pixley's review against another edition

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5.0

"Waywardness is a practice of possibility at a time when all roads, except the ones created by smashing out, are foreclosed. It obeys no rules and abides no authorities. It is unrepentant."

greeniezona's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

4.75

gulfof's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

gunnerct's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

5.0


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05hamiltonk's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful informative sad medium-paced

5.0

After wanting to read this book for years, I'm completely blown away. What an incredible piece of writing. This book is so extremely powerful. It uses research from historical archives to weave stories of real women and queer people after the abolition of slavery. It documents how black people continued to be subjugated long after slavery officially ended. It demonstrates how this was largely through over/corrupt policing, poverty and racial segregation, and how black individuals and communities were demonised. 

This was one of the most accessible historical books I've ever read and I could not put it down. It also managed to leave me feeling so much hope. Would 1000% recommend everyone to read it.

bamairi's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

slinkmalink's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

While this was an excellent history book, describing it only as a history book doesn't do it justice, I thought it was absolutely beautiful
It felt almost anonymous in the way that it sweeps through such different lives and ones that we don't hear about much and treats each of their dreams and lives as just one in thousands of both different and shared dreams, examples of individuals in a chorus, and yet also deeply personal in its treatment of all the women it looked at. 
I just thought it really brought to life in such a poetic way the people behind the limited (perspective wise and quantity wise) sources we have about black women after emancipation and I'm very glad I picked it up

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helenaruby's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

mickstrauther's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

** only loses a quarter of a point because there are places where she could have structured the delivery better and avoided repetition of certain ideas. But this isn’t even worth marking because the book is so important to me in every way. Certainly an Africana studies must-read, but also very interesting and worthwhile for anyone, especially those interested in history and underrepresented histories. 

just_a_black_boy's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.75