A review by toastkid
The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

hmm i have mixed feelings about this book. the prose is very nice to read, the descriptions of sound are so vivid, and overall it is a sweet, mostly feel-good story. but i feel like some liberties were taken and some tropes were relied upon a bit too heavily. like the idea of a town that ignored jim crow laws feels like the author wanted to avoid having to actually deal with racism in her story, but at the same time many of the black characters fall into the Magical Negro trope and Trinidad even teeters on the Mammy trope as well. i'm not entirely sure if the dialect stuff was accurate either. the author's descriptions of fetuses and abortion feel.... off, and i'm not sure whether her prose wrt that is being used to illustrate the perspective of the characters or to express her own views. overall a bit uncomfortable in this department.

i also feel like some allusions were a little heavy-handed or over-explained, as if the author was afraid we wouldn't get it. it worked okay with the style but i think it would have been better for the allusions to be left for the readers to pick up.

i did find the overall story very charming and easy to immerse myself in, and the writing was well-paced and had just the right amount of foreshadowing to allow me to piece together the story without feeling either impatient or spoon-fed. ultimately it was a surprisingly quick and enjoyable read but not without its problems.