A review by siena_j_p
Witness by Jamel Brinkley

challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This felt a whole lot like a book I’d be assigned to read in school, not understand, and then analyze straight into the ground. Which unfortunately made it not really my kind of book at all. I need to be extra absolutely clear on this review that my rating reflects my experience of reading ONLY. I don’t think that there’s anything inherently bad about this book and I’m certain there will be people who love it. That being said, if you follow my reviews because you tend to enjoy the same books as me, there’s a good chance this book won’t necessarily resonate with you. I don’t really enjoy books that make me work hard just to understand what they’re trying to tell me; I want books to present me with interesting concepts and dilemmas and characters that I can then turn around in my head and find something meaningful in. It felt like this book wanted me to do a lot of work to understand the point it was trying to make, and short of discussing it with a class, that’s not something that really comes to me naturally. That being said, it is an anthology, and I had this problem more with some stories than others. One story in particular, about a mother desperately trying to keep her family together, really did resonate with me. In fact, I think the stories felt more meaningful as I moved through the book, so take that for what it’s worth. But unfortunately there weren’t enough of those stories to outweigh the ones that I just found complicated and confusing.