A review by lmayfieldx
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

“it was a future they couldn’t quite see, where the richness of all they had brought to the great land of promise would one day be zapped into nothing, the glorious tapestry of their history boiled down to a series of ten second tv commercials, empty holidays, and sports games filled with the patriotic fluff of red, white, and blue, the celebrants cheering the accompanying dazzle without any idea of the horrible struggles and proud pasts of their forebears who had made their lives so easy”

tw: racism, bigotry, child abuse, sa, death, past trauma

🤎 sense of community
🤎 deaf representation
🤎 disabled representation
🤎 found family
🤎 small town
🤎 mystery
🤎 past & current trauma

chicken hill is a town made up of many different people. clear barriers divide the people of chicken town. in 1972, a body is found under a well in pottstown, pennsylvania. nobody knows who it is or what happened to them. as we continue to learn about the groups of people in chicken town, we learn the true story of what happened. 

—

this book started off kinda slow & honestly even at 40% in the book, i never would’ve guessed that this book was going to be a 5 star. i started this book weeks ago and finished the last 60%, yes you read that correctly SIXTY PERCENT, in one night 

the beginning of the book is a bit slow. it focuses mostly on getting to know all of the characters (there are a lot) & developing their individual stories, which all intertwine in some way 

later in the story, it makes sense why the first part is so heavily character focused. their stories start to blend & you see the bigger picture begin to unfold, so i’m very grateful that the book was written this way 

dodo, nate, and chona are my favorite characters. dodo never saw being deaf as a disadvantage & continued living his life like normal. nate was extremely misunderstood.  regardless of the different treatment that he received, he continued to stand up for what was right & care for people. chona was a force to be reckoned with. although she was disabled, she exhibited incredible strength, kindness, and selflessness 

i enjoyed this book so much. i definitely plan to check out some of james mcbride’s other books
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