Following in the footsteps of Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison and Colson Whitehead, Ta-Nehisi Coates has crafted a poignant and powerful examination of slavery and the underground railroad, with a speculative twist. We follow Hiram Walker, a mixed race slave and son of the plantation owner as he finds his place in the Underground through the power of conduction - the ability to transport from one place to another.

The Positives: I found the discussion around the relative place of the 'Quality' and the 'Tasked' really fascinating. Coates often reduces the interactions to a level of transaction, which powerfully demonstrates the horror of one class of people taking possession of another. I also appreciated that there are few instances of violence in the narrative. This has the duel effect of ensuring the impact of the violent episodes that do occur and also puts the focus of the book upon the characters and their motivations, as opposed to the horrors they have to endure. For me, this made the characters here far more human and believable and consequently, I cared deeply for them.

The Negatives: I felt like there were times when the narrative became a little bit meandering and there were portions that lagged a little, for me.

Overall, I found this to be a really compelling and original book and would definitely recommend it to anyone who have enjoyed the works of the aforementioned authors.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

What a remarkable read, one that I've heard such a lot about, and rightly so.

Hiram is one of the Tasked, a slave, son to a white man, on whose property he works. He has memories, strong memories of times gone past, particularly those holding him to his mother; gradually Hiram is able to learn the power of his memories and use them to serve the Underground cause, committed to freeing slaves.

The book has a whole host of intriguing and engaging characters: Sophia, who Hiram loves; Thena, an old lady who takes him in - she has lost her children, and he his mother; Corrine Quinn, seemingly a lady of Quality, but running her own Underground station, plus many, many more.

This read brings a new style to this kind of story, and I highly recommend it.

Mingling history and fantasy, this debut novel from Ta-Nehisi Coates follows Hiram Walker, born into slavery on a Virginia plantation. He’s the owner’s son and is summoned to the big house to serve as his own half-brother’s servant and companion. One evening as his drives his brother home from town a bridge collapses and a near-death experience demonstrates that he possess a special power, a power that he neither understands nor desires but from which he can’t escape and which goes on to play an integral part in his future. Like Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, the book mixes the brutal horror of slavery with an element of magic realism, but I didn’t find that it really worked here. Colson’s Railroad analogy is comprehensible but here Hiram’s power is less so and it took me a while to work out exactly what it was. There are some harrowing scenes, for sure, but too much expository dialogue slows the action, and the characters all sounded very similar. There are so many slave stories out there that I can see why it’s tempting for an author to bring something original to the telling, and this is indeed original, but it really didn’t come together for me and I found Hiram hard to relate to. It’s well and competently written with empathy, insight and understanding of the psychological effect of slavery on both slaver and enslaved, but overall the novel failed to fully engage me.

'Who knows why we love what we do? Why we are what we are?'

I really enjoyed The Water Dancer. Coates always has a poetic yet poignant way of writing, and although there were elements of this story that were fantastical (I don't want to give too much away) he still conveys the gravity of the situation/subject.

There are things Coates touches on in this book that I can well believe are based on true things - the section on Pennsylvania, the fever and the mass burial pits - 'It struck me even here, in the free North, the luxuries of this world were built right on top of us'. It's easy to try to forget the horrific things that were/are done based on race, but I believe it is right to look these things in the face and acknowledge them. Coates insists on this with his portrayal of the tasked, the low and the quality in this book.

Hiram's journey is an interesting one throughout this book, and although he is a relatively young main character, there is a lot he has to carry.
I did find myself siding with Hiram and his emotions throughout most of the book, but found myself siding more with other characters in some points.
For example, when Hi is discussing Sophia's predicament regarding Nathaniel Walker with Corrine, his viewpoint is from that of slavery, whereas Corrine's is from the viewpoint of a woman. Of course she (or I) cannot ever truly comprehend the situation from the viewpoint of the tasked, but as Corrine herself states, being a woman is itself a form of being tasked. She is trapped and limited by the situation of her gender, and she will know herself full-well the way men in her society view and treat women, regardless of their race.
I think this viewpoint she has is true for any 'minority' group - trapped by different power struggles or expectations and limited by this, despite the 'position of power' you may be in compared to others.
Because of this I felt it unfair that her opposition to slavery and her attempt to alleviate the tasked in the way that she could (with her limited standing as a woman) was described as 'a kind of vanity'.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I felt myself really being sucked into the story and though it wasn't always easy to read because of the content, it was easy to read because it is so well written.

I would probably read this book again and I would definitely recommend it to others.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Books, and the author Ta-Nehisi Coates.
I know this is a popular book with an almost cult-like following, and covers an extremely important part of America's history, but I have to admit that I just did not enjoy this novel. I struggled to get to the end, and found it to move just too slowly and did not grip me.
There is no doubt that Coates is a talented writer, but this novel came up short for me, with many elements feeling disjointed, most notably the magical elements, and the addition of a historical figure imbued with otherworldly powers. 2 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley for this advanced reader's copy. Beautifully written story of slavery set on a Virginian tobacco farm. Lyrically written, powerful book that left me wanting more.

