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A review by kendragaylelee
The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson
4.0
When I got the ARC for The House of Eve, I didn't even read the back cover. It was already getting a lot of buzz, and I knew I wanted to read it. Plus, I hate to spoil a good story for myself by knowing too much about the book before I event start. When I discovered it was historical fiction, though, I got a little shifty. I don't always go all in for historical fiction.
But The House of Eve is the kind of historical fiction that really sparks a fire in me to understand more about history from the perspective of marginalized populations. In short, The House of Eve made me curious about what else I don't know about Black history in the United States (there is a LOT, I am sure. So, I appreciate a book that will ignite my curiosity and give me a place to start inquiring and learning).
The main section of the book covers two young Black women's lives starting in 1948 and running through 1951. Ruby is poor and in high school in Philadelphia. Eleanor is slightly less poor and enrolled at Howard University in Washington, DC. Both see education as their way into the life they want. Both get derailed by boys they fall for--both seemingly unattainable for different reasons. But the outcomes for the two women are wildly different.
I spent the whole book wanting to go to bat for Ruby, wanting to help her find her a way out of simply scraping by and losing each scrap of joy that came her way. Sadeqa Johnson wrote a character I ached for, wanted better for, and believed in. And she wove a narrative about Ruby's journey that rendered a painful education about the realities of motherhood in the early 1950s that I hadn't even stopped to consider.
Read this one, for sure. It's compelling, informative, and just good storytelling.
Get it from Bookish: https://bookshop.org/a/4334/9781982197360
But The House of Eve is the kind of historical fiction that really sparks a fire in me to understand more about history from the perspective of marginalized populations. In short, The House of Eve made me curious about what else I don't know about Black history in the United States (there is a LOT, I am sure. So, I appreciate a book that will ignite my curiosity and give me a place to start inquiring and learning).
The main section of the book covers two young Black women's lives starting in 1948 and running through 1951. Ruby is poor and in high school in Philadelphia. Eleanor is slightly less poor and enrolled at Howard University in Washington, DC. Both see education as their way into the life they want. Both get derailed by boys they fall for--both seemingly unattainable for different reasons. But the outcomes for the two women are wildly different.
I spent the whole book wanting to go to bat for Ruby, wanting to help her find her a way out of simply scraping by and losing each scrap of joy that came her way. Sadeqa Johnson wrote a character I ached for, wanted better for, and believed in. And she wove a narrative about Ruby's journey that rendered a painful education about the realities of motherhood in the early 1950s that I hadn't even stopped to consider.
Read this one, for sure. It's compelling, informative, and just good storytelling.
Get it from Bookish: https://bookshop.org/a/4334/9781982197360