This book will easily be one of my favorite reads of 2017. I finished it nearly a week ago and I still feel inadequate to write a review that will do it justice. The plot has already been described by other reviewers, so I won't repeat it here.

This is a gritty and heartbreaking story, with writing so beautiful, a setting so real, and characters so well-developed, that I was completely immersed in the story from the beginning. My heart broke again and again for the people, alive and dead, who inhabit these pages.

I’m not normally a fan of the magical realism of "ghosts", but in this case it works, and the ending - oh my, that ending - brought it all together so it made sense why it was included. Although the synopsis sounds unrelentingly sad and grim, with bad things heaped upon yet more bad things, it was never gratuitous. These are fictional characters, but there are real people who live this reality: the racism, poverty, drug addiction, injustice, abuse. But the story is also one about love and hope. There are characters who angered and disgusted me, but then there are characters like JoJo, Mam, and Pop who bring love and hope to these pages, and restores faith in humanity.

My recommendation: Read it!

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Jesmyn Ward's new novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing comes to life in one of the poorest sections of American geography, the rural gulf coast of Mississippi. JoJo and his little sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam, and Pop on a patch of land close to the woods. Pop keeps the animals, horses, goats, and chickens behind the house. The children's mother, Leonie, comes and goes. She lives for the time spent with their father, Michael. Leonie hides beneath the high of meth, a drug she deals in with her friend, Misty. Leonie's life is about Michael and drugs, no time or inclination to take care of her children. The impoverished life of the family makes the novel one of heart break and sadness.

JoJo helps his grandfather, River, with all the chores around the house, especially when it comes to getting food into the larder. The book opens with the slaughter of a goat, a vivid introduction to what kind of life the family lives. JoJo takes care of Kayla (short for Michaela), and their bond is heartbreaking and beautiful. Kayla depends on JoJo for life itself.

The main narration of this southern odyssey is from Leonie and JoJo, with the ghosts they see from the family's past. Leonie's brother, Given, appears to her when she is high. JoJo's journey to the prison to get Michael brings to life a ghost called Richie, with a story tied to Pop. Overall, the hardest part of this novel for me is the hunger. Leonie demands the children travel the long distance to the prison, Parchman, to pick up their daddy. Leonie and Misty have no interest in taking care of the children, and they become sick, mostly from hunger. The neglect is cruelty at its worst. Hunger is surely a part of the history of the rural south, but to see adults taking care of their own needs and not even considering the children makes this a story I'll never forget. The children's hunger is a potent metaphor for what each character's needs. Mam and Pop love the kids but Mam is sick, and everything falls to Pop. JW's craft is at its height in this novel. The characters and their ghosts give forth a story rich and real in the 21st century south.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jesmyn Ward, and Scribner (pub 9/5).

Sing, Unburied Sing… What a beautlfully written story of a family that I wanted to last much longer than the pages allowed. I was almost sad this one had to come to an end. I read much of this novel with anticipating the worse to come as Jojo travels with his mother, Leonie, to pick up his father, Michael, from Parchman Prison. Not only was I nervous for Jojo, but also the family left behind in wait, his grandparents.

Jesmyn Ward introduces us to Jojo who’s been raised primarily by his grandparents due to his mother’s drug addiction. Jojo is such a good young man who aspires to stand tall like his grandfather who seemingly can do no wrong in his eyes. His grandfather more than makes up for his biological father who’s family wants nothing to do with him or his mother. The tumultuous past these two families maintain is more than enough drama for a few lifetimes.

Enter Leonie, Jojo’s drug addicted, abusive, plain old wretched mother. I wish I had sympathy for her especially since she obviously has issues with her own ghosts. Outside of the fact that she sees her dead brother Given when she’s high, I can’t find much to feel sorry for her for. She’s a sorry excuse for a mother. Sorry… not sorry. It’s a blessing to have a son as standup as Jojo yet she’s too blinded by her love for Michael to see that.

Sing, Unburied, Sing is a spoiler minefield so I will keep this review brief. Ward writes an impressive novel with authentically rich characters (some alive and some not). Reading their history how it has shaped them into the people they are today was a joy. Even during the difficult parts in this book, the sense of hope still reached me in a way no other book has done in a long time. I can usually mention a gripe in most novels but for this one, I don’t think there were any. Except Leonie, but I am reminded that she too has her own ghosts to deal with.

Ultimately, Sing, Unburied, Sing makes me look forward to reading future novels from Jesmyn Ward and to seek out the ones I’ve missed.

