Reviews

Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill

d52s's review against another edition

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5.0

One of my all time favorite books. The gripping recount of the life of a young girl, abducted in Africa and brought to the states to become a slave.

ngreads's review against another edition

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4.0

4.5 stars.

Really well written and believable book, great story, and really brings to light a lot of the horrors that happened during the slave trade in that time period in a gritty and strong way. My only protest is that the end of the book (in fact, the last 'book' in the book) felt really rushed to me, like the author just kinda wanted to get it done with. That is what is keeping me from giving it 5/5. Aside from that, awesome book.

booksconnect's review against another edition

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5.0

I believe this is my all-time favorite book.....partly because it was historical fiction-I learned sooo much..about the slave trade and the history behind it..and much of it took place in Nova Scotia-again-I learned a part of our history that I knew somewhat-but now I understand and have a new destination for the summer-Shelburne and Birchtown..I knew the basics but this book put it all together for me and put a face to the story-made it real to me..read it, read it, read it!!!!!!!! You willl not want to pull yourself away......this is what you want to discover when you read a book....at least it's the kind of book I am always hoping to find.....

sejpot's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring tense medium-paced

5.0

kalliste's review against another edition

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4.0

What an incredible read. This story is loosely based on facts about slavery in the 16th century and revolves around Aminata who is stolen from her village at the age of 11 and forced to travel months on foot to the ocean and taken over to America to work in an Indigo farm.

This reads like a biography, parts of it feel real and you want to save Aminata from the perils of her life. Although, she goes through many distressing situations she is strong and helps everyone around her and becomes an enigma of sorts, intriguing all the white folk around her (a smart black woman? never!).

I found this hard to get into initially, maybe because of the age of the character and the discussion of talk in her village but as I read more and more I wanted to know what happened to Aminata and how she had fared through her incredible journey.

Also, generally I don't like male authors writing female characters, they never seem to do it justice but Hill definitely made me forget about him and just focus on the character. Brilliant work.

This makes you think about slavery in our history and how people justify stealing people from their homes to be sold on. It is just an ugly trade and sad to know it still goes on, if not highly publicised.

lsparrow's review against another edition

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4.0

Definitely a book I would recommend - a wide range of historical facts, events, characters and issues around the slave trade told from the point of view of an amazing person who lived more than most in one life.

k_lenn's review against another edition

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5.0

Heart-breaking and impactful; I think this is a book that will stick with me for a while. Definitely pick it up if you have the chance.

billymac1962's review against another edition

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3.0

My expectations were set really high for this one. It sat proudly at the top of my to-read pile with an imposing 4.40 average across close to 1400 ratings.

Now, I'm not one of those dinks who look to read popular novels (see Da Vinci Code pinheads) just so they can turn their haughty noses up on them and knock down averages), but I'm afraid my rating will knock this average down just a notch. Not because I'm a pinhead, but because
The Book of Negroes lacks what I need in a novel.


Time and again, when I read these types of novels, I can't help but hold them up to the bars that were raised by Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, or Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. Particularly A Fine Balance. That novel tore my heart apart. Mistry had developed those characters so well, that with every turmoil or setback they came up against, I hurt with them, I rooted for them,I damn near cried for them.

The slave trade is one of the truly dark stains on our history. All of those wasted lives, and families torn apart forever. How could this story of a girl sold into slavery and sent halfway around the world be anything but tragic?
While I felt for everything she had gone through, and felt for her losses, the betrayals, I didn't feel a whole lot for her.
The Book of Negroes reads like an autobiography, but this is a novel. I need novels to be rich in character development to engage me enough to care not only what is going on with them, but to care about them as if I know them.
There are rare exceptions to my rule (Brian Lumley's Necroscope series for one, and hey, if you're the type of person who will read everything from Book of Negroes to Necroscope, well, you are a kindred spirit to yours truly. Anyways...), but, by and large, strong characters are IT for me, and I found Hill to be somewhat lacking in this skill. There are some authors out there (Stephen King is one, John Irving is another)
who can paint a vivid picture of a character with the subtlest of details or quirks in the space of one paragraph, that will stick with you through the entire story. I found through this story, Aminata relays these terrible things that are happening to her, and I felt like nothing more than a bystander, albeit feeling sadness that these types of things really happened, much in the way I felt it when I learned about this in history class. I also found his prose to be just a little too simple.

Anyways, I'm rambling here and more or less repeating myself. Bottom line: I liked the story. I had hit a point with about 100 pages to go where I was anxious to move on to something else, but I stuck with it and I'm glad I did.
Hill did touch me emotionally with the last few pages, so don't think that I didn't feel anything at all for Aminata. I just didn't feel it a whole lot through most of the story. There I go repeating myself again.

Okay. Good story. Thinly developed characters. Recommended for those interested in this point in history. And there were parts to the story where the plight of her people really hit me. Oh yeah, and I loved reading about what New York City was like in the late 1700s. Follow Broadway to the woods. That's rich.

mariepv's review against another edition

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

5.0

Un livre important qui devrait ĂȘtre lu par tout le monde.

spideygirl's review against another edition

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4.0

Really enjoyed this fictional woman's account of life as time goes by. It incorporates stories of the slave trade and slavery throughout the British empire but i didn't feel the story was only about slavery. Meena is an amazing protagonist.