Reviews

This book was phenomenal. Not in any shocking, flashy, or thrilling ways. But in the best ways: filled with flawed and human characters, touching and hard hitting dialogue, and writing that was such a treat for my heart.

kyra_c_c's review against another edition

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3.0

I loved the character driven narrative and both the events and the characters felt very real and meticulously painted, cleanly and clearly. The 3 stars is because I kept losing interest between the bit after Roy gets out of prison and when he went back to Atlanta. I'm not sure why, but it was a struggle to get through that bit. The first half and the ending were great though. I enjoyed the portion of the book which was in letter form a lot.

laura_corsi's review against another edition

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5.0

First 5 Star Book of the year! The characters were real and stupendous. The arc of the storyline was beautiful and perfect. I can’t say enough! Just read it. Better yet, listen to it on audio book. The narration was flawless. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

plumjam's review against another edition

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4.0

I give this book points just for the title and how significant it is considering the story. Roy and Celestial are two Black Americans, recently married and doing well for themselves. That is until Roy is wrongfully convicted for the rape of a white woman. Even someone like Roy, who did everything in his power to make something honorable of himself and succeed despite his disadvantages, lost everything unfairly. The book goes through the perspectives of different friends and family along with Celestial and Roy and it really shows how the imprisonment of a single person significantly affects multiple people. The book also does a good job of demonstrating how our prison system is more likely to create criminals than it is to rehabilitate them. I liked what the book did with Celestial, how she struggled against the expectation to put her life on hold for a man in prison. How she, like Roy, worked hard to try not to fall on such a path and still did to no fault of her own. There were parts in the middle that meandered a bit but the climax was incredible. It was such a damning and memorable scene. This book might be a little slow for some, but I’d highly recommend it.

eleanorgking's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

micah_berg's review against another edition

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tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

laurenscholle's review against another edition

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3.0

god I wanted to like it, I liked roy for a while, but the characters are so infuriating (much like a straight American marriage ig). hated celestial. BUT tayari jones’ writing is wonderful

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