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amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Classism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Child death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Pregnancy
southernbellebooks's review against another edition
5.0
With everything going on in the world, especially in the United States, this book is remarkable. The book is laid out incredibly well. The book is in layman's terms and reads a lot more like a novel than a work of non-fiction. I can't recommend this book enough.
zelda_hime's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Rape, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, Racial slurs, and Kidnapping
lindacbugg's review against another edition
3.0
3.5
I grabbed this from the new book section of the library because of the subtitle & while I did enjoy it, I felt like the author had two separate stories to tell & attempted to shoehorn them into one book which didn't really work.
You had the murder in Asbury Park & the story of Ida B Wells--both of which on their own were interesting but didn't intersect. Every time the author began focusing in on one story it took away from the other narrative which weakened the overall story he was trying to tell. I wish his editor had pointed this out & told him to pick which story he wanted to tell now & then to write a second book on the other topic so as to not shortchange either topic in the long run.
I'd still recommend this book as I did enjoy it but not as much as I'd hoped.
I grabbed this from the new book section of the library because of the subtitle & while I did enjoy it, I felt like the author had two separate stories to tell & attempted to shoehorn them into one book which didn't really work.
You had the murder in Asbury Park & the story of Ida B Wells--both of which on their own were interesting but didn't intersect. Every time the author began focusing in on one story it took away from the other narrative which weakened the overall story he was trying to tell. I wish his editor had pointed this out & told him to pick which story he wanted to tell now & then to write a second book on the other topic so as to not shortchange either topic in the long run.
I'd still recommend this book as I did enjoy it but not as much as I'd hoped.
sushideception's review against another edition
3.0
The Rope’s style is vivid and dramatic—it’s rare that a historical nonfiction book can be called page-turner but Tresniowski’s description of events is consistently engaging. My real issue with the book is that it’s composed of two totally disparate halves.
Tresniowski tries to unite a child murder case with the life and work of Ida B. Wells-Barnett—he tries, and ultimately he fails. Because, here’s the thing, Wells had nothing to do with the case. There’s no evidence she even knew anything about it. And so all the pages we spend learning about her life feel kind of meaningless when in the end she doesn’t actually tie into the central story. Now, that’s not to say that Wells’ life and the founding of the NAACP aren’t interesting stories—they most certainly are—they just don’t really connect to the Marie Smith case that contains the book’s most thrilling moments, and so they wind up feeling like useless interjections or, worse, padding. Was there supposed to be a thematic connection drawn between these two halves? Probably. But there’s just no attempt at making one.
Additionally, Tresniowski has a tendency to overload with names. It can be difficult to keep all of the bit characters straight, simply because he feels compelled to name every person in every situation, no matter how tenuous a part they played in it.
I don’t want to seem like I’m dumping on this book, because I did enjoy it. I just think its structure is fundamentally flawed.
________________________
PRE-REVIEW:
Hey, I won this in a Goodreads giveaway! It just came today. I’m in the middle of two books at the moment but when I finish them I’ll crack this one open—I hope to have a review up before it hits shelves on February 9th.
Tresniowski tries to unite a child murder case with the life and work of Ida B. Wells-Barnett—he tries, and ultimately he fails. Because, here’s the thing, Wells had nothing to do with the case. There’s no evidence she even knew anything about it. And so all the pages we spend learning about her life feel kind of meaningless when in the end she doesn’t actually tie into the central story. Now, that’s not to say that Wells’ life and the founding of the NAACP aren’t interesting stories—they most certainly are—they just don’t really connect to the Marie Smith case that contains the book’s most thrilling moments, and so they wind up feeling like useless interjections or, worse, padding. Was there supposed to be a thematic connection drawn between these two halves? Probably. But there’s just no attempt at making one.
Additionally, Tresniowski has a tendency to overload with names. It can be difficult to keep all of the bit characters straight, simply because he feels compelled to name every person in every situation, no matter how tenuous a part they played in it.
I don’t want to seem like I’m dumping on this book, because I did enjoy it. I just think its structure is fundamentally flawed.
________________________
PRE-REVIEW:
Hey, I won this in a Goodreads giveaway! It just came today. I’m in the middle of two books at the moment but when I finish them I’ll crack this one open—I hope to have a review up before it hits shelves on February 9th.
pri_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
A solid and simple nonfiction rec, one I think would be perfect for fans of true crime trying to push their reading a little bit in the “eat your veggies” direction. It goes by pretty easily if you commit yourself to it, and I did appreciate the author’s desire to place this story in the context of black incarceration and extrajudicial violence in America. With that being said however, I wish the secondary narrative had a stronger tie to the main story. Given the connection between Ida B Wells, the NAACP, and this case - I felt there was a distinct lack of tying the threads together.
meiklejohn's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, and Sexual assault
rainbowbookworm's review against another edition
4.0
A remarkable tale about a Black man accused of a heinous murder he could not have committed and the search for truth while the man sits in a jail cell. Tresniowski does a great job weaving together various narrative strands into a cohesive, compelling narrative.
whipsmile's review against another edition
5.0
I'm so glad this book brought my attention to Ida Wells. I did not know who she was before I read this and I will certainly by reading up more on her.
There are a lot of characters and story lines in this one, but the author does a great job keeping things in line and focused for the reader. There are several heroic figures in this story as well as true villains. I got chills and teared up at one point of an act of heroism and fate.
Would highly recommend for fans of true crime, detective stories, and race relations in American history that echoes to today.
There are a lot of characters and story lines in this one, but the author does a great job keeping things in line and focused for the reader. There are several heroic figures in this story as well as true villains. I got chills and teared up at one point of an act of heroism and fate.
Would highly recommend for fans of true crime, detective stories, and race relations in American history that echoes to today.