Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Yellow Wife

I have nowhere to start. The novel's pages are soaked in heartbreak, determination, love, and heroism. I could go on and on about this novel.
Sadeqa Johnson's characterization for the role of each person is gracefully and carefully thought out. Her story will have you latching on to each moment Pheby's journey.
Our hero Pheby is unquestionably the strongest figure in the novel. The sacrifices she makes for everyone she meets, is due to her unconditional love for others. Strong language and Graphic sexual content alluded.

Content Warnings

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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kibbles15's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This is a hard book to read. It goes into great detail about what the female slave (Main character) has to deal with throughout her life. If you are not prepared to get immersed into the horrors of slavery, I would suggest not reading this book. If you can handle it, this book is eye opening and should be, in my opinion, be read at least once by every adult.

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bandysbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

As an avid reader of historical fiction, I'd heard of this book several times, but only just recently got around to reading it. I want to say that I'm glad to have finally read it, except that I don't know if glad is the right expression for this book. Yellow Wife is the story of a biracial woman who is sold off to the owner of an infamous slave prison. He is taken with her beauty and whit and essentially forces her to marry him. What follows is the story of her life.

This book is a masterwork in historical fiction. It is inspired by a true story, but is a fictionalized account. Johnson does such a phenomenal job of making her characters real and creating a story that will haunt readers well after they put the book down. Some of that is due to the horrific scenes she creates to instill in the reader the unflinching truth about the inhumanity of slavery and some of that is due to the main character, Pheby, who makes impossible choice after impossible choice.

One thing in particular that takes a lot of skill in writing about brutality like slavery is finding the balance between creating horrific scenes that show the experiences of the victims and not making it so brutal that your readers stop reading. While this story definitely has some extraordinarily difficult scenes and Johnson is very detailed in her writing, I did feel that the brutal scenes she wrote about had a specific purpose both within the story and in the larger picture of remembering the atrocity that was slavery. It was brutal, but not gratuitous.

And I found myself so relentlessly rooting for Pheby. Every time you wonder how she could ever possibly keep going, she finds ways to endure. She is such a tough, strong, and eventually selfless character who struggles with the morality of what she has to do daily to survive. In the bleakest parts of this book, I kept reading because I just had to know what happened to Pheby in the end.

All in all, this is a well-written historical fiction about some of the unknown bits of slavery. It's about how women specifically were victimized and the ways that they overcame and continued to survive. I would definitely recommend reading the trigger warnings on this book before reading, but I unequivocally would recommend reading this too.

Trigger Warnings: Rape, Sexual Assault, Forced Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Torture, Whipping, Mutilation, Starvation, Sexual Slavery, Sex Trafficking, Severe Injury, Illness, Death, Infanticide, Slavery, Public Humiliation

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haley49's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was such a poignant account of slavery in the 1850’s South and the horrible complexities of the trauma of slavery, no matter your position in the house. The comparison between enslaved people based on their duties and the interpersonal relationships that suffered. I had such visceral reactions to everything that happened and I felt for every single character (besides the enslavers) that it couldn’t be less than 5 stars. The only disappointment was the realization that this wasn’t a inspirational book where things instantly improved after slavery. I so wanted them too but that isn’t how it happened I guess.

I would recommend this story to anyone looking for a first hand fictional account of a complex part of history. However, check trigger warnings and make sure you are mentally well enough for the heavy themes.

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