kgimm29 's review for:

12 years a slave: Illustrated by Solomon Northup

3.0

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I mainly read this book because I want to see the movie, and I like reading the book version before I see the movie. Based on the title, it's obviously a depressing book. It started off really well when he was talking about how he ended up becoming a slave. The middle part of the book felt really sluggish. I found the best parts of the book to be when he described the various plans he made to escape. Unfortunately too many times he spent talking about other slaves and mundane things like the proper way to pick cotton, etc. It picked back up again towards the end. Sometimes I would forget that this was a REAL person and I'd read parts of the book where slaves would be murdered and I'd catch myself and go, "Wow...that really did happen, that's no joke." Sad. Good read, but after you finish it you still feel kind of depressed. Such as, I think I need to go to Georgia and apologize to a black person even though I, nor any of my ancestors had anything to do with slavery in this country. I recommend it.