A review by skrrtvonnegut
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a very harrowing, tough read. There are scenes and interactions where your heart is in your throat, with some of the most palpable tension I've ever read. Jesmyn Ward masterfully manages to write a very concise story that encapsulates so many predetermined and long ongoing into the future circumstances in these characters lives. In a lot of ways the tension of the immediate, contained events against the overall backdrop the characters are forced to deal with is like her version of the afterlife, "That the history and sentiment that carved the place out of the wilderness would show me that time is a vast ocean, and that everything is happening at once," what is immediate and in front of them is made of so much pain and memory, as well as pain and horrors to come, all at once. She writes the real so starkly and the somewhat mystical so believably. A real great treat to read and appreciate, no matter how hard it was at times.