theshiftyshadow's reviews
329 reviews

I found this pretty dull, to be honest. It might have worked better if it didn't make it clear from the start what had really happened to the family. I guess it's one of those books that's more about atmosphere than plot, but it just didn't do anything for me. 

This book starts with 2 sisters in what is now Ghana, separated at birth, and destined for two different lives. One is sold into slavery and ends up in the US, the other marries a white man from the local English settlement. Each chapter follows a different descendant of each sister and we jump forward in time through about 200 years. 

I appreciate the ambition of this author, and the scale of this project, but I found the constant character changes a bit of a struggle. Not because it's badly done, the opposite actually. Every time I was just starting to get settled with one of them the chapter would end and I almost always wanted to read more about every character. The format also started to feel a bit repetitive towards the end. 

As dumb as it sounds, I've only recently started to think about what the Atlantic slave trade looked like from the African side of the ocean. I suppose as an Irish person I have been exposed to more American media and so any depictions of the slave trade usually focus on what happened in the US. With that in mind this was a fascinating read and left me with a list of people, places, and events to read up on. I'd also definitely read more from Yaa Gyasi.

I can't say I really enjoyed the story that unfolded here. The characters were interesting enough but I felt I wanted to know more about them, spend more time with them, not just skip from moment to moment. Although, to give the author his deserved credit, he does do a lot with relatively little exposition. 

I did find the setting really interesting. Black Britain pre Windrush is a whole new area of history I've never seen explored before. The similarities in how the black community in London a) came to be there, and b) were then treated, while not surprising, is interesting to read about. And I'm sure if nothing else reading this book will send me down a history rabbit hole for a few weeks. 

I figured it out from before it even happened so slightly disappointed to sit through all those red herrings for no reward. 

I only read Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from this collection but I'm counting it as read. Unfortunately that story is very much spoiled by knowing the reveal. Oh well. 

It's fine but while listening to it I kept thinking you could cut out about 50% of it and still tell the same story. 

One of those things where you can appreciate it as the foundation of a lot of work that came after, but don't think it's actually that great itself. 

I wasn't sure I was going to like this. The first few chapters felt like it was going to be hard to follow, and like it was going to go heavy on the magical realism, which I'm not a huge fan of. And then it took a turn into suburban crime drama, which I wasn't sure I'd be keen on either. Thankfully it quickly gets into it's stride and reveals what it really is, a magnificent sweeping story about love.

One of the central themes explored here is the idea of whether people are good or bad, and main character Eli wrestles with the fact he loves people who do bad things, and that people who do bad things can sometimes do them for good reasons, and sometimes people are just straight up bad people. The circumstances he finds himself in aren't ones that most people will relate to, but that question of are people inherently good, or bad, is universal.

I loved the relationship between Eli and his brother, and his friendship with ex convict Slim. The boy's relationship with their stepdad Lyle was lovely too, and even when they end up having to live with their estranged father, the narrative didn't go the way I was expecting it to, and the way they addressed past mistakes and were able to forge new relationships was extremely well done. 

I really liked the scene where the school councillor comes to talk to Eli and August's dad, and we get a logical explanation for the magical elements, but at the same time it leaves enough room for the idea that maybe there is something more beyond our understanding. 

I did wish that we got to know all the other characters a bit more, but the story is told from Eli's point of view, so it makes sense that we only see them as he sees them. The writing even acknowledges the fact that every moment that Eli experiences has multiple view points and everyone is experiencing their own version of these events. Which is another really great touch by the writer, to expand the universe beyond Eli's POV, without actually changing the POV. 

I've knocked a half star off only because I'm not 100% sure how I feel about the ending. On the one hand, the last 150 or so pages were so gripping and I could not put the book down until I was finished. On the other hand though, the set up for the resolution of all the storylines felt a bit extreme and not quite as grounded as the rest of the book. But it's a minor quibble really, and I still felt satisfied with it. 

This is all atmosphere, minimal plot. And I loved it.

I think I knew coming into this what the outcome would be, so I was prepared for that and wasn't disappointed. 

I was initially curious about how the recent-ish mini series is like 5 or 6 hours long, but there's so many blank spaces with this story that someone clearly had a field day filling those blanks in. 

Normally I love a book about people grieving but not communicating, which makes everything worse, but this one just didn't do it for me.