A review by gabsalott13
Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.75

Fantastic, I would definitely recommend especially in our current times. My brain is too scattered for a clear review, but here are some notes:

  1. Shows really well how the issue is more than individual people doing the right/wrong thing…every choice Civil makes is a challenge because of the structure/funding/pre-set outcomes of her workplace 
  2. Concern about who is responsible is driving these people crazy—when does the systemic violence align with their own complicitness as the hands and feet of the state? and which government interventions you can ultimately trust as “good.” 
  3. Also thought this was a really clean look at a certain segment of Montgomery (Centennial Hill)
  4. This is so hard—the layers of distrust. Williams of Civil. Civil and her neighbors of Lou Feldman. Lou Feldman of Mrs. Seager, and so on and so forth.
  5. Talking also about the layers of coercion…of the families and of the young Nurse’s by their superiors/govt departments. This leaves the latter group to be “in their lives making decisions that weren’t mine too make.”
  6. Most useful part of this: “I had never known that good intentions could be just as destructive as bad ones.” (254) so many people are so stuck in their guilt over being a “bad person” they can’t see that “good people” also do lots of harm. 
  7. This book is also about the pain of magnifying glasses: what we can ignore in our family systems, industry/workplace/sector systems, and who that causes pain for. Also, the secondhand shame and pain of that exposure for people who were just going along to get along, often with many good intentions. 
  8. only giving this under 5 stars because the ending fell a bit flat: peace isn’t made in a series of conversations; words are usually never enough to fully rid the experiences of guilt. This isn’t just a powerful story to share with your daughter as “her legacy”, it’s an unresolved issue in our world IDK. 
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