ch3rith 's review for:

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

3.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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This is my first McBride. At times, I was heavily invested, but more often than not, the book felt like it dragged a bit, and that led to a lot of confusion and having to reread sections to try to piece things back together. The wide cast of characters didn't have to be as big as it was; some of them felt less important than others, and the people I wanted to actually learn more about (Son of Man, Nate, Paper) didn't get as much time spent on them as I'd like. It was solid enough that I'd read another McBride before entirely writing him off, but this book didn't rock my world or anything.