A review by panda_incognito
Meet Cécile by Denise Lewis Patrick, Christine Kornacki, Cindy Salans Rosenheim
3.0
This book rehashes the boring first book from another POV. Fortunately, even though it covers the same ground, Cecile is a more interesting character with a more engaging life situation, and the book at least has a semblance of a story arc, instead of just being a series of stitched-together episodes. Also, the key plot points of the Marie Grace book have more significance here, because Cecile's POV provided context, tension, and interest that the other book lacked.
This book also has better subplots, and provides an interesting look into the challenges that wealthy and privileged "free people of color" experienced as New Orleans attracted more white people from the rest of America, who treated them like slaves and second-class citizens. This book, which is set about a decade prior to the Civil War, has an interesting and educational portrayal of how unique New Orleans's racial makeup and culture were in the country at that time. The "peek into the past" covers some of the very same information that was already printed in the preceding book, but also shares more details about black history. These elements make it a three-star book for me, instead of the two stars that I gave the exceedingly dull first book.
This book also has better subplots, and provides an interesting look into the challenges that wealthy and privileged "free people of color" experienced as New Orleans attracted more white people from the rest of America, who treated them like slaves and second-class citizens. This book, which is set about a decade prior to the Civil War, has an interesting and educational portrayal of how unique New Orleans's racial makeup and culture were in the country at that time. The "peek into the past" covers some of the very same information that was already printed in the preceding book, but also shares more details about black history. These elements make it a three-star book for me, instead of the two stars that I gave the exceedingly dull first book.