Reviews with content warning for Murder - Sing, Unburied, Sing

The experience of reading this book is hard to describe, a beautifully written story, harsh and gentle at once, and one that is hard to extract yourself from once you’ve entered from the very beginning and beyond the end. The tension is coiled very tightly and tightens; tension between characters, between times and history, in the physical world and it’s natural and supernatural elements this story occupies.

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sorcha's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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rubybooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Sing, Unburied, Sing is a novel mainly focusing on one family in the American South. One of the points of view is from Jojo, a boy who lives with his grandparents and younger sister in Mississippi. We also hear from Jojo's mother, Leonie, who is not always present. She struggles to be a mother, especially as she sees visions of her dead brother from drug use. When Jojo and Kayla's white father, Michael, is released from prison, they travel with their mother to go and get him. There is so much more to the story, and at heart, it is a deep character study of the members of this family.

I found this book while browsing the available audiobooks from my library. I'd definitely recommend listening to it - there are multiple narrators that fit the flow of the story really well, and the narration really brought the writing to life. It is written in a very emotional way and it really made the characters stand out - I loved hearing the characters' inner thoughts. I especially felt like we got to know Jojo very well through the course of this book, and I loved seeing his relationship with his sister. I felt so much sympathy for him and I really just wanted him to be happy!

I was also surprised by the Southern Gothic element, but I enjoyed it and it fit well in the story overall. The way it was done did confuse me quite a bit at the beginning and I felt a little lost, but that got better the further I got in. I wish there was just a bit more of something - maybe plot? I'm not really sure, I think I need to think about my feelings a bit more. I also didn't quite connect to most of the characters (except Jojo) so that did make it harder to be fully invested, but I still did want to learn more about their backstories. Some of the scenes were very hard to read and made me uncomfortable, which did fit the story well, it just personally made it harder for me to fall in love with the book.

This is definitely a heavy read - I'd give content warnings for descriptions of racism, murder, prison, child neglect, drug use, death, cancer, animal death, violence and rape. My favourite books are ones when I am so invested in the characters, and so I didn't quite love this book, but I did really enjoy it and I would recommend it if you keep the heavy content in mind. I might come back to this review at some point because I'm having a hard time sorting out my thoughts. 3.5/5 stars

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aappel2491's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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sionnac's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Writing so beautiful made my bones ache. Narrated by Kelvin Harrison Jr., Chris Chalk, and Rutina Wesley, all brilliant. The horror of the ghosts' stories is balanced by the courage of the living.

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