Copy provided by Scribner Publishing via Netgalley

The novel is beautifully written and addresses a lot of different issues. We see an african-american family in rural Mississippi. The past and the present of Southern America, how it dealt and continues intersecting with the matter of racism.

It was undeniably food for thought.

I absolutely loved the beginning of the novel, however there were a few things that threw me off as the story progressed.

- Leonie’s point of view unsparingly pulled me out of the story and I was waiting for it to be over, so I could read Jojo’s PoV again. I didn’t like Leonie, I didn’t want to sympathize with her and I wasn’t interested in her delirious drug-infused moments.

- There were quite a lot of magical realism moments present in the book, and for me it felt like an unnecessary distraction from the main plot. It was interesting and dramatic, but slightly overdone, in my opinion.

Hmm. Still processing my thoughts, here. I'll be honest: I didn't love this. I just can't quite put my finger on why.

Jesmyn Ward is a brilliant writer. Her prose is gorgeous and immersive. The comparisons to Faulkner and Morrison are not unwarranted at all; to Morrison especially. This is an important story about one African American family navigating the systematic discrimination that they have endured for years. It's moving, disheartening, tragic, and lyrical. It's exactly the kind of book that I usually love.

It seems a bit callous to say that I didn't really care about these characters, and I'm not sure that's even true... I did care about Jojo, the thirteen year old son of drug addict Leonie who's more of a parent to his younger sister, Kayla, than their mother is. But it just wasn't enough to hold my interest. So much is attempted in these pages, right down to the inclusion of actual ghosts, but I can't help but to feel like there was a certain lack of subtlety to the themes Ward was addressing. I didn't feel like there was a lot of depth buried beneath the surface - I thought it was all spelled out in a sort of obvious way. Perhaps if the novel had been longer, Ward could have given herself more space to develop this narrative and its themes in a more challenging and compelling way. The bottom line is, this book tried to engage me on both an emotional and intellectual level, but it failed to really do either. But I can't help but to feel like that's more on me than the author.

Read this book*. This is a timely and important novel that will hopefully infuriate and inspire you. It didn't work for me, but for once I'm glad to be in the minority. I'm glad that so many people are loving this book the way I had hoped to.

*Unless you have emetophobia. Literally half the novel is a child vomiting in a car. It got to be a bit much for me.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Netgalley, Scribner, and Jesmyn Ward for the opportunity.

I just didn't really connect to these characters and the writing style made me very confused.

I finished this novel a week ago and haven't been able to write about it. It is so good, I just don't know how to do it justice. If I list the ingredients of the novel for you, the characters and events, it wouldn't start to explain how it feels to read it. I'll do my best.

I haven't read Jesmyn Ward before now. I am hyper aware of her, because her 2011 novel, Salvage the Bones, won the National Book Award. Still I didn't read it. I think I had it in my head that it was violent and gritty and like the same way I avoided Steinbeck for the same reasons, I was missing out. And the way this novel starts made me think first of Steinbeck, rather than Faulkner and Morrison who most people mention, probably because I've read a lot more of him lately. But there is a scene with a goat between Pop and Jojo, who we later discover are grandfather and grandson.

The novel is set in rural Mississippi, in poverty, and a situation where the grandparents have been the primary caretakers of their grandchildren. Their daughter (Leonie) is not a good mother for various reasons, and the (white) father is currently in jail, but since his family did not approve of his involvement with Leonie anyway, he was not a strong presence for the children. But now, Mam has cancer, and Pop has to shift his focus to her care.

There is more going on that is unveiled as the story progresses. Mam has the knowledge of the old country, herbal remedies, midwifery, and the ability to speak to the dead. She thinks her children should learn these things and has tried to teach Leonie. There is another connection between Leonie's brother and her baby-daddy's family.

All of this is going on and the author shifts between characters, bringing the reader into each person's experience and focus, and this is incredibly effective. The elements of the fantastical fit into the gritty, real environment in ways I would not have expected. Highly, highly recommended.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward hits the ground running! (You can read the synopsis here.)

From the first chapter, the reader is introduced to all the things: cancer, death, drugs, poverty, racism, prison, ghosts, absentee parents, hate crimes, and murder. Ward masterfully weaves all these themes into a tale that is irresistible and hard-to-put-down.

