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A review by gabsalott13
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
3.0
Maybe I missed part of the buzz with this one? Like always, Jacqueline Woodson is a master storyteller who is able to craft a host of compelling narrators, and take readers from Brooklyn to Oberlin to Tulsa with grace and genuine insight for each setting.
However, throughout the various chapters, I sometimes found myself losing the central coming-of-age story. Too many times, I would finish one of the chapters, enjoy the rumination it allowed one of the older characters, and then ask myself: “where is present-day Melody in all this?” We end with her and her mother, but the concluding time jump felt a bit hasty, because we come to know so many of the narrators based primarily on their reflections of the past.
It is an interesting take on a family where everyone is knit together by a child, but functionally operating in their own separate worlds. To me, I just found this book missing one of Woodson’s greatest strengths as an author: her ability to craft a unique exploration of teenage interpersonal conflict through her protagonist. I feel like we understood more about Iris and Aubrey’s high school years, but were missing some sort of deeper introspection from Melody, who is supposedly the connective tissue between these characters.
And maybe I’m reading it wrong? Maybe this book is actually about Iris, and that’s okay? I’d love to discuss this more with others who had more favorable reviews, because right now, I am feeling quite a bit disjointed.
However, throughout the various chapters, I sometimes found myself losing the central coming-of-age story. Too many times, I would finish one of the chapters, enjoy the rumination it allowed one of the older characters, and then ask myself: “where is present-day Melody in all this?” We end with her and her mother, but the concluding time jump felt a bit hasty, because we come to know so many of the narrators based primarily on their reflections of the past.
It is an interesting take on a family where everyone is knit together by a child, but functionally operating in their own separate worlds. To me, I just found this book missing one of Woodson’s greatest strengths as an author: her ability to craft a unique exploration of teenage interpersonal conflict through her protagonist. I feel like we understood more about Iris and Aubrey’s high school years, but were missing some sort of deeper introspection from Melody, who is supposedly the connective tissue between these characters.
And maybe I’m reading it wrong? Maybe this book is actually about Iris, and that’s okay? I’d love to discuss this more with others who had more favorable reviews, because right now, I am feeling quite a bit disjointed.