A review by thecamilleae
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by Saidiya Hartman

5.0

This book is powerful. The author's approach to writing in the voice of so many forgotten Black women touched me deeply. While some may know historical data points about the lives of Black people post-Reconstruction at the turn of the century, it is another thing to dig deep into the hearts and minds of Black women who sought freedom yet were still confined to the roles that society forced upon them as domestics or sexual objects for men. To learn about the women who attempted to carve a new path of independence and seek unconditional love in a seemingly loveless world was something I appreciated and valued about this book. This is not a book to rush through. You have to read a chapter or two and sit with what you read. It also is the kind of book that takes you down a deep Google search path, because if you're like me, you're curious to learn more details about the real life people you learn about in this book. For this who love Black women and want to deepen your appreciation for the survival skills they have in a crazy world like this, get this book.