Play Book Tag discussion

I just re-"read" this for a group read--the first time I read it in print; this time I listened to the audiobook, which made it a different experience, but no less powerful or better/worse. This is the first book I ever read by McBride and it remains my favourite one--I wasn't sure if I would find it as good and powerful the second time or if I'd been partly just in the mood to read a good, new writer, but it is brilliant.

The last time I wrote that the characters were well done--to be fair, this was the year I read 400 books and reviewed all of them since it was during Covid shut down year. Also, I am not at all consistent in how well or thoroughly I write reviews. After reading most of his books it is apparent that McBride is brilliant at creating very real, very human characters and showing the complex thoughts and feelings that many can go through. He has a great deal of insight in this area. For example, he manages to clearly show the complex emotions and relationships that developed in some slave/master situations from more than one POV. Another example is that he has at least one character who is pure evil but is still well drawn out and not a convenient stereotype. (view spoiler)[This novel ends with both tragedy (Liz dies, etc) and hope--hope not just for the birth of the future dreamer, but things such as the character arc of Kathleen (hide spoiler)]


Original Review:
This is a powerful novel that arrived at my library the week before the tragedy of last weekend. This book was a 4.5 star book for me, but it would have been just as powerful even without this past weekend. I am not giving you a blurb or a summary, but suffice it to say it involves slaves who have run away, people who are hunting them, and others who are doing neither, but who are important.

I have read quite a number of novels about American slavery, escape, etc, over the years (not all shown on my GR page) and also the American civil rights movement. This one is a cut above many of them. This doesn't follow any formula or hit certain bases. McBride has done his homework, but then he uses his imagination in writing this (he discusses this in the afterward.) Most of the characters were very well developed, and some were quite complex, which is difficult to do well when writing and also make it believable. The dialogue was impressive.

I am still reeling a bit from finishing this earlier this evening and am at a bit of a loss to really describe this well.

I will add this to my list!

Every time I see this author's name my heart skips a lil beat for Deacon King Kong which I just absolutely loved.

This is a much different book than Deacon King Kong. I loved it when I read it.

This is one of those oldies but a “greaty!”

I have a copy, so I need to move it up my list. Thanks for the great review, Karin!

LOVE this book. Thanks for the reminder, Karin.

Great review!

Meli wrote: "I will add this to my list!

Every time I see this author's name my heart skips a lil beat for Deacon King Kong which I just absolutely loved."

Yes, BC is right--this is very different than Deacon King Kong!