enobong's Reviews (492)

I'm mad it took me so long to read this book but I'm glad I've finally done it. I read an old battered up library copy and, while a well-read book always makes me happy, this is one that I will add to the "would like to buy list." As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I'm currently reading my way through the BBC Top 100 books our time which was created in 2003. This means I've been reading more classics but not very many diverse classics. If you are also looking to diversify your classics, Zora Neale Hurston is a great author to add to your TBR.⁠
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This book was not well-received when first published and disappeared into obscurity for about 30 years following its publication. Part of that was because all the speech is written phonetically in a dialect familiar to the author but some of the biggest critics of its publication were some of the great black male writers and critics of the times. Many felt that Hurston wrote for the entertainment of white audiences, pandering to their illusions of a docile and quaint negro life. I think that this reaction was in part because Hurston refused to write a world in which black people are only seen in defiance to their treatment from white people. I think the other reason for this reaction is that the men in this novel are written with little dept and little character development and it displeased male critics to see what has been done to female characters through time done to male characters.⁠
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Janie, however, is a character of deep study. The reader follows her growth from a naive 16-year-old just learning about love and being told by her grandmother that black women do not get to enjoy the privilege of love to a woman in her 40s who has lived a full life with 3 husbands and discovered for herself what love is. She finds her voice and learns how to use it. She learns that freedom isn't not having to work but being able to enjoy the fruit of your labours. She has one hell of a journey. 

But another element of note in this novel is the simple yet poetic manner in which Hurston describes the world, nature and human emotions is exquisite. She doesn't play with structure and form but in simple sentence creates clear and unique imagery, giving voice to all that we see, hear and are aware of. 

This book left me with a deep sense of satisfaction.

When sixteen members of her family are murdered in a revenge kill by the drug cartel that has overrun Acapulco, Lydia Quixano Perez and her eight-year-old son Luca must flee Mexico buy any means possible if they have any hope of surviving.

Please, please, please, check out this book on Goodreads, preorder it wherever you buy books, reserve it at your local library, do whatever you need to do to read this book. This book will make you feel uncomfortable and it should. @jeaninecummins is responsible for the new line between my eyebrows because I read this novel in a constant state of unease.

It is brilliant. It is horrifying and too real (if such a thing is possible) and absolutely brilliant.  Cummins writes about the drug cartels from the point of view of the victims. She highlights the everyday people who are used as collateral damage for some evil men. There is no glamorising or romanticising but the evil is shown for what it is.

And then there's Lydia. A middle class, working mother and wife. A business owner who had the bad luck of befriending the wrong man and marrying a man who dared to do what others wouldn't and unmask the crimes of the cartels.  Lydia is many of us. She lives comfortable and feels bad when she hears about what migrants are going through every day but she never imagines she'll ever be one. And then her world is absolutely obliterated and what Cummins delivers is a painfully account of a mother risking everything she has left to give her son the chance of survival.

I believe that writers can and should write about anything but if you're going to write about a world you don't inhabit then you have to do the hard work of research. Cummins did the work and it shows. It's been called our generations' GRAPES OF WRATH, which I agree with. I'm also going to say fans of THE ROAD by Ian McCormick should read this too. What's terrible is that this isn't post-apocalyptic but a depiction of the world we live in.

I'm going to end with a quote from a mural in Tijuana: On this side, too, there are dreams.

Thank you @crownpublishing for sending me a review copy of this book.⁠
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CLEAN GETAWAY is @nicstone debut middle-grade novel. I usually give middle grade a wide berth but as my nephews enter into the middle-grade age-range and are developing great reading habits, I've started hunting for good books to recommend to them that will give them a wide range of authors, protagonists and experiences.⁠
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You might know Nic Stone from her bestselling YA novels (Dear Martin, Jackpot). Well, she's just as talented in the field of MG.⁠
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When Scoob's G'ma Ruby turns up on his doorstep in her brand new Winnebago to whisk him away on a road trip, he is only too happy to jump on board. On suspension from school for fighting and accidentally instigating a computer science cheating scandal, Scoob is ready to escape the disapproving looks from his father. As he and G'ma drive from Atlanta to Mexico, he learns from her first-hand account of the prejudices they faced making the same journey 50 years prior. But mostly he learns that his G'ma isn't exactly who he always thought she was.⁠
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I find children's books hard to review because I don't spend that much time around kids so it's hard to understand their mindset. Yet when I come across a really good children's book, it's a no-brainer. This is one of those really good books. It's simple, clear but also subtle. What I love best is that it's a book that tackles racism and prejudice, both historical and present, with no conception of one saviour to unite everyone. ⁠
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This is a book I am happily going to pass on to my nephews and one I hope is adopted into public and school libraries all over the country.

Have you ever seen the meme of readers begging authors not to kill off their favourites characters but the authors do it anyway with glee? As much as it does break my heart when an author does that to a beloved character, I prefer that to wishing the author would have just killed them all. My feelings weren't quite that extreme towards the characters in this book but my biggest disappointment was that none of the main characters had to pay any consequences for their actions. 75% of the book prepares the reader for some kind of fall from grace and then in the last 25% everything is tied up and the characters just go about their regular lives.

One of the main storylines is of a teacher grooming and abusing a student. It's that familiar story of a figure being in a "relationship" with a child. At first, I thought that reading this is such close succession to MY DARK VANESSA was affecting my reception and, to an extent, this is true. MDV is such an exceptional book that reading any other book upon the same theme will be difficult. But where MDV got it so right further highlighted where this book got it wrong. MDV delved into the psychology of both the abused and the victimised. Neither emerged from that interaction unscathed and those that knew and did nothing about it were also brought to task. Not so much here.

Overall, it was fine. It was a fine, perfectly well written, somewhat suspenseful story on family dynamics and reputation with a scandalous affair and murder thrown into the mix. But there was just no extra oompf to take it from fine to good.