hlipman22's reviews
46 reviews

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense

Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.75

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

**Spoilers**
Hannie’s story was much more compelling than Benny’s. Her story was full of true emotion and shared a part of history I wasn’t familiar with through the lost friends letters. The relationships between her, Lavinia, and Juneau Jane, were complex and well developed. Benny’s story on the other hand was a classic white savior teacher, coming in to an underserved rural southern school from CA after being dumped by her boyfriend, looking to make a difference in the lives of her poor black students and connecting with the black sheep son of the ruling class. Her role in the story could have been filled by any number of people already in the community. Towards the end I was finally starting to tolerate her, until the final sentences bringing in her teenage pregnancy and comparing willingly giving up a child for adoption to the plight of freed slaves, separated from their loved ones by being sold away and war. If I could give Hannie’s story a 4 and Benny’s a 1, I probably would. All together it was an ok read but not one I could recommend.

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