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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
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:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-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
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
inspiring
slow-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
Loved that this historical fiction introduced me to a period in history I was not super familiar with.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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:
Yes
An in depth look at the life of an incredible woman, I really enjoyed this. Riley does a great job of showing the horrors of slavery without getting too into the gory details, which I appreciated. I did have a bit of trouble keeping Dorothy's kids straight as the book went on, but that didn't affect my enjoyment
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Incest, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Colonisation
challenging
emotional
hopeful
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:
No
Though this was long, this is probably one of the more entertaining and story gripped historical fiction I’ve read in a while. I loved Dolly’s story and her strength and perseverance throughout the whole time. And constantly refusing less just because she was black and because she is a woman. Really enjoyed this!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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:
Yes
An epic historical fiction novel based on the true story of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, covering nearly her entire life. Highly recommend, c especially the audio. Adjoa Andoh does a phenomenal job with the narration, especially considering how many characters there are in the book, of many different dialects.
The main character, and the real-life woman on whom this book was based, is fire. Though I wouldn't want people to use this book to propagate the strong Black woman trope, or the case of the "exceptional" Black woman, the main character's resilience, pursuit of her dreams, adamance to retain her sense of self/ethnics, and care for her family are inspiring. While historical fiction is not typically my genre of choice, and the book feels a bit long, because it is basically a fictionalized memoir, the story and language are beautiful. Vanessa Riley paints images of both the various Caribbean islands, and the attire in a way that makes me wish that this were a PBS TV series. It makes me wish even more that, instead of Bridgerton, there were a period series based on real stories like this one. Unfortunately that probably won't happen, at least not in the mainstream, because it is impossible (or laughably inaccurate, but now that I think of it, that has never stopped productions before) to tell a story like this one without talking about colonialism, slavery, and race in ways that should make everyone feel badly. I know embarrassingly little about the history of the Caribbean islands, and it was a reminder to me that my thinking is often very US-centric, in general, and in terms of race relations and diaspora.