There isn't a lot to say about this book. It was an excellent summer read: well-paced, engrossing, well written. Not a one of us disliked the book. Reading it, to me, felt like story time in elementary school. You know, you'd be excited to hear the next part of the plot and while it was being read to you it utilized all of your senses. Your childhood naivete allows you to accept all characters and plot lines as truth.

The problem with a great story like that is it doesn't make for a good book group discussion. No one questions the story teller about character development or relationships between the characters during story time. And especially considering this book was so well researched, it hardly left any room for debate of the characters motivations (with a few glaring exceptions).

BIG SPOILERS AHOY!

We all thought Aminata was an amiable narrator, but it was Fanta we wanted more from. What exactly caused her to kill her baby on the slave ship in that moment? Ennui? Disdain for humanity? The baby's birth into slavery? A rabid rage for her captors? cult mentality?

How did the Witherspoons justify to themselves taking Aminata's daughter away in what seemed like a very premeditated move? I appreciate the added horror brought on Aminata by not knowing where or why or how she is. I'm just really curious to hear from them they're reasons. How does a couple convince themselves that taking a child from her mother is a good idea?

What kind of terrible omen would it have been for a slave to escape the shackles of America and Canada only to be taken back to Africa and live next to the place you were shipped away? And still have to see other people being shipped off and not being able to do anything about it? And how did King Jimmy or the historical equivalent justify his deeds? True, different tribes are different tribes, but eventually he must have known the kinds of lives he was enlisting these people into. How could that not have worn on him, despite all the wealth he was generating?

This book does a fantastic job of showing the reader Aminata's and the slave's side of things. Often throughout my reading of it, I was introduced to the smaller implications slavery must have created for all involved that I had never thought about before. It was mentioned that the breezy way history was taught in this book was enjoyable; the beginnings of Liberia and Freetown, the British deals with the slaves to have them join their side of the fight, the Canadian treatment of 'freed' slaves and the repercussions thereafter.

Hmmm. I guess I found a lot to say about this book.