Mesmerising and important novel. A subject about slavery but encompassing universal themes of human behaviour. Magical realism rooted in the profoundly ordinary.

This is a good and sad book. It's written in a poetic, lyrical style. I have some difficulty with this style of writing sometimes, when the writer focuses on too much the writing rather than 'what' she'he's writing about. So, sometimes the plot suffers. And, I think it's one of those cases. It's a beautifully written book with a bit of an uneven pacing and lack of a proper, strong plot.
However, I did enjoy it for what it is, and it would be a complete 5 star, had it been a bit better paced.

Thanks a lot to NetGalley and The Publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Water Dancer is set in the pre-civil war period. The main character is Hiram Walker who is born into slavery. He lives on a declining tobacco plantation in Virginia that is called Lockless. He is of mixed race, and is son to the white plantation owner, his mother was sold away when he was young. The enslaved are the “the tasked” the landowners are the “the quality”

Hiram has a photographic memorary but for some reason can’t remember his mother. One day Hiram and his white brother are driving across the bridge and he has a vision of his mother water dancing. When the vision ends the carriage, he and is brother are in the water. His brother drowns, but he survives and he learns that he has a super human ability called conduction which can transport across distances, the same power is shared by Harriet Tubman who we meet later in the story and they call Moses.

To transport himself across great distances he needs to use the powerful source of feeling, but to get that powerful source he needs to be able to remember his mother.

He becomes involved in the underground movement.

The book pushed my patience, I felt the narrative looses direction especially in the middle part of the story. I found my mind wandering whilst Hiram was meeting a series of former Tasked people who are now working in the underground. The plot stopped several times and the elements of magical realism was somehow fantasy.

There are great moments in the story but the fantasy versus the realism didn’t work for me. I’m not sure it’s my reading style.
Some of the characters leaped off the page for me and yet many of the middle section characters of the book just became dull because the Tasked were just a series of monologues where the characters talked about evil.

The writing in the book lives up to the authors reputation, incredibly strong and overall a story that needs telling. When I started the book I loved it and felt transported to the plantation - I loved Hiram and wanted it to come good for him but the middle was clunky, repeated itself and it lost the pace and the story. I gave this three stars I feel almost guilty because I adored the book to begin with and I had very high expectations but it just didn’t work for me.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC

This book has a lot of promise: it has a considered and interesting plot, and tackles some complex subjects with nuance. It's also quite long, and - because Coates has taken on a lot - at times slow going. I did enjoy the reading experience, and there were a few moments of total absorption in the narrative. There were also many more moments of restlessness: a few points and ideas are repeated over and over again in the course of the narrative. I wanted to love this, and I didn't quite, but it was rewarding - I just wish it had been about 1/3 shorter.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The writing in this book is beautiful. It's poetic, lyrical and captivating. But it's also part of it downfall in my opinion. There are a lot of words in this book, but not enough story. The beginning of this book gives so much promise but It fails to deliver. Although it is a slow read, the ending is rushed in its lack of detail because of all the details we got in the beginning. I think this story should have been told as a trilogy to fully do it justice.

This is a good book, but it's a flawed beauty.

“I know now that this story, this Conduction, had to begin there on that fantastic bridge between the land of the living and the land of the lost.” - ‘The Water Dancer’

My thanks to Penguin Books (U.K.) for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Water Dancer’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates in exchange for an honest review. It was published in the U.K. on 3rd October in ebook and audiobook editions. Its U.K. hardback will be published on 6th February 2020.

As the audiobook was available I obtained this and listened alongside reading the eARC. It was narrated by Joe Morton.

This was a beautiful complex work of historical fiction that focuses upon the life of Hiram Walker, born as a slave on a Virginian plantation during the Antebellum. He has a rare gift, which he only discovers as an adult. This gift, which I will not describe to avoid spoilers, introduces elements of magical realism into the narrative.

Later, Hiram becomes actively involved with the Underground Railroad where he is mentored by Harriet Tubman.

This is Coates first novel and previous to this he has been acclaimed for his nonfiction works on the history of racism in the United States. He also has contributed to the Black Panther comic series.

I found his writing powerful and lyrical and rich in imagery and felt myself transported into Hiram’s world. There were scenes that were difficult to read and clearly it was well researched. Personally, I was comfortable with the magical realism as it brought in mystical elements associated with the African diaspora.

I found that it was a novel that demanded a close reading and it is one that I will likely return to reread for a deeper appreciation of its themes and celebration of its language. I plan to recommend it for inclusion in our County Libraries Reading Group Collection.

