ashleebmoss's review against another edition
3.0
This is my second book my Jesmyn Ward.
This one is a memoir of her own life in Mississippi. Jesmyn lost five men in her life over the course of a short period of time to various causes. The most heartbreaking for me was the death of her brother Josh who died in a car crash. It was not a happy book obviously but it was a decent read overall.
This one is a memoir of her own life in Mississippi. Jesmyn lost five men in her life over the course of a short period of time to various causes. The most heartbreaking for me was the death of her brother Josh who died in a car crash. It was not a happy book obviously but it was a decent read overall.
katieproctorbooks's review against another edition
5.0
This memoir was so good. The writing is beautiful and lyrical and full of emotion and sense of place. Jesmyn Ward tells of a childhood in Mississippi and the deaths of five young men in short succession after she leaves home, one of them her brother. It’s haunting but also very, very good.
kimmeyer's review against another edition
4.0
Ward is a beautiful writer. This book is strong when she's talking about her immediate family, but to me this book struggled when she wrote about the deaths of the four men other than her brother. Those sections feel unmoored, like they don't have enough detail to give you a strong sense of them as people. I've read other accounts of the struggles of being young and black in the south, but this particular memoir fails to contextualize those lives and deaths in a way that convincingly connects the individual to the societal. I mostly really liked the book as a whole, however, because the majority of it is actually about her mother and her siblings and her own experiences.
jwelchreads's review against another edition
emotional
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Heartbreakingly beautiful. The way she memorialized these men & her life growing up in small town Mississippi had me feeling every emotion. I could not stop crying. But I needed to keep reading to honor everyone involved.
watermelleon's review against another edition
I read 50 pages of this back in 2018.. I think it may be best to retire this from the list and start it again someday 😂 I liked the little bit that I read though!
notesonbookmarks's review against another edition
4.0
I really loved this. But the timeline, from back to front and front to back, meeting in the middle, left me floundering a bit. Powerful and moving and SO well written.
meeshreads's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
This book is about grief, it's beautifully written, and unflinchingly heartfelt. I am glad I finally picked this one up.
jordansuth0115's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0