shelbs_can_try's Reviews (694)

A book with captivating language explores grief and love all centered around themes of race, class, and various familial relationships. Ward's writing was so beautiful in portions and so disturbing in others. So much so, some scenes forced me to pause and process. The multiple POVs were critical to understanding this family and entire story, and it was incredibly done. Jesmyn Ward is quickly becoming a new favorite. 

 I wanted to love this book so much. There were some redeeming qualities, but overall it just felt messy (and it wasn't because of the jumping timeline). All of Oona's major life moments somehow managed to be the first eight years she started time jumping? That's far too convenient. Also, Oona as a character was very frustrating. She made a lot of decisions that didn't make sense. Each year she would claim some growth about dealing with her issue with grace but then immediately crumbled to pieces every single year. I also feel like they just blamed her youth for her rash behavior instead of actually giving her a personality (sorry if that seems mean but its true). I read that whole book and still feel like I don't know Oona at all. Because of that a lot of her highs and lows didn't mean anything to me. The idea of these book was good, but I think this needed to span a long amount of Oona's life and I think the writer needed to spend some more time developing Oona's character rather than just saying 'oh you get better when your older' over and over again. It felt lazy.

Hoping to give this writer another try before deciding if she's for me or not, but yeah not my favorite.