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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
I do love how Wingate writes her novels, basing them on true, historical facts and making them accessible, filled with emotions, and something you can't ignore. She forces us to look in our country's mirror, to see history as it is. She is a master at bringing humanity and honesty to history and facts, making her books important as well as entertaining. I loved the layout of this novel, with legitimate old ads from the Lost Friends newspaper columns.
I did like many of the characters in this novel, such as Benny and her students and Juneau Jane. They are interesting and believable.
Having said all of that, I was a little disappointed with this novel. I think I was expecting more because of how much I adored Before We Were Yours. I may have liked this one more if I read it first, but having known and loved BWWY, this one felt like a bit of a letdown.
The pacing was not great and there were large chunks I had to trudge through, struggling to stay connected. It felt really slow, with far too many unimportant details and scenes that added nothing to the book. I even found myself skimming some of Hannie's chapters, caring very little about what happened to the three of them.
I think the biggest problem is I wasn't connected to the story like I felt I should be for a Wingate novel. There were some good moments but on the whole, I felt like I was reading this for a school project. The writing, though good because Wingate is a terrific author, still felt disjointed, like Wingate wasn't quite done crafting it. It felt like this book needed another round of edits and a bit more heart.
There needed to be more emotion, more raw honesty in the storylines. And while I preferred Benny's sections, there wasn't enough tension. There were no stakes for her and very little/low goals.
Benny's backstory was built up to be this big reveal that might change the meaning or her motivations throughout the book but it ended up being a bit of a letdown. I actually thought we wouldn't even find out her secret she'd been alluding to. Then it was just a paragraph that felt tacked onto the ending.
Sadly, I wouldn't recommend this book. BUT I notice I am in the minority, which I am totally fine with. I WANT people to love this book and to read Wingate's novels. They feel far too important to ignore. But if you haven't read Before We Were Yours, choose that one instead.
I did like many of the characters in this novel, such as Benny and her students and Juneau Jane. They are interesting and believable.
Having said all of that, I was a little disappointed with this novel. I think I was expecting more because of how much I adored Before We Were Yours. I may have liked this one more if I read it first, but having known and loved BWWY, this one felt like a bit of a letdown.
The pacing was not great and there were large chunks I had to trudge through, struggling to stay connected. It felt really slow, with far too many unimportant details and scenes that added nothing to the book. I even found myself skimming some of Hannie's chapters, caring very little about what happened to the three of them.
I think the biggest problem is I wasn't connected to the story like I felt I should be for a Wingate novel. There were some good moments but on the whole, I felt like I was reading this for a school project. The writing, though good because Wingate is a terrific author, still felt disjointed, like Wingate wasn't quite done crafting it. It felt like this book needed another round of edits and a bit more heart.
There needed to be more emotion, more raw honesty in the storylines. And while I preferred Benny's sections, there wasn't enough tension. There were no stakes for her and very little/low goals.
Benny's backstory was built up to be this big reveal that might change the meaning or her motivations throughout the book but it ended up being a bit of a letdown. I actually thought we wouldn't even find out her secret she'd been alluding to. Then it was just a paragraph that felt tacked onto the ending.
Sadly, I wouldn't recommend this book. BUT I notice I am in the minority, which I am totally fine with. I WANT people to love this book and to read Wingate's novels. They feel far too important to ignore. But if you haven't read Before We Were Yours, choose that one instead.
This story takes place in 2 time periods 100 years apart. In 1987, Benny is a brand new teacher who has accepted a position in a rural community in Louisiana where the students are unmotivated, unengaged and struggling with multi-generational poverty and trauma. She has extremely limited resources. But finds a way to get her students interested in the history of their families and their town.
In 1887 Hannie is a young Black woman, recently freed from slavery. During the war, her, her mother, aunt and siblings were separated and sold across the country. Before they left, each person took 3 beads from her grandmothers necklace and wore them around their necks so they could know each other when they met up again. Hannie gets caught up when the 2 daughters (1/2 sisters) of her former owner get into an argument over their respective inheritances. The three young women (one white, one mixed race, one black) travel from Louisiana to Texas dressed as boys to try and resolve the girls’ dispute and for Hannie to confirm her sharecrop status. They get into lots of trouble along the way. While on their journey, they collect names of missing family members of those they encounter in hopes of reuniting them.
