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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
emotional
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Grief, Murder
challenging
dark
emotional
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:
Complicated
Beautifully tragic writing of an extremely difficult story. An essential read in understanding the agonising history of ‘the darker brother*’ in the USA.
*from I, too, sing America. by Langston Hughes
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I love Jesmyn Ward's writing. The way she tells stories has you feel the salt in the wound, the visceral fear that hits when the water keeps rising, the sense of hopelessness in that life that no one cares about. Let Us Descend takes us into the life of a mulatto slave who refuses to accept her circumstances in a way that is new to me. Ward uses a magical being to show the interplay Anise, our protagonist, has with herself to remember a generational past that spurs her to carry on.
It was a hard story for me to read as I struggled to relate to Anise's terrible sorrow and struggle. There was a sense of bone-deep agony in the story that I didn't understand until I read Ward's acknowledgments. Ward speaks of a great personal loss in the acknowledgments, which helped me understand the underlying desolation woven through the book. I wish I had read the acknowledgments first. I would have had more empathy for Anise and Ward.
It was a hard story for me to read as I struggled to relate to Anise's terrible sorrow and struggle. There was a sense of bone-deep agony in the story that I didn't understand until I read Ward's acknowledgments. Ward speaks of a great personal loss in the acknowledgments, which helped me understand the underlying desolation woven through the book. I wish I had read the acknowledgments first. I would have had more empathy for Anise and Ward.
The brutality and stark cruelty in this novel make it difficult to read. It is beautifully written. Although I usually dislike magical realism, I thought it worked here because of Annis’s state of mind. It would be entirely likely for her to hallucinate given her circumstances. The conclusion was an enormous relief. I would be interested to read of Annis’s life after the ending this book.
Set in the pre-Civil War South, this novel follows a young woman, Annis, who is a slave on a Carolina rice plantation where the master is her biological father. She and her mother share a close bond. It is heart wrenching to read of Annis’s sorrow when her mother is sold. Then Annis herself is exchanged to traders for money and chained with others like herself, some of whom will not live to see their destination. They walk the grueling one thousand miles through forests, across streams and rivers to New Orleans, where she is purchased by a woman to labor on a Louisiana sugar cane plantation. Hunger is rampant among the field workers and treatment of the slaves is even worse than Annis was previously accustomed to. In a twist of magical realism, the ghost of her grandmother is present to Annis when called upon and gives her some comfort.
Set in the pre-Civil War South, this novel follows a young woman, Annis, who is a slave on a Carolina rice plantation where the master is her biological father. She and her mother share a close bond. It is heart wrenching to read of Annis’s sorrow when her mother is sold. Then Annis herself is exchanged to traders for money and chained with others like herself, some of whom will not live to see their destination. They walk the grueling one thousand miles through forests, across streams and rivers to New Orleans, where she is purchased by a woman to labor on a Louisiana sugar cane plantation. Hunger is rampant among the field workers and treatment of the slaves is even worse than Annis was previously accustomed to. In a twist of magical realism, the ghost of her grandmother is present to Annis when called upon and gives her some comfort.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Almost DNF- too much of story was distracted from/ dominated by the spirit, thought those parts didn’t make alot of sense.