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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Death of parent
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Cursing, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Abandonment
Minor: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship
Jojo needs to kill something.
Sing, Unburied, Sing opens on our main character's (Jojo) 13th birthday. He follows his grandfather to an animal slaughter, imitating his grandfather's walk and demeanor. His grandfather is his main role model. Pap is a self-sufficient, hard-working rural Mississippi man. Jojo's father is in prison and his mother is a flaky, unreliable drug addict. This leaves Jojo and his sister Kayla staying full-time with their reliable but worn-down Pap and Mam (their maternal grandparents). Worn-down is too gentle of a term for Mam; she's dying of cancer in the bedroom of their shared home. Leonie, Jojo and Kayla's struggling mother, tries her best to be a mother to her children but her best ain't much. When it isn't just sad and ignorant, it's negligent and abusive.
The main thrust of the novel takes place as Leonie absentmindedly grabs Kayla and Jojo to pick up their father Michael from prison. Leonie packs her kids and an bad-behavior enabler friend into a sweaty car for a family reunification road trip. Leonie only has enough effort and love within her body for Michael. Kayla and Jojo are merely consequences of her devotion to Michael. Leonie's point of view is explored in order to give her an adequate amount of sympathy, but this novel's main focus is Jojo's suffering and trauma.
If reading the opening paragraph about Jojo heading off to slaughter an animal with his grandfather on his 13th birthday seems overwrought and overstated to you, feel free to close up this novel now. Melancholic, confused ghosts from the past emerge as a metaphor for past black trauma, slaughter, and enslavement. Mam's cancer is a tool to bring forth reflections on her life as a black female caretaker and herb master. Leonie's ghost is her brother Given (a dramatic name for someone who was "Taken" away too young in a racially motivated shooting). And so on an so forth. The story's main push (the road trip) and the characters, motivations, and interlocking relationships are strong, endearing, and complicated. The overbearing symbols, images, and sideplots are dramatic and wearying. For me, it felt as if there was too much going on. It's both a strength and a weakness to have so much happening, and I was checked out at the end because of it.
This one doesn't end with the road trip; the road trip is the wearying catalyst for everyone to reckon with their ghosts and say goodbye to the old centerpiece of their family (Mam). This novel is deeply admirable but weighty in an unattractive, lopsided manner.
Sing, Unburied, Sing opens on our main character's (Jojo) 13th birthday. He follows his grandfather to an animal slaughter, imitating his grandfather's walk and demeanor. His grandfather is his main role model. Pap is a self-sufficient, hard-working rural Mississippi man. Jojo's father is in prison and his mother is a flaky, unreliable drug addict. This leaves Jojo and his sister Kayla staying full-time with their reliable but worn-down Pap and Mam (their maternal grandparents). Worn-down is too gentle of a term for Mam; she's dying of cancer in the bedroom of their shared home. Leonie, Jojo and Kayla's struggling mother, tries her best to be a mother to her children but her best ain't much. When it isn't just sad and ignorant, it's negligent and abusive.
The main thrust of the novel takes place as Leonie absentmindedly grabs Kayla and Jojo to pick up their father Michael from prison. Leonie packs her kids and an bad-behavior enabler friend into a sweaty car for a family reunification road trip. Leonie only has enough effort and love within her body for Michael. Kayla and Jojo are merely consequences of her devotion to Michael. Leonie's point of view is explored in order to give her an adequate amount of sympathy, but this novel's main focus is Jojo's suffering and trauma.
If reading the opening paragraph about Jojo heading off to slaughter an animal with his grandfather on his 13th birthday seems overwrought and overstated to you, feel free to close up this novel now. Melancholic, confused ghosts from the past emerge as a metaphor for past black trauma, slaughter, and enslavement. Mam's cancer is a tool to bring forth reflections on her life as a black female caretaker and herb master. Leonie's ghost is her brother Given (a dramatic name for someone who was "Taken" away too young in a racially motivated shooting). And so on an so forth. The story's main push (the road trip) and the characters, motivations, and interlocking relationships are strong, endearing, and complicated. The overbearing symbols, images, and sideplots are dramatic and wearying. For me, it felt as if there was too much going on. It's both a strength and a weakness to have so much happening, and I was checked out at the end because of it.
This one doesn't end with the road trip; the road trip is the wearying catalyst for everyone to reckon with their ghosts and say goodbye to the old centerpiece of their family (Mam). This novel is deeply admirable but weighty in an unattractive, lopsided manner.
I had a hard time reading this because it hurt so much. Great book.
Writing is very lyrical like a poem. Story is compelling in parts, but also stereotypical in a lot of aspects.
Got a free paperback copy from an event at my university several years ago and only just now got around to reading it, courtesy of this being a qualifying title for a Goodreads achievement.
Not really my kind of story, which is made worse by the fact that I didn't know what I was getting into— the contents don't really match the description at all, the whole first chapter is unexpectedly gory, and then there are loads of other minorly gory bits littered throughout, with loads of violence from one narrating character to another... and overall it's just very depressing. A story primarily about racism, domestic abuse, drug dependency, and death. I don't mind the ghosts or the "magical realism"; I'm less thrilled with the pacing and the characters and the main themes. The story was a torturous drag for me until halfway through, at which point it became bearable and even interesting toward the end, but by then I was ready for it to be over.
Not really my kind of story, which is made worse by the fact that I didn't know what I was getting into— the contents don't really match the description at all, the whole first chapter is unexpectedly gory, and then there are loads of other minorly gory bits littered throughout, with loads of violence from one narrating character to another... and overall it's just very depressing. A story primarily about racism, domestic abuse, drug dependency, and death. I don't mind the ghosts or the "magical realism"; I'm less thrilled with the pacing and the characters and the main themes. The story was a torturous drag for me until halfway through, at which point it became bearable and even interesting toward the end, but by then I was ready for it to be over.
It took me two tries to get into this book (starting this book while sitting down to lunch was a quick way to either want to put down the book or put down my fork as it begins with a somewhat gruesome animal death). I’m glad I persisted. It’s my second book in as many months that was gritty and brutal, with a story of a boy coming of age in circumstances that aren’t ideal. As with Demon Copperhead, I also had a soft spot for Jojo and his nurturing compassion for his toddler sister. The writing was fantastic- vivid descriptions and mythology. The mystical portion of the book built slowly. I like the way it was incorporated, and I found the climax and a scene in the falling action a bit spooky. The trauma of Mississippi’s not too long ago past (and present) should haunt us all.
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Hard to read, but all the more important that you do. Slow to start, but left me breathless at the end.