Sometimes you're lucky enough to come across a book that legitimately makes you rethink your worldview. I wasn't surprised to learn that Walker is an "activist, teacher, and public intellectual" because this has such incisive commentary on a wide range of topics: race dynamics, diaspora, patriarchy, faith and religion, love, forgiveness, family, community, and so much more.

Honestly, there are elements that I don't generally love, such as ambiguous timeskips and long philosophizing monologues/conversations and an entirely epistolary format; the prose also took quite some getting used to. And yet, somehow, it all works for me.

(My one major reservation is a possible interpretation of the greedy/unfaithful bisexual trope: Shug selfishly jumping from partner to partner, leaving a trail of broken hearts. This isn't really addressed or resolved even by the end.)

It's probably also a case of right book, right time, but this one just really resonated with me. Amid the cruel and depressing moments there is hope and happiness, and a community of characters who have fought for and cried over and earned every bit of it.

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content warnings: explicit descriptions of rape, rape of a minor, incest, sexual & physical & emotional abuse of children/minors, domestic abuse, infidelity, (believed) infanticide, loss of loved ones, grief, slut-shaming, victim-blaming, terminal illness, mentioned genital mutilation, ritual scarification, misogyny, racism, colorism, n-word

rep: majority-Black cast; Black lesbian MC, bi/pan Black LI, F/F main relationship, (bi/pan F)/M relationships

CONVERSION: 12.8 / 15 = 4.5 stars

Prose: 8 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 10 / 10
Emotional Impact: 9 / 10
Development / Flow: 7 / 10
Setting: 8 / 10

Diversity & Social Themes: 5 / 5
Intellectual Engagement: 4 / 5
Originality / Trope Execution: 5 / 5
Rereadability: 4 / 5
Memorability: 4 / 5