5.58k reviews for:

Sing, Unburied, Sing

Jesmyn Ward

4.07 AVERAGE

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Another must-read by Jesmyn Ward.
dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

bleak 

I know this book has gotten rave reviews, but I really didn't care for it. It was kind of depressing, and the POV goes back in forth between the immature 17 year old mother and her neglected son. Oh, and did I mention the father is in prison and the family has "the shining" because they are the stereotypical magical Negro. When you start reading a book, and the type is really big, you should know right away the publisher is trying to make it look substantial than it is.

Difficult to read--much of it made me cringe--but worth it! Highly recommend.

The book drew me in immediately. I was really enjoying it until the ghosts. The complexities of families, relationships, drug use, and race relations weaved an interesting story but the ghosts just made it weird and took away from what drew me in.

I loved the atmosphere of this book, the strong sense of place and memorable characters. It’s definitely a read that sticks with you and it’s a powerful examination of the history and, more important, the legacy of racism in America and how the current generation lives a life still shaped by it. But, and I realize it’s the English major in me, but I had a hard time with every voice in the book sounding the same. The writing is beautiful and lyrical but I just kept doing double takes when, for example, the ghost of a young boy who lived long ago with scant education uses the word “indomitable” to describe someone. Or when the drop-out druggie older sister also busts out the AP vocabulary. Jessmyn Ward clearly has a top notch vocab and uses it to make beautiful prose but the end result is that her vivid, memorable characters all end up sounding like her and it kept taking me out of the story.

Masterfully told and deeply heartbreaking.

This was beautifully written. It was easy to find yourself immersed in the descriptions - of the settings, character's feelings, the puke spewed all over during the car ride... It was an intense and tragic story, but at times I felt like I wasn't understanding everything or connecting very well to the characters. 3.5 stars - worthwhile read.