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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
This hard exploration of family, death, drugs, and belonging is a must-read and completely phenomenal. With breathtaking prose like poetry, the narrative is richly voice- and character-driven but easy to lose the plot if you are not focused. I loved this book with all my soul and would read it again in a heartbeat.
Also, I listened to the audiobook and need to add that the performances were stellar: particularly of Leonie, the female narrator. Her voice was so wretched at times it scratched at my bones.
Also, I listened to the audiobook and need to add that the performances were stellar: particularly of Leonie, the female narrator. Her voice was so wretched at times it scratched at my bones.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Police brutality
Gorgeous, compelling. One of the best books I've read this year.
Okay. Maybe I was primed not to like this. Maybe it's just not a style that I enjoy. But folks, I thought this was a bad book. The most positively I felt about anything was... fine? And I definitely had complaints. Theoretically, this book has multiple narrators, but they all have the exact same voice, which is a puzzling mix of attempts at semi-elevated prose (like The Book Thief, there are some nice attempts at lyrical writing and some attempts that don't actually make sense but sound almost like they're compelling if you're not thinking too hard) and dialectical southern English, which pervades the dialogue but seems to only pop up randomly in the narration to remind the reader that this is, in fact, a book about African Americans in the South. There's also a weird indecision on how to handle dialogue, with some being written in traditional paragraphs, some being sort of mixed into a big wall of a paragraph, and some, without discernible pattern—though I tried hard to find one—just italicized (which is made even weirder because thoughts are denoted by italics as well). So basically, I thought the writing was a mess (and poorly [or at the very least oddly] edited, with ludicrous phrases like "ossified into stone" slipping though) and lazy. This is to say nothing of the story, which I felt went a very short distance and managed to inspire neither interest in the characters or belief in the events. There are several seemingly severe illnesses, but there are no stakes except for the one instance that's late-stage cancer. There's an attempt at setting up compelling family dynamics, but it has its legs viciously cut out from under it by a mix of overdone emotional episodes (the main romance calls to mind most immediately Twilight in its resemblance to baseless intoxication) and attempts to do too many things at once, all of which have been done better elsewhere, as far as I'm concerned. Towards the end there were a few nice little emotional moments, but for me they were blunted by a desire to no longer be reading the book. Maybe I'm a cold, unfeeling husk of a person. Maybe I have narrow taste. Maybe this book wasn't written for me. Maybe it's actually just bad. In any case, I disliked it more than anything I've read in some time.
A story about generational trauma and parents and children trying to understand one another, with a bit of magical realism thrown in.
While I liked the themes of this book, I found the events that take place almost all uncomfortable to read, with very few more neutral or nice scenes to balance them out. I would have liked more moments where Leonie and JoJo do manage to understand each other, or moments between Kayla and JoJo without an argument happening around them.
This is a rich story, but definitely not a comfortable read. I feel like I would have enjoyed the book more if I had been more prepared for that going in.
While I liked the themes of this book, I found the events that take place almost all uncomfortable to read, with very few more neutral or nice scenes to balance them out. I would have liked more moments where Leonie and JoJo do manage to understand each other, or moments between Kayla and JoJo without an argument happening around them.
This is a rich story, but definitely not a comfortable read. I feel like I would have enjoyed the book more if I had been more prepared for that going in.
The author gives the readers a poignant story, undoubtedly well written and fraught with intense highly emotional moments. There are several narrators to the story but the one character that stands out is JoJo, a youth who resides with his grandparents, baby sister and a drug addict mother when the work begins. As more of the story comes to light, we find JoJo trying to cope with death, parents who aren't responsible, protecting sister and uncovering the truth of his grandfather's past. With a touch of the paranormal and a dash of Voodoo we are given a read that well deserves the National Book Award for Fiction 2017. I highly recommend this novel.