At first glance, it would seem that the reader would automatically sympathize with JoJo, the thirteen-year-old that seems to carry the weight of the world on his young shoulders. And the reader does! My heart broke into a million pieces over and over again because the injustice of what his life is just tore me up inside.

Also at first glance, it would seem the reader would automatically hate JoJo’s mother, Leonie, because she is a druggie and selfish and lacks one single ounce of motherly goodness. However, Ward nails each character’s perspective so well that I was full of empathy and compassion for Leonie – flaws and all.

By the end of the book, I couldn’t help but sit back in awe of the masterpiece book I held in my hands. Ward packs it full of drama and hurt and pain – challenging the reader to love a book that isn’t perfectly tied up in a pretty bow by the time the last page is read. The characters made their imprints on my heart and continue to quietly nudge themselves into my thoughts and musings – never quite leaving me. I imagine I’ll be visited by them from time to time for a long time to come!

I received a copy of Jesmyn Ward's latest book, Sing, Unburied, Sing back in March in exchange for an honest review. Normally I try to write these reviews right after finishing the book so my thoughts are still fresh. However, this book came with the request not to publish anything until around the time the book would be released, September 5th. And sure, I could have written the review right away and saved it (that would have been the responsible thing after all). So naturally I did no such thing and now it's August and I'm working on remembering the book.

Before I go back and skim through to get details and whatnot, I want to share my feelings as I remember them these 5 months later: this book was fantastic. It wasn't what I expected, but then again I didn't entirely know what to expect. I hadn't read anything of hers before, though she's been on my radar. But the book was touching and raw and haunting and involved multiple narrators which is one of my favorite things.

Our first narrator is Jojo, who lives with his grandparents, Pop and Mam, and his younger sister Kayla. His father, Michael, is in jail and his mother, Leonie, is a drug addict who left her kids with her parents, flitting in and out of their lives.

Jojo adores his grandfather and helps with much of the care and raising of his sister. His grandmother is dying from cancer and Jojo, only thirteen, has to grow up quickly.

Jojo's mother Leonie is the second voice we hear. It'd be easy to paint her with no redeeming values, abandoning her kids and deeply jealous of Jojo's relationship with Kayla. Seeing her perspective doesn't mean she's forgiven for the things she does, but it helps explain.

Leonie comes back into their lives when Michael is about to be released from prison, Parchman's. Despite her parents best wishes, she wants to take Jojo and Kayla to the prison to pick him up. The trip will take a couple days but she thinks it's best for them to be there to see their father, especially Kayla. Michael went to prison before she was born.

There are few other characters. Michael's parents. Michael is white, Leonie black, and his parents vehemently disapprove of the relationship and the children that have come of it. Leonie's friend who makes the trip to Parchman's with them. A few others.

There are also ghosts. Leonie's brother comes to her when she's high, both a blessing and a curse for Leonie. There's also the spirit of Richie, someone Pop knew from his own time at Parchman's.

This multi-generational story touches on race, family, love, poverty, the ghosts from our past all set in rural Mississippi. Ward's writing is superb, touching and lyrical. One of the best books I read this year and definitely an author I will be reading more from.

I've had Salvage The Bones on my TBR list for ages and somehow have never gotten to it. So, I was pleased to get an advance copy of Sing, Unburied, Sing and finally get to read something by Jesamyn Ward. Wow, she can write! Her descriptions take you right to the time and place. It's like the characters are real people, they are that three dimensional. It's a very sad book. A thirteen year old biracial boy is forced to grow up before his time. And unfortunately, it's a story that takes place all too frequently. His mother is a drug addict and his grandparents are basically raising him and his three year old sister. But his grandmother is dying of cancer. And his father is coming out of a five year stint of prison.

The book alternates between JoJo’s, Leonie’s and later Richie’s perspectives. Leonie is a selfish b****. If we're supposed to feel sympathy for her, as an addict, mine left when she bought a Coke, refused to give JoJo any money for one for himself and couldn't even share hers with him. Richie is a ghost and I struggle with ghosts in stories. He does help advance the story of Pop’s time in Parchman but I wish there could have been another way. I did find Pop’s time in Parchman to be one of the more interesting storylines.

This isn't a fast paced book. It's more about the characters, the poverty and the racism. It's about what makes a family a family and how blood isn't necessarily the most important bond.

My thanks to netgalley and Scribner for an advance copy of this book.

5 stars doesn't feel like enough.

