In bullet point format. Because bullet points are cool now.

• This was my first Sue Monk Kidd book. I had been interested in reading her work since The Secret Life of Bees hit bookshelves. But I can’t remember why.
• Truth: Ever since high school I’ve had this story floating around in my head of two girls being raised on a plantation, one a slave, the other the owner’s daughter. The story would have been told from both points of view and would follow their life stories: rebellions, heartache and the pains of becoming and understanding one’s self. This novel is that story.
• I feel a kind of grief? over the story that I never wrote, like losing an unborn child and then seeing her face suddenly one day.
• The amount of research behind it bleeds through in the compelling realness of the traditions and atmosphere SMK describes.
• The author’s note confirms that this story is actually based on fact – most of the characters were real people and several of the incidents described in the book actually happened. But it is layered heavily with fiction.
• The imagery was beautiful and heart-wrenching. The themes of enslavement and freedom went so much deeper than the literal shackles the novel described.
• I love a book that paints people as they are: with faults and failings, trying to survive the best they can. This book does that.
• My first book about slavery, and I think I’ll read more.