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brookesbooks_and_dogs 's review for:
Hum If You Don't Know the Words
by Bianca Marais
I gave this book 3 stars - which is an average. For me, the first half of the book was 2 stars and the second half was 4 stars, it took a while for the two main characters - Robin, a young girl whose parents have been killed, and Beauty, a mother looking for her daughter - to settle in and become whole characters. Robin and Beauty meet halfway through the book, and that's when the story really gets started. The entire story is told from alternating points of view.
Robin, 9, has a pretty good life in the suburbs on Johannesburg - until her parents re murdered on the evening of the Soweto uprising (which started as a student protest and became much more in the nation's history). Beautys living in the Transkei villages, working as a teacher and caring for two sons. Her husband died in the coal mines and her daughter has been attending school in Soweto. Beauty travels to Soweto to bring her daughter home - only to enter the city on the day of the Uprising, and her daughter Nomsa becomes a warrior soldier. The plot unfolds as we see how the Uprising affects both women singularly - Robin, now an orphan, and Beauty, searching for her daughter. Eventually Beauty comes to take care of Robin while she remains in the city looking for her daughter.
I connected with Robin's character much more than Beauty's during the first half of the book. Her voice seemed real and genuine, while Beauty's voice was harder for me to connect with. It seemed that her life and story line moved much slower than Robin's did, and slowed the owner all pace of the book. Once the two characters met, the pace jump started as did the plot.
The relationship between Beauty and Robin is really the heart of the story. Robin struggles to adapt to life as an orphan, living with her aunt Edith, who never wanted to be a parent, beauty becomes the mother she needs. Beauty is missing her own children and Robin fulfills her misssing nurturing spirit. This relationship is not without conflict, of course, and the two women must find a way to meet their own needs while still maintaining their mutually beneficial relationship.
** I am grateful that I was able to read and preview this book as a courtesy from the publisher and NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Robin, 9, has a pretty good life in the suburbs on Johannesburg - until her parents re murdered on the evening of the Soweto uprising (which started as a student protest and became much more in the nation's history). Beautys living in the Transkei villages, working as a teacher and caring for two sons. Her husband died in the coal mines and her daughter has been attending school in Soweto. Beauty travels to Soweto to bring her daughter home - only to enter the city on the day of the Uprising, and her daughter Nomsa becomes a warrior soldier. The plot unfolds as we see how the Uprising affects both women singularly - Robin, now an orphan, and Beauty, searching for her daughter. Eventually Beauty comes to take care of Robin while she remains in the city looking for her daughter.
I connected with Robin's character much more than Beauty's during the first half of the book. Her voice seemed real and genuine, while Beauty's voice was harder for me to connect with. It seemed that her life and story line moved much slower than Robin's did, and slowed the owner all pace of the book. Once the two characters met, the pace jump started as did the plot.
The relationship between Beauty and Robin is really the heart of the story. Robin struggles to adapt to life as an orphan, living with her aunt Edith, who never wanted to be a parent, beauty becomes the mother she needs. Beauty is missing her own children and Robin fulfills her misssing nurturing spirit. This relationship is not without conflict, of course, and the two women must find a way to meet their own needs while still maintaining their mutually beneficial relationship.
** I am grateful that I was able to read and preview this book as a courtesy from the publisher and NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.