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rebecca__m's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.0
I am currently in the process of reading another book by authors I have given two stars. This book was an ideal candidate because it was short, had some likable characters, and had an intriguing plot.
After finishing the first "chapter" I was feeling pretty optimistic. I liked Ava and her family, and the plot was intriguing enough to make me want to keep reading. By the time I finished "chapter 2" I was still feeling optimistic, albeit a bit less. I didn't dislike Josephine or where her story was going, I just wasn't as intrigued as I had been with Ava's story. Also, I felt like Josephine could come off as a bit arrogant and rude. She kind of reminded me of the way Mary McLeod Bethune was portrayed in The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.
Things I liked:
+ I appreciated the three different timelines (Josephine's story was split into two timelines) were easy to keep track of.
+ The author did a good job depicting slavery and racism in a way that expressed the brutality of the two topics but was not overly gruesome.
+ I'm not sure if this was the author's intent, but there were definitely some sentences that I read that I interpreted as a subtle reminder that racism can go both ways.
+ I thought that the author did an amazing job wrapping everything up in the end.
Overall I enjoyed this book, but in the future, I think I will listen to this author on audio since there were some moments I found myself skiming. (I think that this book would translate really well to audio, if you are somebody who prefers audiobooks.)
After finishing the first "chapter" I was feeling pretty optimistic. I liked Ava and her family, and the plot was intriguing enough to make me want to keep reading. By the time I finished "chapter 2" I was still feeling optimistic, albeit a bit less. I didn't dislike Josephine or where her story was going, I just wasn't as intrigued as I had been with Ava's story. Also, I felt like Josephine could come off as a bit arrogant and rude. She kind of reminded me of the way Mary McLeod Bethune was portrayed in The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.
Things I liked:
+ I appreciated the three different timelines (Josephine's story was split into two timelines) were easy to keep track of.
+ The author did a good job depicting slavery and racism in a way that expressed the brutality of the two topics but was not overly gruesome.
+ I'm not sure if this was the author's intent, but there were definitely some sentences that I read that I interpreted as a subtle reminder that racism can go both ways.
+ I thought that the author did an amazing job wrapping everything up in the end.
Overall I enjoyed this book, but in the future, I think I will listen to this author on audio since there were some moments I found myself skiming. (I think that this book would translate really well to audio, if you are somebody who prefers audiobooks.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Slavery, and Dementia
Moderate: Cancer and Death
Minor: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Miscarriage, and Abandonment
smalika's review
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Dementia, and Murder
javafenn's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
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? No
3.5
It took me a few days to write a review because this book was very emotional and I needed to clarify my thoughts. The story is told from 3 different timelines involving 2 different women basically sewing together how the past affects the future generations. The realities of slavery and post slavery was tough but the horrors of slavery and all the racism that followed are real and tough. The story itself was amazing. I enjoyed the magical aspect of it and I really loved how strong Josephine and Ava truly were despite not exactly knowing it at first. Both had sons that were facing a scary world for Black men and both had passions for healing. At the end of the book Josephine suffers a horrific and graphic loss shortly after gaining a new grandchild. I needed a few minutes to continue on from that point because there wasn’t much left in the book. I was shattered when it happened. I almost felt it was unnecessary but things like that happened and I’m not one to say how racism against Black people should be displayed in a book written by a Black person. That combined with the fact that the story got a bit confusing around 2/3 of the way through is why this is 3.5 stars. It’s definitely a good book and the narrators are great but it is heavy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Dementia, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Alcohol and Classism
surefinewhatever_'s review
challenging
dark
emotional
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? No
5.0
A book hasn’t made me feel this way in a long time. I completely sobbed through the final few chapters. Wow wow wow, what a beautifully woven story. Excellent storytelling, and the sense of foreboding made this book impossible to put down. So so good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Dementia, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Miscarriage
znvisser's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It took me a while to get up to speed with the three different timelines and all the people in those, I would say I was already a third in by the time that happened. After that, I enjoyed most of the story, even though the characters were sometimes a bit grumpy and judgy towards others without it being properly shown why. And that obviously doesn't refer to Josephines wariness towards white people, but for example, it did apply to Ava towards her mother. This could have been interesting, were it properly explored, but unfortunately it wasn't. The ending tempered my positive feelings for the story that had actually started to grow: two of the stories came to a climax that seemed only included in order to shock the reader, since it wrapped up immediately and lacked any reflection on those events. And the third story extinguished by focusing on the wrong things. Therefore, I didn't feel the reader was given any closure for the story and its characters. So all in all, an ok read, but for me there were too many things off for it to be more than that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Slavery
Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Dementia, and Murder
Minor: Miscarriage