Thanks NetGalley for allowing me to read this book. It took a lot longer to finish than I expected. It demanded a lot of concentration. I found myself rereading passages a few times. I enjoyed the story though. I wanted to feel something for Hiram, the main character. He just didn’t feel real. Also, the story could have been told with fewer pages. Overall, a good read. Again, thanks!

A powerful book that is difficult to review. The mix of fabulism/magical realism and the civil war and enslavement of Black Americans is one that has been done before, but I felt in this case that it was done skillfully and to particularly moving effect. The initial plot, as the main character grows from a brilliant and talented, enslaved child to a brilliant and talented, enslaved man, and is disabused of his childhood hopes and dreams, is wrenching in a very specific way. To investigate and consider the brutalities, absurdities, and irrationalities of enslavement, the horrors as carried out upon the enslaved, and the simultaneous stagnation and degradation of the culture, abilities, and intellect of slavers is a common enough set of interwoven themes, as old as the abolitionist movement—thoroughly explored by Mark Twain, among others. But in this book, the perspective is particularly effective, and the analysis of the grotesqueries of enslavement, at the hands of one's own relatives, from a particularly logical and insightful mind trapped within the abominable legal institution of human chattel is shrewdly and potently achieved.

One of my best books of the year. Absolutely breathtaking writing, and characters that will stay with you forever. It is no exaggeration to say instant classic.

A marvelously written story, almost magical and unreal. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. All the best to the author.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free eARC of this through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

I had no idea what to expect going into this but I was so blown away by this book, the story telling, and Hiram. I was fully engrossed in this novel, and had a hard time putting it down once I started. I thought about this book and it's characters and this story every second I wasn't reading it. I feel like a different person having read this book.

This book is a hard to read in a lot of different ways. The loss and the change of families and how important and dynamic that is something devastating to read about. The trauma that this system inflicts on the people involved in it is painful to read about and be confronted with, especially from a perspective of someone who has not read many things like this before. Hiram, our main character, having to confront these memories of these things to power his conduction, especially as you learn more about his history, is something hard to read about because you learn to care about him so much.

However, this is not to say that this whole book is devastating. I loved these characters deeply, and seeing them have hope and love was something I feel like I learned incredible amounts of. I love this book, deeply. I would recommend it whole heartedly to anyone who is looking at reading it.

I've delayed writing a review because I am part of the minority of readers who did not like this book. I tend to dislike novels in which evoking a reader's emotion is the main goal. This just was not for me. I adore the author's not fiction writings and will remain a devoted reader.

I recieved an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book and will recommend it often!

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

This is a very difficult book to read. It didn't ever really feel like a novel to me even though there were a lot of fantastical elements. Honestly, I like Coates better as a non-fiction author. Some of this felt very rushed and other parts were slow as molasses.

Coates is an excellent and important writer. If you haven’t discovered his nonfiction yet, don’t waste another second. It’s made me uncomfortable, and then it’s made me better. This is his first novel, and it’s a mystical take on the Underground Railroad. It feels important—especially coming from him, especially given his other writing. It was literary, spooky, gripping to start. I never knew where it was going. I wanted to know what happened.

Yet it took me a bit to get into. It picked up the pace and then slowed down again. It was so slow in the last third, it took me over a month to finish. I didn’t care that much by the end. Everything felt very much at arm’s length. But the thing is, the whole time I kept wondering if it was me? I think it was styled that way on purpose. Coates is an incredibly deliberate and intelligent writer and it makes me think that I just didn’t understand everything in this book, and what it has to say. I want to. I want to attend a class on it, read every article and interview to get my head around it and figure this out!


Thank you for the ARC!

DNF

I tried multiple times to get into this book, both reading and on audio. I've loved everything I read of Coates and had been looking forward to this one, so I'm not sure why I couldn't get past the 10% mark on this one. I'm going to try and come back to it sometime later this year.

I received an advanced copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Lyrical. Mystical. Beautifully told. Coates is a master storyteller and this tale of slavery, a cry and search for freedom, is powerful and unforgettable.

Words cannot describe Coates' ability to make me FEEL. His first foray into fiction was captivating and devastating. While i did find some elements that didn't work for me his use of language makes up for all of it.

Amazing book from an amazing writer! I wasn't sure how his fiction was going to be and if it would live up to his beloved nonfiction, but it did not disappoint. I highly recommend this one!

All historical fiction is just that – fiction, and The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehesi Coates is no exception. The fiction label allows history to be massaged into a compelling story. However, this history itself is so compelling that it needs no embellishment especially not one based in magic. That concern aside, aspects of the writing pull me right into the middle of the story. That is the history that speaks to me in this book and gives it its power.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2020/01/the-water-dancer.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

By now, nearly everyone that loves reading has heard of this debut novel by one of the century’s most celebrated writers. Not every strong journalist can also write fiction, but Coates can. I read it free and early thanks to Net Galley and Random House. It’s for sale now.

