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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
I loved Before We Were Yours and simply devoured that book it was so good. This one took a good 150 pages before I was invested and wanted to read it late into the night. It's worth reading. I loved this quote "Just because we are not always happy with what's true doesn't mean we shouldn't know it. It's how we learn. It's how we do better in the future. Hopefully, anyway."
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
emotional
inspiring
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:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
My slightly lower score is in part due to my listening to this as an audiobook rather than physically reading it. I just found it hard to recall exactly where in the story we were especially in Hannie’s timeline. That said I did think the story itself was compelling. we follow Hannie, an enslaved woman searching for her family who was stolen from her, and Benny, an English teacher who strives to incorporate history into her teachings. Through alternating timelines we see history piece itself together. I did find it compelling though thought the romance was unnecessary and took away from the more important story. I also wish we had been giving more time with all of the characters to really get their backstories and understand why this story was important to them.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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
adventurous
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Excellent book, listened to the audiobook version via Libby offered by my public library.
Wingate explores the lives of enslaved people after "The Freedom" with this story that had alternating chapters.
There is Hannie's story, 12 years after The Freedom. There was a general panic at the end of the Civil War amongst white slave owners. Many took their slaves to Texas to "refuge" until the war was over. Texas was a wild place where slavery was acceptable and the state was so far removed from the rest of the country. (One reason why it was over two years before they were freed in Texas after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation). Hannie's family was split up and sold in this migration (by a shifty nephew who was only supposed to be transporting them). Hannie communicates tonusbher desire to find her lost family and also the challenges as a share cropper to her old owners.
Another "voice" were listings placed in the late 1800s in newspapers by formally enslaved persons looking for family member - actual "Lost Friends" advertisements.
There is also Bennie Silva, a young woman struggling with personal issues and as a new teacher in a divided community in 1987. She trues to reach her students by getting them interested in their Ancestry and has them writing research papers on an ancestor. This project is not appreciated by the white ruling class in town.
These three separate POVs teach you a great deal about the time period after The Freedom while fractured families try to find each other. You also see the injustices of small southern communities that want to bury the past and keep poorer citizens in their place.
I really enjoyed this story in spite of some uneven character development and the last minute awkward and incomplete unveiling of Bennie's big secret at the end of the book.
Wingate explores the lives of enslaved people after "The Freedom" with this story that had alternating chapters.
There is Hannie's story, 12 years after The Freedom. There was a general panic at the end of the Civil War amongst white slave owners. Many took their slaves to Texas to "refuge" until the war was over. Texas was a wild place where slavery was acceptable and the state was so far removed from the rest of the country. (One reason why it was over two years before they were freed in Texas after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation). Hannie's family was split up and sold in this migration (by a shifty nephew who was only supposed to be transporting them). Hannie communicates tonusbher desire to find her lost family and also the challenges as a share cropper to her old owners.
Another "voice" were listings placed in the late 1800s in newspapers by formally enslaved persons looking for family member - actual "Lost Friends" advertisements.
There is also Bennie Silva, a young woman struggling with personal issues and as a new teacher in a divided community in 1987. She trues to reach her students by getting them interested in their Ancestry and has them writing research papers on an ancestor. This project is not appreciated by the white ruling class in town.
These three separate POVs teach you a great deal about the time period after The Freedom while fractured families try to find each other. You also see the injustices of small southern communities that want to bury the past and keep poorer citizens in their place.
I really enjoyed this story in spite of some uneven character development and the last minute awkward and incomplete unveiling of Bennie's big secret at the end of the book.
Another fascinating aspect of American history that was completely unknown (untaught?) to me. Dual timelines are used to contrast a current-era English teacher trying to reach students in a “throw-away” school with three women from the plantation that anchors the area and their post-Civil War ordeal.
Wingate does a marvelous job, once again, of creating characters to care for, in believable settings that are not overwrought with extraneous detail.
Well researched.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC
Wingate does a marvelous job, once again, of creating characters to care for, in believable settings that are not overwrought with extraneous detail.
Well researched.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC
The author can write. However, I just couldn’t get past how half of this is a white savior story and half of this is about a girl who was enslaved until emancipation going off to risk her life for the family who owned her.
This is the second Lisa Wingate book I’ve ever read, and enjoyed this as much as I did Before We Were Yours. While fiction, it is based on the fallout of African American families during the slave trade era - mixed family lines, broken up families, premature deaths. The Book of Lost Friends is based on a true literary release following the Civil War whereby people could put out search ads for lost family members. As heart wrenching as this was, Lisa did a great job straddling 1877 and the 1980’s, flipping between the two separate but connected storylines. Consumed this is just a few days, very plot driven and educational.