shanaetheflyest's review against another edition
4.0
This was a fairly decent story. The plot was intricate and the characters were interesting. Overall, I can say Ernest Hill published a very well-written literary piece. I was fascinated by the story and finished it in 2 days. I don't read anything that fast! Though "Family Ties" is not a challenging novel, I am a big fan of authors who can write great stories and Hill did just that with this novel. I did not read the other story about D'Ray Reid (the protagonist in "Family Ties"), but I am interested in picking it up from my local library. "Family Ties" builds upon the story told in the first book, but is written so well that I did not have to read the first book first to understand the story or relate to these characters. I was reminded of Richard Wright's writing while reading "Family Ties" because so much of the book is dialogue and the protagonist seems like a character Wright would have written about. One quip: the story takes place in Louisiana and despite the heavy dialogue throughout the novel, Hill did not use any (or very very little) vernacular, which was upsetting. It took away from the scene and could have added a stylistic bonus to this fascinating tale. This is a great story and I recommend it to everyone.
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