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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
It's not badly written, and I'd never heard of the Lost Friends columns before this, so I'm glad I learned about them. The present-day story line featuring that White Savior/Mary Sue of a teacher is problematic, but it's also boring. Expecting me to buy that a bunch of teenagers jumped all over the chance to do an oral history project is...a stretch. I would rather have cut off my own flesh than do something like that when I was 15. Living in a small town does not automatically mean you know people you can ask about its history, and kids are not all comfortable approaching people, let alone all in possession of the maturity to recognize the importance of the past.
There are also plot points that either come from nowhere or go nowhere, and I can't understand why they were introduced. The past storyline is much stronger, though that also has its issues. If I hadn't been reading this for book club, I probably would have dropped it. There were some moments of genuine emotional intelligence, but there were also a lot of tone-deaf clunkers.
There are also plot points that either come from nowhere or go nowhere, and I can't understand why they were introduced. The past storyline is much stronger, though that also has its issues. If I hadn't been reading this for book club, I probably would have dropped it. There were some moments of genuine emotional intelligence, but there were also a lot of tone-deaf clunkers.
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I might have teared up a time or two during the story of Benny Silva, who arrives in Saint Augustine Parish, Louisiana, in 1987 to teach a challenging population of students.
Her story is interwoven with a story set post-Civil War focusing on Hannie, a freed slave who works as a sharecropper and never gives up hope of locating her missing mother. (Hannie's mom was sold by their former owner.) Hannie's attempts to locate her mother in Texas will eventually connect to Benny's research into the history of the area.
I loved how the timelines came together, but it shouldn't come as a surprise. Lisa Wingate is one of my favorite historical fiction authors.
Her story is interwoven with a story set post-Civil War focusing on Hannie, a freed slave who works as a sharecropper and never gives up hope of locating her missing mother. (Hannie's mom was sold by their former owner.) Hannie's attempts to locate her mother in Texas will eventually connect to Benny's research into the history of the area.
I loved how the timelines came together, but it shouldn't come as a surprise. Lisa Wingate is one of my favorite historical fiction authors.
Very good!! It did get a little confusing when going back and forth. The story is good.
I wasn’t aware of the “Lost Friends” - and I’m grateful that this book helped to bring awareness to this. I enjoyed the alternating perspectives - but something about the way the author told these stories just didn’t sit right with me. I also felt like major pieces of the story were missing. It seemed like whenever there was a major development, the chapter would end and the perspective would swap. When we picked back up with where we left off, the major development had been resolved. (Spoilers: ie, Sarge pacing the porch, Moses letting Hannie go - which we did find out about later, etc.)
4 1/2 stars
If the ending hadn't been rushed, this would have been a 5 star read. A fantastically plotted, character driven journey into the Reconstruction period and the attempts of formally enslaved people to reconcile with their families...all centered about the life of Hannie in the 1870s and Benny in the 1980s (BTW, I'm no fan of parallel timelines at this point in my reading life...it's been ton SO MUCH, TOO MUCH in the past many years...however, it really works in this book. Good job, Lisa Wingate in giving us a well-executed structure that strengthens the story).
We know that enslaved families were forcibly torn about and sold away from each other...and that enslaved women were often used/raped as breeding tools to produce more enslaved people for slave owners. What hasn't received enough attention is the resilience of the surviving enslaved peoples and their attempts to find their loved ones after the Emancipation Declaration became the law of the land throughout the entire US after the Civil War ended. I didn't know much about The Book of Lost Friends before reading this, and I'm grateful for learning more about how it functioned. Wingate made a wonderful choice of weaving real excerpts from TBOLF throughout her story.
Highly recommend this inspiring story!
If the ending hadn't been rushed, this would have been a 5 star read. A fantastically plotted, character driven journey into the Reconstruction period and the attempts of formally enslaved people to reconcile with their families...all centered about the life of Hannie in the 1870s and Benny in the 1980s (BTW, I'm no fan of parallel timelines at this point in my reading life...it's been ton SO MUCH, TOO MUCH in the past many years...however, it really works in this book. Good job, Lisa Wingate in giving us a well-executed structure that strengthens the story).
We know that enslaved families were forcibly torn about and sold away from each other...and that enslaved women were often used/raped as breeding tools to produce more enslaved people for slave owners. What hasn't received enough attention is the resilience of the surviving enslaved peoples and their attempts to find their loved ones after the Emancipation Declaration became the law of the land throughout the entire US after the Civil War ended. I didn't know much about The Book of Lost Friends before reading this, and I'm grateful for learning more about how it functioned. Wingate made a wonderful choice of weaving real excerpts from TBOLF throughout her story.
Highly recommend this inspiring story!
The best book I've read in a long time. I don't often cry over books, but I cried at the end of this one.