A review by theviolettides
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by Saidiya Hartman

4.0

I cried a couple times reading this beautiful book. Hartman’s execution of conveying the historical narrative and these women’s lives is incredibly powerful. Specifically for me, as a black feminine bodied person, this book spoke to me, and made me think of my great grandmother, aunts and those beyond that have experienced the atrocities (or the effects) of those outlined in this book.

This book is not for the faint hearted. But if you want insight on black history, specifically on the condition of black women, not the kind lauded by mainstream African American historical sources, then this is the book for you.