A review by readersbutterfly
The Unsettled by Ayana Mathis

challenging emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book echoed something fearsome in my mind. The detached mother trying to survive, and how she does that, familiar. The father, chastened by an unjust world, seeking to build himself up in the eyes of the world, familiar. The weighty black parental expectations of right and wrong ways to live, of chastising as parenting, familiar. The hardness of poverty, hunger, and the threat of police. The attempts to create community, and the terror elements from the government to dissuade such creations. The looking for a place to belong to, familiar. All of it, and the children who are the products of this chaos, familiar. Distinctly funny, southern chagrin and realness about white folk? Familiar. So unsettling.