I enjoyed the story, even if it was far fetched at times.
In 1887 Hannie is a young Black woman, recently freed from slavery. During the war, her, her mother, aunt and siblings were separated and sold across the country. Before they left, each person took 3 beads from her grandmothers necklace and wore them around their necks so they could know each other when they met up again. Hannie gets caught up when the 2 daughters (1/2 sisters) of her former owner get into an argument over their respective inheritances. The three young women (one white, one mixed race, one black) travel from Louisiana to Texas dressed as boys to try and resolve the girls’ dispute and for Hannie to confirm her sharecrop status. They get into lots of trouble along the way. While on their journey, they collect names of missing family members of those they encounter in hopes of reuniting them.
I enjoyed the story, even if it was far fetched at times.
adventurous
emotional
informative
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
This was captivating from page one. I felt like I’d lost friends by the end.
Probably more like a 3 1/2 stars. This book took a loooong time to get going. And every character save Hannie was unlikable up until about halfway through. The dialect also took a lot of getting used to as well. The romance also seemed trite and forced. However, I'm not sorry I read it as I learned about the Lost Friends Exhibition which is an amazing archive that I will have to check out on my own time.
emotional
reflective
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
II had never occurred to me that after the Civil War, family members, especially slave families who were sold and separated from each other, would have a way to search for their lost brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers. Notices of those lost were printed in newspapers and read by preachers to their Sunday congregations. Sometimes this worked and family members were reunited. Hope can be life sustaining. This is such a heartbreaking, hopeful story of the importance of family.
Wavering between 2.5 - 3 stars...
Messy storytelling, underdeveloped characters, a white savior trope, and a weird reveal on the last page of the book all contribute to making this an unsatisfying read. There are interesting historical elements (the Lost Friends ads are powerful), but the overall effect is underwhelming and frustrating.
Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. Full review at Bookshelf Fantasies.
Messy storytelling, underdeveloped characters, a white savior trope, and a weird reveal on the last page of the book all contribute to making this an unsatisfying read. There are interesting historical elements (the Lost Friends ads are powerful), but the overall effect is underwhelming and frustrating.
Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. Full review at Bookshelf Fantasies.
I have thoughts about this book. It was interesting, well written, and the actual "lost friends" articles were highlights. The Henny storyline was good but maybe had a little too much "Huckleberry Finn" energy. The other storyline made me a little angry. I was interested but was this a little "White Savior" -y? Why was the teacher written as so empathetic to everything. Of course she understands exactly what everyone was going through because she had a difficult childhood, possible crimes in her family tree and a "dark secret" Many of the white characters were cartoonishly racist while the black characters seemed so eager to help her which I thought seemed like a weird dynamic. The author makes a point to say that the people in the town don't immediately like the teacher but then we have someone help fix her roof for free, help her with classroom presentations, tell her where to find the owner of the house etc. All these things could be just me being nit-picky but the thing that really felt off for me was how the book was framed. We start out with a heart-wrenching scene of a family being torn apart during slavery. The children being sold away from their mother. Then one of the final scenes we see is the teacher flashing back to a distressing scene of giving up her child for adoption. While this could have been handled as something that informed the teacher's decision making earlier on in the book, instead it was saved as a big reveal for the end which I thought tried to make some sort of equivalency with the earlier scene. That felt really tone deaf for me and borderline offensive. Giving up a child willingly for adoption has difficulties, but equating it with a child being torn from their parents and sent to homes where the children would for sure be mistreated felt cheap.
I’d rate this book around 3.5 stars. There are two storylines, one of Hannie in 1875, who had been a slave, and one of Benny, a teacher in Louisiana in 1987. This book started out very slow for me and it took me about a quarter of the way through to become more interested in it. That said, once the story picked up, I did enjoy it for the most part. I was very interested in the different Lost Friends articles as these were not something I was previously aware of. In my opinion, the story of Hannie was much more interesting than that of Benny, and I especially didn’t understand the need for the twist regarding Benny at the end of the book.