How to describe a book that is both heartbreaking, sad, raw and yet hopeful all at the same time? That really is the question. I'll start by saying that I found Ward's writing to be haunting, beautiful and poetic. I loved the imagery she provoked. I felt like I was on the farm with the family and then in the car on the journey to pick up Michael at the Penitentiary. I was right there in the barn when the goat was being slaughtered and also there when the police pulled them over.

JoJo, dear sweet Jojo, and his younger sister Kayla live with their Maternal grandparents on their farm in Mississippi. Their Mother, Leonie, lives there as well but she has an addiction problem and although she is their Mother, doesn't really know what to do with them. JoJo loves to spend time with his Grandfather who is teaching him how to be a man. JoJo looks up to his grandfather who tells him stories and is a constant and steady figure in his life. His Grandfather's action speak of love even if he does not say the words himself. I thought their relationship was beautiful. JoJo feels safe, comfortable, accepted, and loved by his Grandfather. As I mentioned his Grandfather is the one thing in his life that he can depend upon. He wants to please his Grandfather and struggles with being thirteen caught between childhood and being a mature teen. He wants to be seen as a man but wants to cuddle with his Grandfather and put his head on his shoulder. There is something quite beautiful in the fact that no matter what JoJo does, he receives love and no judgement from his grandfather. JoJo also lives with his Grandmother who is dying of Cancer. Another constant in his life, she always made sure he was fed when his Mother forgot. JoJo is often left to care for his 3 year old sister, Kayla, who seems to prefer him to anyone else in the family. He is her primary caregiver and serves as her safety net.

Life seems normal, until his Mother announces that she is taking JoJo and Kayla to pick up their father (their White father) from the Mississippi State Penitentiary. Neither child wants to go with their Mother but she prevails and takes them along on an eventful ride to pick up their father and bring him home.

Leonie has loved Michael since he approached her after her brother was killed. She knows how to love him but doesn't quite know how to love her children. She does love them - she just hasn't got Mothering down. Is she a horrible Mother - yes, but yet she is sympathetic as a messed up character who tries and fails. She loves her kids and had a loving Mother but just can't get her act together. Leonie is an addict who is tormented by the ghost of her Brother who was killed while hunting. Her boyfriend and father of her children is White and his family has never accepted her or her children.

Leonie is not the only family member who can see ghosts...that is all I will say about that.

Ghosts!?! who say, well don't let that be a turn off. Seriously, don't! This book is wonderfully beautiful, sad and poetic. I know I have said that before but this book is that good. This book is character driven. It doesn't matter if you lover her characters or hate them, you will love this book. We also see that not all character are good. We the reader see good characters doing bad things but we will forgive them and still love them (ahem Pop).

This book has just about everything but the kitchen sink: racism, mixed families, poverty, crime, death, addiction, parentified children and yes, ghosts!

I had no idea what I was getting into when I requested to read an ARC of this book. I will be 100% honest, I requested based on a friend's review and I was blown away. I have not read Ward's "Salvage the bones" but it is going on my to-read list! Ward has created a poignant raw book that had me turning page after page and loving every single word. I literally read this entire book in one day. Sing, Unburied, Sing is my first book by Jesmyn Ward but it will not be my last!!!!

Highly recommend.

I received a copy of this book from Scribner and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Resilience of Misplaced Hope


Jesmyn Ward’s win is our gain — in 2016 she claimed the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a literary prize that means the National Book Award winner (2011, “Salvage the Bones”) can afford, she said, to take two years off from teaching at Tulane University to concentrate solely on writing.

That in itself is a good thing.

And, if she continues to produce novels such as her newest, “Sing, Unburied, Sing” (Scribner), it’s a very good thing, indeed.

Crossing three generations of familial landscape, “Sing, Unburied, Sing” canvasses the dependence and addiction of Leonie, a young African-American woman whose attempts to raise her children continuously fail despite her desire to be a different type of person.

That means that Jojo, 13, and his toddler sister, Kayla, are dependent only on themselves and the sagacity they get from their grandfather, Pap, who is doing his best to teach Jojo the ways of manhood while struggling with his bedridden wife. Mam, a woman once known for the power of her healing herbs, is now dying, eaten up with cancer.

Against the advice of her father — much of what she does would be against the advice of any father — Leonie embarks on a road trip with the children through the heart of Mississippi. The end destination is Parchman Farm, the state penitentiary. There, Leonie hopes for a joyful reunion with her white boyfriend, the children’s father.

