Reviews

Augustown by Kei Miller

sophievigeant's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

smiling_sushi's review

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challenging emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

tishywishy's review against another edition

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4.0

I've finally gotten to read one of Kei Miller's works and I am not disappointed. I love his writing style and the storyline was fascinating. The characters were diverse and all brought so many perspectives. It's so wonderful to read about Rastafarianism in a fictional sphere and explore the culture of police abuse, gang violence and prejudice that affects people who live in areas deemed to be 'undesirable'. The one thing I didn't enjoy was the end, it was a cliffhanger and I wanted some parts of the story line to be tied up.

keltreads's review

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There are multiple things I appreciate about this book. The diversity of characters explored across age, race, and status, really provides this broader context of Augustown and Jamaica's history, and it was really cool to see how these different characters and what they potentially represent meshed together. Miller's writing is incredibly poetic in a way that's hard for me to describe. There's a layer of mysticism with taking flight that really illustrates this overarching theme of fighting against "Babylon", against any form of oppression. The ends of the first and third acts of the book,
when Bedford flew surrounded by song only to be pulled down by the police; and when Gina's dead body rose into the sky as the community sung together
are really strong examples of this. That being said, I personally wasn't super hooked. This could be because I read the novel sporadically over a few weeks, the novel switching perspective across several characters, or perhaps the novel's focus seemed too broad and not personal enough. However, I do believe Augustown is artfully written, and I would recommend reading it. 

eco23's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

evadorrough's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

suvata's review against another edition

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4.0

I think this is the first book that I have read set in Jamaica or about a Rastafarian community. So foreign to me and yet so fascinating, this was a very enticing story. The more I learn about new cultures, the more I realize we are all the same.

rebeccazh's review against another edition

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4.0

A book seemingly about the magical realism of a Jamaican small town but it's actually about narratives, perspectives, and ugly truths and realities caused by colonialism and racism. I enjoyed the clever play with narrative to tell this story and it was cool to piece together the different pieces of each chapter and perspective. Highly recommend to those who want to read something clever with narrative frames with themes of truth telling and racism.

mikeroderique's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

hannahcmwright's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0