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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
intriguing story
heartfelt emotions laid out methodically
marie's story,
she talks emotionally
behaves calculatingly
i think loving is the aftertaste i carry as i finished the book
a lover
a protective mother
i have a soft spot (used to be a blind spot) for a time in history when brave men faced seemingly impossible outcomes against odds out of their control
thomas sankara a brave man and hero of the people
my hero too
heartfelt emotions laid out methodically
marie's story,
she talks emotionally
behaves calculatingly
i think loving is the aftertaste i carry as i finished the book
a lover
a protective mother
i have a soft spot (used to be a blind spot) for a time in history when brave men faced seemingly impossible outcomes against odds out of their control
thomas sankara a brave man and hero of the people
my hero too
3.5 stars - 4 for the first half, then 3 for the 2nd. The narrative had many jumps in time and partial revelations which interfered with the narrative.
All in all - a good story.
All in all - a good story.
I did enjoy this book, liked the way it was written, and found it to be a fun read, but I had been led to believe it was inspired by a true story, which it is not (I looked up the backstory once I finished), so that was disappointing. One of the main characters is a real life figure--and an intriguing one at that--but that's where the true life portion of the book ends.
People are being pretty hard on this book, but I liked it a lot.
Gripping, impossible to put down, and weaves real
life into fiction to make us better people. This book mothers us the way the character in the book mothers her sons.
life into fiction to make us better people. This book mothers us the way the character in the book mothers her sons.
took me awhile to read. i liked the different spy story approach and the opening few pages start the story going. but i found myself not that engaged with the personal story wilkinson was telling.
not to say that it was bad. i think telling a spy origin story from the prospective of a journal to your sons is quite interesting. it just did not interest me that much.
wish i liked this more than i did.
not to say that it was bad. i think telling a spy origin story from the prospective of a journal to your sons is quite interesting. it just did not interest me that much.
wish i liked this more than i did.
I picked this up because I thought the concept was cool - A Black woman spy in the 1980's, I wonder what that was like. The main character's story is one of gendered racism in a government bureaucracy with the a dictatorship in Burkina Faso in the background. It was the last chapter SPOILER WARNING, which I read as a love letter to her sons (and Black American boys in general), that is the most beautiful and summarizes the major themes in the book, that I found the most powerful
This started strong and is a great concept, but is a disappointing second half. I tore through the first part, intrigued by a woman of color making her way in a world dominated by white men. But the second half took forever because it made no sense from the character's perspective. Here is a character who could be strong and kick ass, but for no discernable reason throws away everything for a man. It's infuriating and I kept taking a break from reading because it made me so mad.