Reviews - Long After We Are Gone

370 reviews for:

Long After We Are Gone

Terah Shelton Harris

3.93 AVERAGE

rlrkv5's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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: Yes

scifiandgaultier's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A death in the family sparks a rollercoaster ride into this family’s web of past histories and current secret lives. Secrets that leave them vulnerable to exploitation and manipulation, from others and towards each other. Entertaining, shocking and reflective.

mommacj's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jfres96's review against another edition

3.5

dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

kimyattaw's review against another edition

5.0

medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

This was amazing! Seeing each sibling’s struggle and then their eventual acceptance of themselves was amazing! I love that we get to know them each separately and then again together. This family is not necessarily trapped in the past but they’re all certainly plagued by it. Each sibling has to come to terms with their own place. I loved how it all came together.

nehaanna's review against another edition

3.5

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I remember picking up this book and reading the premise and thinking “This reminds me of As I Lay Dying,” only to finish the book and read the author’s postscript and realized it was a core inspiration for this work. The premise of the story is interesting, and it seeks to educate readers on the concept of Heir Property, a legal loophole that has exploited and cheated black families from their ancestral land rights. I appreciated the research that has gone into this topic and the way the author presented this issue in an interesting way.

While the plot’s central conflict is around land rights and the continuation of legacy, that almost seems to be sidelined in favor of the stories of the siblings. There was just something about this book and the siblings that made it hard for me to really connect and be pulled in by this story - they each have moments that may render them dislikable or difficult to connect to. However, I felt like their dramatization was well fleshed out, but I just couldn’t get to that last bit of connection with them. I also struggled sometimes with the sex scenes and violence scenes in the last third of this book - I felt like it took valuable page space away from the story about the land. In all, this was an interesting and educating read, but I think it just fell a little flat for me in the end.

Content Warnings