2024 the best of me book setting review

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(as of Dec 12, 2024 05:21:10 UTC - Details)

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK This beautiful redemptive story of a mother’s gripping journey across the Caribbean to find her stolen children and piece her family back together is a “celebration of motherhood and female resilience” (The Observer).

Named One of Time’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 A Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist

“A powerful novel that explores how freedom and family are truly defined”—Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Personal Librarian

Her search begins with an ending.…

The master of the Providence plantation in Barbados gathers his slaves and announces the king has decreed an end to slavery. As of the following day, the Emancipation Act of 1834 will come into effect. The cries of joy fall silent when he announces that they are no longer his slaves; they are now his apprentices. No one can leave. They must work for him for another six years. Freedom is just another name for the life they have always lived. So Rachel runs.

Away from Providence, she begins a desperate search to find her children—the five who survived birth and were sold. Are any of them still alive? Rachel has to know. The grueling, dangerous journey takes her from Barbados then, by river, deep into the forest of British Guiana and finally across the sea to Trinidad. She is driven on by the certainty that a mother cannot be truly free without knowing what has become of her children, even if the answer is more than she can bear. These are the stories of Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. But above all this is the story of Rachel and the extraordinary lengths to which a mother will go to find her children...and her freedom.

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: READ THIS
Review: Best book I have ever read. It moved me like I haven't felt in a long time! You will gain so much.

Reviewer: caufeegal
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Powerful Story
Review: This story is so well told, woven together with sacrifice and hope. And strong family connection, even when separated by cruelness and disdain. Amazing book.

Reviewer: Julius Kim
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: read this book
Review: I read the back of this book while waiting in line at the library to vote. Bought it on KU before I even left. It’s such a moving, poignant book. Highly recommend.

Reviewer: Muse
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A solid debut novel that shares some important history and culture
Review: This is a good historical fiction focused on the Caribbean and how slavery impacted the islands. That being said, it mostly focused on Rachel’s story/narrative, so you really didn’t learn that much of the nuances as I probably would have liked, although it still told the important story of a mother searching for her children that were cruelly torn from her.I liked that all of Rachel’s children had different stories…not everything was a happy reunion, or a painful meeting - but everything was so incredibly nuanced and I think Shearer did a solid job of landing that there are different types of freedom for the characters involved.I enjoyed this novel and it went by pretty quickly for me as I was fairy invested. That being said, it was obviously a debut novel. Some things were repetitive, the author, although she had a way with words that were quite beautiful at times, still erred no the side of telling more than showing. And she also left a lot of things up to the “vibe”. Ie, when Rachel and the others met with Nuno’s people, how much Rachel “understood.”? That was really confusing to me how she could infer meaning from languages she couldn’t speak.All in all I’ll give this a solid 3.5 stars.

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Interesting
Review: Set in a place I have very little knowledge of.The story carried me along with their tales.The hardships and hard times they had ,and the powerful inner strength was inspiring.

Reviewer: Ali
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: real good
Review: Just got this book, so excited to read. But it came in a good condition

Reviewer: Suzanne E. Jones
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Journey Fueled by the Strength of Love
Review: River Sing Me Home is a powerful story of the strength and perseverance of a mother's search for her five children, all of whom had been taken from her during her time as a slave on a sugar cane plantation in Barbados. We follow the protagonist (Rachel) across land and sea, through forests and up rivers as she searches, and finds, one child after the other. Now grown, each child has come to their own way of life, always with a driving force of surviving as a slave (or former slave) on a Caribbean island in the days and months after emancipation has been declared. What Rachel finds is not always what she expects or hopes, and she is called upon to accept each child's reality, painful as some may be. Along her way Rachel meets characters that are of great help to her, from the emancipated dressmaker in Barbados, to a nomadic former slave who gives up his life on the sea to join Rachel and one of her first found children. The end of the book is a hopeful one, yet the powerful message of the book is universal. A mother's love fuels self-sacrifice. That same love allows us to accept—often painfully—the individual journeys and associated outcome of our children's lives. And human resilience is required to accept that the freedom we imagine is very often not the freedom that actually awaits. If you're looking for shocking twists and turns this book is not for you. In reading the book, I felt that I was on a linear journey right along side this courageous mother and her companions, traveling across seas, over land and upriver. Especially resonant for those readers who relate to the pain of losing children and the strength of the never dimming love for those children that fuel courage and sacrifice.

Reviewer: Daria
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book!
Review: The book River Sing Me Home by Elenor Shearer is a story of a complex journey. It is a novel that captures the possibility of what memory can have. What opportunities for someone have to go back into one's history to find their family? It shares the story of motherhood and external and internal journeys. In a river town, Shearer skillfully immerses readers in their journeys.Shearer's vivid descriptions bring the setting to life. River Sing Me Home is a thought-provoking read that is highly recommended for those seeking a profound exploration of the impact of familial bonds. I would rate it a ⅘ for its way of telling stories impacted by erasure through such vivid explanations.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Was in like new condition

Reviewer: Samuel Barber
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I didn't think I would like this book but it was better than I expected. It's not the quest so much that's interesting (although set in 1834 after the abolition of slavery in the Caribbean held an interest), but the characters that Rachel meets along the way and her observations of them. For a debut novelist this is good. I am almost couldn't put the novel down because it just got better and better.Mercy is probably the least interesting of her daughters and closer to Mary Prince in terms of being whipped whilst pregnant. Actually, Cherry-Jane is the most interesting daughter out of the lot. She changes from her middle-class facade to an empathetic woman who can feel for others.

Reviewer: Bukola Akinyemi
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Historical fiction about slavery set in 1830s Barbados.When England declared the abolition of slavery, the white plantationowners in Barbados had other ideas.They told the slaves that they were now apprentices that had to work for them for another six years. It was freedom in name only. They could not leave.This is a story of a mother’s undying love and bravery.After living through 40 years of slavery, Rachel had birthed and lost six children. Micah, Mary Grace, Thomas Augustus, CherryJane and Mercy. She would recite their names daily, she refused to forget them, she would find each one.Rachel takes us through the Caribbean islands from Barbados to British Guiana to Trinidad.Beautiful inside and out, Eleanor Shearer tells a traumatic story with endearing descriptions. A mother’s love runs through like a golden thread, its full of hope and love, two things that rise above the trauma of slavery and being on the run.

Reviewer: andypandy
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is a vivid account of slavery and family connections. Very dramatic and moving. Made me ruminate about the British empire and the loss of freedom and indignity of slavery horrors of slavery

Reviewer: chiddlers
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Sorry to say but this was disappointing. Very little accurate historical research and had a lightweight, predictable, plot. Gave up two thirds of way through and jumped to end. An underwhelming read