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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
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.
A MUST READ! Fantastic historical story, kept me engaged from cover to cover bouncing between the tale of a freed slave girl and a new English teacher working in an underprivileged town. LOVED it!
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
Read for a ward book club. 2.5 maybe 3 stars. It was hard to get into, then it picked up a little, and then it turned into a love story and I lost all respect for it.
The Book of Lost Friends is a heartfelt and captivating historical fiction novel with a gripping dual timeline account centered on a small town in Louisiana in post Civil War and the other almost in present day
Although it was slow at first Lisa made you feel like you were in louisiana in both storylines. I also loved both of the main characters as well
Completely recommend
Although it was slow at first Lisa made you feel like you were in louisiana in both storylines. I also loved both of the main characters as well
Completely recommend
This hasn’t happened in a long time but 5 pages in I realized I have read this book before. I’m guessing I would have rated it higher than 3⭐️ when. I read it but since the story line didn’t ring a bell while it’s been on my reading list I figure a 3 is fair. This feels like cheating because I read it years ago.
I understand what was being attempted here, but I don’t think this is the author who needed to tell this story. Aside from that, I was fairly bored through most of this book.