A review by miss_vonnegut
Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

dark emotional hopeful tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

This was such a beautifully written book. I don't usually listen to fiction audiobooks, but I'm so glad I listened to this one. (Thank you to libro.fm and the publisher for the ARC!) I'm sure reading the physical book would have been great as well, but if you're looking for a good fictional audiobook, I would highly recommend this. I love that this novel is set in the 1800s (with some flashbacks to the 1600s) and deals explicitly with racism and sexism. I'm a white woman and it's entirely possible that I missed things but, to me, it read as intersectionally feminist, with women supporting each other and acknowledging the ways that racism and sexism intersect to affect black women differently. Very lite spoiler:
As a heads up, the main character (a white woman) is not fully aware of all the impacts of racism at the start of the book and she learns as it progresses.
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