The concept is a strong one. Why have we seen so little historical fiction set during the period just before the American Civil War and from the point of view of a slave? In an earlier essay Coates has pointed out that African-Americans need to reclaim this time period, that shrinking back from studying it is in a way a concession that shouldn’t be given. That’s the perspective on which this novel is built. It isn’t an easy read by any means; readers need strong literacy skills and a cast iron gut. The level of pain and violence—especially at the outset—is wrenching, and it should be. I took a long time to read this book because I could only swallow it in small portions. You may not want it for mealtime or bedtime reading.

Our protagonist is Hiram Walker, and he is the progeny of an enslaved mother and the plantation’s owner. Hiram is strong, capable, and attractive. When his father pulls him from the “tasked” and brings him home, other slaves warn him to be on his guard; he will never be considered a full member of this family, and he’ll never be considered an equal with Maynard, his Caucasian half-brother whose work ethic, talent, and intelligence could fit together in a thimble with room to spare. Hiram is assigned to prevent Maynard from going off the rails; however, since the authority runs in the opposite direction, Hiram is ultimately unable to save Maynard, who drowns after overindulging.

Hiram has an unusual gift, a supernatural talent that lends interest to the story without becoming its central focus.

Ultimately our protagonist is going to have to run for his freedom. During the years just before the Civil War, owners of large plantations in Virginia and the Carolinas find themselves in desperate straits. The land has been badly over farmed, and both cotton and tobacco are demanding crops. The soil is used up; farmland that once produced bountifully is no longer productive. The solution that most of the large owners seize is to expand their holdings westward. Vast numbers of slaves are either sold and sent to the deep South “Natchez Way” or moved there to work for the same owner on different land. Those that go are treated severely, and their families are fragmented without a moment’s hesitation. While some slaves were able to negotiate for their own manumission in earlier years, this option is no longer on the table. Coates does a stellar job keeping this aspect of his story consistent with historical fact.

Hiram’s escape is ultimately successful after a number of nightmarish experiences, but he is persuaded to return and to assist in the Underground Railroad, and he does so partly with the goal of freeing those that mean the most to him. Along the way he meets Harriet Tubman, and the way Coates depicts her is credible and fascinating. But the thing I love most, apart from the story’s basis and the eloquent word-smithery that shines here and there, is the way Coates condemns the hypocrisy, the culture of the slaveowner that makes the most horrible men able to look at themselves in the mirror and like what they see:

"For it is not simply that you are captured by slavery, but by a kind of fraud, which paints its executors as guardians at the gate, staving off African savagery, when it is they themselves who are savages, who are Mordred, who are the Dragon, in Camelot's clothes. And at that moment of revelation, of understanding, running is not a thought, not even as a dream, but a need, no different than the need to flee a burning house."

My one concern is with the dialogue. This historical tale will spin along beautifully, but then one person will tell another, “Trust me on that,” or “Sounds like a piece of work to me,” and the effect this has on me as a reader is that the spell is broken, and I am no longer transported to the time and place of the story. And to be sure, everyone that writes historical fiction has to decide how much language of the period to use, and when to use current grammar and sentence composition so that the modern reader can follow it. But this is something that jumps out at me at the beginning, in the middle, and even at the end. I tell myself to forget about it and I immerse myself in the story once more, but then there it is again. No other reviewers seem to have noted this, but a part of me thinks that the braver course would have been for Coates to write this story under a pseudonym, because I suspect that without the famous name attached to it, more genuine criticism about this single, pervasive glitch would have been forthcoming.

Be that as it may, this is one hell of a fine story, and it’s told just when readers need to see it most. I recommend it to you without reservation.

I think Ta-Nehisi Coates is an incredible non-fiction writer, but this book never seemed to wow me as much as his other books. The narrative felt slow and bogged down, even though the plot itself was really intriguing.

This was a book that I grew to really enjoy; the writing was very lyrical and although a heartbreaking story at points, it was beautifully told. It tells the story of Hiram, a slave who is freed but becomes part of the underground railroad to help free other slaves. However, this isn't the underground railroad of history, but rather a speculative one, one which is imbued with a fantastical Harriet Tubman and memories that are woven together to literally make magic. This story reads like a folk tale; if you like historical fiction with a little bit of magical realism, you'll enjoy this.

Washington Black, Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad, Underground Airlines, Beloved... the horrors of slavery have been brought to life and then mitigated with magical realism many times before. This book did not feel new or innovative, in that sense. Coates can write, but I found the prose too dense and often confusing. I will read his next effort at fiction-writing, but with less enthusiasm.

The book The Water Dancer tells the story of Hiram, a boy who is enslaved in antebellum Virginia but longing for freedom. It tells of his pursuits to join the Underground Railroad while also learning of a magical gift that he possesses himself. This is a great book. I appreciated the different perspectives it brought to people who were enslaved. It was also an engaging read. I would encourage this book as a way to learn more about the Antebellum South and slavery, especially since it is written from the perspective of a black man.