3.75 stars
A haunting story, beautifully written, Sing, Unburied, Sing tells the fragmented story of a myriad of characters - Jojo, Leonie, Richie, Riv, Kayla - in the American South, and all the ghosts, past and present, that pervade.
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A lot of the reviews I read where people didn’t love this book, one of the issues they had was the supernatural element - I thought I would be all over the ghostie inclusions, but I found that it made the story a little hard to follow. But although I was lost at times, I was more often wowed by Ward’s raw emotion pouring out of the page - especially those last few pages, they were devastating and beautiful.
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Aside from Ward’s lyrical prose, my favourite part of the novel was the incredible bond between Jojo and Kayla - I’ve never been so moved by a brother/sister relationship, and the tenderness and care showed by a 13 year old boy to his 3 year old sister was a testament to the hardships Jojo had to face.
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There are a lot of heavy topics tackled in this book: racism, drug addiction, neglect, abuse. But the prose doesn’t get bogged down it, and it feels almost dreamy at times, which is an interesting juxtaposition! Overall I’d recommend this one, even if it is confusing at times, it always pulled me back in with its powerful writing.