Reviews with content warning for Murder - River Sing Me Home

I will never again see the Caribbean islands through rose colored glasses. These are stories that need to be told. These are stories that need to be heard. *As a side note, the audio narration of this story was fantastic!*

I can’t bring myself to say anything else about this book, because I fear I will not be able to do it justice. You’ll just have to read it and see what I mean. It made my heart simultaneously ache and soar!

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jcstokes95's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This accessible historical fiction invites us to follow Rachel, a mother separated from her children by the brutal practices of slavery in the West Indies, as she searches far and wide to put her family back together. I found this to be a good primer on the culture of the time and the sense of dislocation many enslaved or formerly enslaved people might feel in a foreign land. Rachel struggles throughout to find a sense of self after violence has beaten down her spirit and her personality. Her journey across Barbados, Trinidad and British Guinea help her find her self again, as well as allies who can connect her to both her family and her purpose.

I think this book does an incredible job of dropping readers into a perspective that is unimaginable to us. While many books about slavery feel like they are told from above, it feels like we are more inside Rachel’s head. And we are forced to contend with how it might feel to lack control, not just of your own life, but over your family’s destiny. Being so inside her ratchets up an already horrifying situation.

I found the writing style easy to get into, but not necessarily as engrossing as I hoped for. I also found there to be lots of characters throughout that I could’ve spent way more time with, but I also know that’s the nature of a book about a journey. The downside is that you don’t always feel as hooked into these side characters who likely also have fascinating lives. Overall though, I am glad I’ve read this, as I do not read much written about the Caribbean, so am happy to know more perspectives of its history.

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kimveach's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I wanted to like this book so much more than I actually did. It should have been a powerful tale of love, hope, loss, and joy. Yet, I didn't feel most of these things while reading it. If anything, I kept feeling that the emotions were told from a great distance.

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amyvl93's review against another edition

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informative sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Sometimes when a historical fiction novel doesn't quite hit as much as I wanted it to, I wish the author had written a non-fiction piece instead - and that is the case with River Sing Me Home. The novel follows Rachel who flees the plantation she has been enslaved on after the Emancipation Act to try and find her five children who have all been taken from her. This journey takes her across Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and exposes her to the different lives that black people are attempting to find in this new context.

Shearer's close focus into the time of the 1834 Emancipation Act was very interesting to me - I didn't know about how many plantation owners, and other white business owners, essentially kept their slaves in place using loopholes which meant they could still be considered 'runaways'. Whilst I knew bits about the slave rebellions, much of the detail that was shared in this novel was new to me, and I also appreciated how Shearer also touched on the experience of those who were indigenous to the islands - who were there before colonisers arrived.

What didn't quite work as well for me was the characterisation of Rachel and others in the novel. Despite the often moving and heart-breaking content of this novel, I felt very distanced from Rachel and I felt that we were told rather than shown her emotions. She also didn't always incredibly rooted. The writing that I found the most moving was where we had characters telling their own stories, rooted in the first person, and perhaps there was a missed opportunity to truly tell Rachel's story. I also wasn't sure how I felt about a slightly unprobable romance that was thrown into the story as well.

River Sing Me Home highlights an important period of history, but wasn't a total hit for me.

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olive_ia's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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moriahleigh's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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wolfgvng's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

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