karireads's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
yasdnilr's review against another edition
4.0
Beautifully written with an eye for historical and linguistic detail. The characters are beautifully drawn. I quite fell for Benjamin Janvier, Ben January, musician, surgeon, a free man of colour. Smart, brave and honourable, he gets himself mixed up in melodrama that leads to murder.
But we know what January knows so we don’t know much until a very exciting finish. Will be reading the next for sure.
Trigger warnings: there’s a great deal of racism and threat of slavery as well as descriptions of slaves and buying and selling of and there is use of the n word. She explains why in a foreword
But we know what January knows so we don’t know much until a very exciting finish. Will be reading the next for sure.
Trigger warnings: there’s a great deal of racism and threat of slavery as well as descriptions of slaves and buying and selling of and there is use of the n word. She explains why in a foreword
kitnotmarlowe's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
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? No
3.5
A Free Man of Color is a story about property. Not just enslaved people as property as the title implies, but also territory as national and individual property, personal property, women as the property of their husbands, and history itself as the property of the hand documenting it.
Barbara Hambly does better at evoking a specific time and place than crafting a mystery. The plot is engaging, with enough twists and turns to allow readers to formulate theories without being entirely out of the loop. However, too much of the execution relies on information the reader is not privy to until the conclusion and the ending feels rushed.
A Free Man of Color is immersive but not always enthralling. The level of detail (characters, different names for characters and groups of people, material culture specificities) borders on claustrophobia. Hambly's research is meticulous but dense. It sometimes suffocates and even obscures the mystery at its heart. Similarly, while the characters are vivid and the relationships are complex, the prose occasionally borders on purple. To be generous, I will ascribe this intricacy to being the first book in a series and thus having to lay a ton of historical and narrative groundwork. I hope this problem is solved in later books, but I've also heard that they get both formulaic and silly (I hope not simultaneously).
Recommended for serious historical fiction readers who are either interested in learning about 1830s New Orleans or already have some knowledge of it.
Also, yay for this book, written in 1997 and set in 1831, correctly gendering a trans character! There is a bit of confusion on the part of Ben & Co., and they briefly understand his relationship with Madeleine as sapphic due to a lack of other vocabulary, but it's clear from how Augustus talks about himself that he's trans.
At the very least, I will probably read the second book because I am interested in Yellow Fever (what a weird sentence), but there are currently 19 Benjamin January books, and I do not have that kind of time.
ewalrath's review against another edition
5.0
The work Barbara Hambly has done on this series amazes me. And the mysteries are good too.
hekate24's review against another edition
4.0
Finally got through this one (like [b:Katherine|33609|Katherine|Anya Seton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405116658s/33609.jpg|2372397], I put this book down somewhere in the middle and never got back to it.) This was an extremely dense, meticulously researched mystery that was packed full of moral ambiguity. The ending is a bit rushed but still in keeping with everything that came before. I'll definitely read more of this series.
smemmott's review against another edition
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
staticdisplay's review against another edition
4.0
this brought history alive for me. it gave me an idea what it would be like to live in a place with such different social and political conditions from modern Louisiana (I love New Orleans). I thought the mystery and characters were both interesting, with depth. I didn't love the "thriller" type elements, where the main character was imperiled, because I get stressed out reading about it.
lisa_mc's review against another edition
2.0
Great concept and interesting lead character, but ploddingly slow and bogged down in detail.
jobinsonlis's review against another edition
4.0
Really fantastic historical mystery. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.
jaclynhyde's review against another edition
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism