A review by ej_pitts
If You Come Softly: Twentieth Anniversary Edition by Jacqueline Woodson

1.0

Nope, this book was so randomly written. Ellie being Jewish has nothing to do with the story whatsoever. It’s just kind of a a random fact about the character. There wasn’t anything about religion in the book. Originally when I read what the book was about I was thinking well this is going to be about an interracial relationship and the characters have two different faiths. They’ll work through that to find their perfect but nope religion was never really mentioned except at the end when Ellie’s mom mentioned Hanukkah and Yom Kippur. The ending was what really got me. She randomly killed Miah off and during the later part of chapter you don’t even know he is dead. It sounds like it but it’s left up in the air. You kind of sit there shocked that just happened. It’s like the author said well, I want this book to be a little bit longer so I’m going to write a few more chapters. We never even got to see how Ellie’s family was going to react to her dating a black boy. There was so much build up about her family’s potential reaction just to in the end kill off Miah. It had so much potential and but it didn’t follow through. Lastly i don’t think anyone in New York 20 years ago would care about an interracial relationship. If the author wanted it to be taboo she should’ve made it in a different time period like 50 years ago or instead just had them in the south. Lastly, to show credibility: I have been in interracial relationships and no one every gives me or my significant other any looks or judgement. Honestly, I don’t recommend this book. 1 star is being generous.