A review by hilaryreadsbooks
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

4.0

I loved how THE SENTENCE explores sentences in all their forms, hauntings in all their forms. Tookie, a bookseller at a Minneapolis indie bookstore, finds herself haunted by the ghost of Flora, a former bookstore customer and Native “wannabe.” As Tookie begins to uncover the reasons for the dead’s discontent, she also begins to unveil another layer of hurt and grief from years of being incarcerated, mirrored by the reckoning happening in the streets of Minneapolis.

A sentence. When issued by a judge, it holds the power to imprison a woman behind bars, to change her life, to subject her to the brutality of police, guards, the system. When chanted by crowds of people all over the world protesting police violence against Black and brown bodies, it holds the power to change minds, legislation, and fates. When printed on the page, its power can come from the truth it reveals: sometimes ugly and with the ability to kill.

What does it mean to be haunted? Not all hauntings end happy. And sometimes we do what we need to do to move on, to choose our own sentence: to not be sentenced, but to pull apart what a sentence can be. “Ghosts bring elegies and epitaphs, but also signs and wonders. What come next? I want to know, so I manage to drag the dictionary to my side. I need a word, a sentence. The door is open. Go.” 
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