Woah.

I really do not gravitate towards books with narratives of enslaved people. They, understandably, make me really sad and put me in a place that I need to be in a specific mindset to be able to digest. I've seen this book around and EVERYONE was singing its praises. I've been wanting to read it, but I wasn't in the mind space to read it every time it came my time when it was available for hold. I finally got around to it and....wow.

The characters in this book were so distinct. Like, such amazingly beautiful people, and it made me so sad because there are not many narratives with enslaved peoples in it that end well. The fact that this story depicted queer Black men just took it to another level. I've never read anything like this before. This book crushed me. My poor partner walked in on me as I was clutching my knees to my chest and sobbing while listening to the audiobook.

I definitely think I did the right thing in waiting until I was in the right mindset to read this book, but even then, it was heavy and painful. However, truthful narratives about enslaved peoples are heavy and painful. I'm sad, but I believe that that was the point.