this book is plagued by a profound sense of disquiet, some of which is inflicted upon them by others, by themselves, and by a profusely anti-Black and anti-Black woman society. And both Ava and Dutchess in particular are painted as deeply flawed characters; Ava, with her derision of the other unhoused people in her vicinity, and Dutchess, a mother who failed her daughter in countless ways. Mathis shows us a family that at every turn contends with its painful past and uncertain future, striving for dignity and peace in a world so bent on withholding it. I was fascinated in particular by Mathis’ depiction of Ava’s struggle for dignity as dependent on chipping away at others’—she wades deeper and deeper into the waters of “respectability” until she finds herself in a highly undesirable position for both herself and her son Toussaint. Although I found the book a bit difficult to get into at first, once I was in, I was hooked. And the last 25%? Wowowow! 😵💫😳😱
This is a great novel for those who enjoy deeply flawed characters, books that examine mother-daughter and mother-son relationships, and who just to dive into a “recent history” historical novel. Thanks so much Knopf and Netgalley for the e-ARC! I’m excited for more people to read this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Police brutality
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