As with any plot as haunting as this, enter two ghosts, a brother that only Leonie can see, and only when she’s high, and the spirit of a dead inmate tied to Pap who carries in his wanderings all the racism and hate that is embodied in the history of the South — illustrating that even ghosts sometimes have tales they need to tell, tales that can inform and instruct our own lives. If only we will listen.

Although this is a story that could quickly descend into despair and stay there, Ward throws an an occasional lifeline — albeit one that often plays out in threads, as with a Leonie reminiscence: “This is the kind of world, Mama told me when I got my period when I was twelve, that makes fools of the living and saints of them once they dead. And devils them throughout. Even though the words were harsh, I saw hope in her face when she said it.”

Although hope may be hard to come by in Leonie’s life, fortunately, the novel centers not on this but on the concept of resilience, and especially the resilience of children.

The great truth of Ward's cheerless world, though, is that children shouldn’t have to be so elastic.

Yet that is precisely where Ward’s lyrical prose takes us in a Jungian ride along through the confines of legacy, violence and love.

Editor's note: This review will appear in print and online in (Boone, N.C.) Mountain Times on Aug. 31, 2017. Click on the Books tab at http://www.wataugademocrat.com/mountaintimes/.

The most breathtaking and heartfelt book I've read this year; the story is so tense in places I would inadvertently hold my breath. I enjoyed the ghostly elements and Ms. Ward's ability to make visceral the characters' pain, love, loyalty, and protection of loved ones. I think Jojo is one of the most complete and beautifully written characters I've ever encountered. I cannot recommend highly enough. An absolute must-read.

Sing Unburied Sing has been described as a 'Southern Odyssey' and it certainly lives up to this. While it only spans days in real time, it covers years of racial tensions, poverty and struggle in the rural South. 

The story is told from multiple perspectives - largely 13 year old Jojo and his mother Leonie - who is addicted to cocaine, and a neglectful mother. Jojo and his sister Kayla, are mixed race, with a black mother and white father, and as such have been disowned by his father's white family, instead primarily cared for by their 'Pop', Leonie's father. An excursion to pick up Michael, the children's father, upon his release from prison is a harrowing journey through the lives they live and struggle through. The multiple perspectives, alongside elements of magical realism, captures the lack of communication and understanding between characters, which drives much of the tension and frustration of the narrative. 

The story is truly tense, as it feels throughout as though the family is about to implode. Jojo's narrative is deeply moving, and often difficult, and while Leonie's is far less sympathetic, it does give insight into her experiences and how she struggles to relate to and connect with her own children. There are stark and horrific moments, in everyday tasks as well as the horrendous injustices the family face. However, there are also, very momentarily, deeply beautiful moments, between Jojo and his sister, or with his Pop. The setting is completely immersive - you can almost feel the oppressive heat and imagine the many smells of the novel filling your nostrils. The magical realism is captured so seamlessly that it doesn't feel odd or out of place but perfectly fits with the themes the narrative has gradually established. 

Ward captures the intensity of human emotion in the smallest of actions and incidences, in the same way that the family becomes a microcosm for Southern society - with the relationships between the black and white families, and the history between them reflecting larger tensions and discrimination. The book is difficult and complex, as well as truly sad, but it is not completely bleak with a sense of hope in the characters of Jojo and Kayla, as well as a pure good-heartedness in Pop. 

This book is truly stunning and it will be a big one this year.

This is a real tough one. Tough to read. Tough to evaluate. BUT. 4 because the voice was so searing and effective.

A dysfunctional family tale, but not the usual one. The power of this book grows on you.

The setting:
"Jojo [13] and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the[ir crack head] ... mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she’s high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie’s children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary..."

There are ghosts in this story. Leonie is visited by her dead brother, Given--when she's high--which is often. Jojo is visted by Richie, a young boy imprisoned with Pop [River] way back when. Jojo only knows part of Richie's story because Pop doesn't reveal all til near the end of the book.

Leonie is not mother material--affirmed by her mother, Mam. [I loved Mam.] Leonie is more concerned with herself than feeding her children. Jojo, in fact, takes care of Kayla as Leonie is incapable. He cares that Kayla is always hungry and gives [and steals] her food rather than feed himself. Although Jojo and Kayla are [to me] the heart of the story, my criticism is way too much of the hunger scenes and Jojo as parent, but understand reflective of the situation. Sometimes I felt as if Ward were bashing me over the head with repetition of the sadness of their situation.

