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vivalibrarian 's review for:
Queen Sugar
by Natalie Baszile
Charley, widowed with a young daughter, is out of options when he learns that her father left her a sugarcane farm in southern Louisiana. Picking up their affluent roots in California, Charley and Micah move in with the family matriarch and bully extraordinaire, Miss Honey. When she arrives she finds the farm a total mess, the crops almost dead and not a spec of knowledge or money to fix the problems.
This is one of those books that I've picked up and put down since before it was published. I moved the ARC and everything but I never could commit. After the show came out and the reaction was positive, I decided to give it a chance. I'm glad I did because I found the sugarcane story line pretty interesting. The part I struggled with was the main character, Charley. She just didn't seem to be worthy of the people that bailed her out time and again. I wanted a strong or getting to strong woman who was at least honest with herself and her family. I'm not sure if it is a southern thing that I just don't understand but there were things she did or reacted to that completely stunned me. While she is contemplating her wedding ring and what it can afford her on the farm, her daughter tosses it out the car window. What the hell? Instead of reacting in a normal way and holding her accountable for her actions by at least looking for the ring...she looks for it herself for about 30 seconds and then drives off. I thought it might be revisited when she was on the edge of losing the farm for the third time but it didn't. There were ridiculous things like this scattered throughout the book. She is flighty, not really smart, stubborn and only decides to stick up for herself when it is just a spoiled brat move. She let all the men rescue her and her grandmother and daughter bully her. I also couldn't tell if the religious overtones were welcome or seen with disdain.
Other than the sugarcane, nothing really stuck. There were lots of tough topics that were glanced over, plot lines that went nowhere and while it is clear that it takes a village to survive the caning season-I didn't get a good feel for that at all. It was all shallow references. One character, Ralph Angel, as much as I didn't like him, was authentic.
Sidenote: I've not watched the show but it appears to be widely different from the book. Multiple characters that don't exist in the book are main characters and Micah, Charley's daughter, is a boy.
This is one of those books that I've picked up and put down since before it was published. I moved the ARC and everything but I never could commit. After the show came out and the reaction was positive, I decided to give it a chance. I'm glad I did because I found the sugarcane story line pretty interesting. The part I struggled with was the main character, Charley. She just didn't seem to be worthy of the people that bailed her out time and again. I wanted a strong or getting to strong woman who was at least honest with herself and her family. I'm not sure if it is a southern thing that I just don't understand but there were things she did or reacted to that completely stunned me. While she is contemplating her wedding ring and what it can afford her on the farm, her daughter tosses it out the car window. What the hell? Instead of reacting in a normal way and holding her accountable for her actions by at least looking for the ring...she looks for it herself for about 30 seconds and then drives off. I thought it might be revisited when she was on the edge of losing the farm for the third time but it didn't. There were ridiculous things like this scattered throughout the book. She is flighty, not really smart, stubborn and only decides to stick up for herself when it is just a spoiled brat move. She let all the men rescue her and her grandmother and daughter bully her. I also couldn't tell if the religious overtones were welcome or seen with disdain.
Other than the sugarcane, nothing really stuck. There were lots of tough topics that were glanced over, plot lines that went nowhere and while it is clear that it takes a village to survive the caning season-I didn't get a good feel for that at all. It was all shallow references. One character, Ralph Angel, as much as I didn't like him, was authentic.
Sidenote: I've not watched the show but it appears to be widely different from the book. Multiple characters that don't exist in the book are main characters and Micah, Charley's daughter, is a boy.