Michael's parents are racists and can't abide that their son's girlfriend/then wife, is black. In fact, they have never met their grandchildren, until... Read to see how the layers unfold in this regard.

Some of the language caught my attention.
Consider:
"my shoulders even as a hanger"
"...I could see a shadow of Big Joseph in him... see the ways the years would soften him to his daddy. How fat would wreathe him, and he would settle into his bbig frame the way a house settles into the earth underneath it.""...the dream...a bruise in the memory that hurts when I touch it."
"He matched the sky, which hung low, a silver colander full to leak. It was drizzling."
"The pain glistens in her black irises, moves like smoke over the whites."

And so on. There's drug abuse, racial problems, poverty, tragedy, sadness, and love. Often heartbreaking. But give this book a chance, as it's power will grow on you, haunt you, and linger in your thoughts.

Recommended.

The best thing about this book is the characters. They all feel well developed and realistic and this is an impressive feat considering how short the book is. I thought that it was a good idea to have alternating perspectives between the son Jojo and the mum Leonie as I wouldn't have had any sympathy for or understanding of Leonie if some of the story wasn't told from her perspective. This is essentially Jojo's story, but I thought that was a good decision. I thought the subject matter was interested and I was especially interested in the way the story explored the themes of race and incarceration. After researching the author, I found out that she has written a non-fiction book exploring this topic (which I have already purchased) and I think it will be an interesting read as the author clearly has a good understanding of this topic. The only reason I didn't give this a five star rating is because I really disliked the supernatural elements of the story. I found them to be jarring and they kept taking me out of a story I was really enjoying. This book started off being really gritty and realistic and I expected this to be maintained throughout. The introduction of supernatural element spoilt this. It's was disappointing that Jojo's parents didn't really seem to evolve as people, but I actually think it was quite realistic. If they'd all lived happily ever after I would've have believed it. Overall, I would really recommend this book.

Ward's writing could not be more relevant to this current moment in U.S. history. It's poetic and beautiful, while the subject matter is terrifying and ugly. The story is told from multiple perspectives, encouraging empathy from the reader and demanding that they look at the world around them with the same consideration.

A restorative justice training in 2014 helped me understand the educational impact of trauma and taught me how to instruct knowing that the majority of my students at the time had high ACE scores (adverse childhood experiences).

Many teachers understand and have sympathy for students with rough home lives, but we need to move beyond feelings into action.  Students who have experienced trauma are not lazy, explosive, or defiant- they are in survival mode.  Their brains develop differently as a result of the trauma and teachers need to use trauma-informed practices in our classrooms.

Sing, Unburied, Sing is drenched in trauma and follows JoJo and his sister Kayla as they leave the familiarity of their grandparents' home and their dying grandmother to go on a road trip with their distant drug-addicted mother to pick up the children's abusive father from prison.  JoJo serves a dual role as a child and as a father figure to his toddler sister, a role I've observed many times in real life.  JoJo stole my heart and I mourned for him with each page.

The trauma present in the lives of JoJo and Kayla, while horrific, is not that unusual in our world, and is a powerful reminder to all of us who work with children.  In fact, trauma was pervasive throughout all of the generations represented in the novel.  Immerse yourself in this book, enter into the children's lives, weep, then dry yourself off and do something because...

None of it happened and all of it's true. -Jeanne Ray

Out September 5th!!! Thank you Scribner for allowing me to review this book!

I was lucky enough to get a digital arc of this book via netgalley.

I have encountered Ward earlier in the year when I read the series of essays "The Fire This Time" that she curated, which was thought provoking and highly educational for me.

Sing, Unburied, Sing, which is going to be published in November in the UK, follows a family in the deep South as they navigate grief, loss and betrayal. Ward is a skilled storyteller and the change in perspectives from the different point of views we follow is effortless. The language is beautiful, lyrical but always engaging and easy to read.

Jojo, is a young boy, who had to learn too early that he cannot rely on his mother or his white father, who is about to finish a prison sentence. He lives with his grandparents, his grandmother dying from cancer and considers himself the sole carer for his toddler sister. When his father is about to be released from prison, his mother forces him and his sister to come with her to pick him up. We follow their journey - and it is a journey of many layers - from the viewpoint of Jojo and Leonie, his mother. And then later, a ghost joins the narration too.

As wonderful as the language is, as much as I cared for Jojo, to me the book just never really came together. So much was attempted and I really wanted it to all come together, but to me it felt like I was to feel the greatness but never allowed to be in on it fully.