Highly recommended.

I was really looking forward to this book - I've read a few of Ta-Nehisi Coates' books and have found him to be an excellent non-fiction writer.

What this book well was to describe the horror of slavery - and how the human mind adjusts to incredible suffering, families torn apart, rape and man's inhumanity to man. The stories were intriguing and pulled you in. I did find the parts of about magic/conduction a bit far fetched - in the end, it made the stories a little confusing and difficult to follow.

I did enjoy the book - and believe it continues to tell a story of the past that must never be forgotten.

I received an ARC of this book from Penguin Books, via Netgalley.

I originally saw The Water Dancer marketed as a story about a super-powered slave. Maybe your mind, as mine did, conjured up images of slave revolts, and the antebellum establishment uprooted and destroyed in an alternative take on US history.

In reality, The Water Dancer is.... not quite that. The story is about emancipation and freedom, but concerns itself mainly with the emancipation of one man, Hiram Walker, and his journey from the Task to freedom.

I'll leave the plot summary at that, but will say that this is a profoundly beautiful book. I'm a big fan of a 'slow' drama and this has many quiet moments where Hiram's internal reflection and growth really shine through. The majority of the victories in the book are his, as he escapes the horrors of slavery and rises above himself time and time again through the book.

Ta-Nehisi Coates's debut novel is as elegant, poetic and sharp as his non-fiction. It follows Hiram, a young and gifted slave in the dying days of Virginia's tobacco boom as he grapples with his relationship with his father (his white master), the loss of his mother (sold off by his father), his involvement in the Underground Railroad and his love for his white uncle's slave-concubine Sophia. The novel potently portrays the suffocation and powerlessness of slavery, and the suffering caused by its disregard for and destruction of the relationships and ties that make the human spirit. For the slaves, forgetting is survival yet remembrance is painful salvation, the latter encapsulated in magical powers that Hiram (and Harriet Tubman) possess. It is here that the book falters a little - these powers too easily jump out as metaphor, chopping up the narrative flow. This was reinforced by characters, especially those in the Underground, often speaking like ideologues rather than characters. Which is not to say that I did not enjoy it - just that the novel felt more focused on ideas and characters, both deeply developed with nuance, at the expense of its plot.

Coates hit the headlines last year with his non-fiction book Between The World And Me, his examination and history of racism in America. The Water Dancer carried on that theme, but this time in the form of a novel as he relayed the story of Hiram, born into slavedom, the son of a wealthy plantation owner but provided with an education that made him stand apart from those around him.
Hiram’s life was definitely not simple in that yes he had to work, but he had an intelligence that perhaps made him see his and other slaves positions a little more clearly, that made him want more than just his freedom.
Hiram was definitely a deep thinker, and this is where Coates excelled, there was never a moment when you didn’t understand Hiram’s actions, his quick thinking, his ability and attempts to outwit and outsmart those who kept him captive.
It made you appreciate the trauma, untold torture and complete disregard, the white inflicted and had for their coloured counterparts, treated as animals and commodities for sale.
Yet Coates didn’t just show one side, as he portrayed those landowners and people who campaigned against and fought to end the slave trade. Hiram, himself became entangled with their dangerous exploits his world opened up, as he tasted freedom, yet still he felt trapped as he tried to repay those who had freed him.
The narrative was dense, although not impenetrable, and not a novel that could be read quickly, careful reading required to fully appreciate the quality of the writing. I did think it slightly over long and I struggled to maintain my attention all the way through. It was however an excellent read and one that will be hugely successful.

I'm love with the style of writing which is amazing and full of images and dreamy.
I loved it and it was the style of writing that kept me hooked because I really loved it.
On the other side I found the plot hard to follow and a bit disjointed.
It's an important book and it talks about important topics in a mix of magic realism and fantasy.
But the plot made it hard to read.
I think some will love it, on my side i'm in the middle.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

A courageous first novel about trauma of slavery and meaning of freedom. In particular, Ta-Nehisi Coates focuses on forced separation of families, the power of memory and storytelling.

The novel is mainly set in mid nineteenth century Virginia, the land stripped over decades of intensive tobacco production. Faced with falling profits, the ‘Quality’, white plantation owners are selling off slaves down Natchez way and moving further west in search of better land and more wealth. Hiram Walker, the main character, lost his mother down Natchez way when he was a child and while he has photographic memory, he doesn’t remember his mother. His father, a white plantation owner, stubbornly clings to the exhausted land, his once opulent mansion slowly falling into disrepair. After an unsuccessful escape attempt, Hiram becomes an agent of the Underground Railroad, first locally and later in Philadelphia, helping conduct escaped slaves further North and meeting a diverse cast of characters, some of whom are based on real people.

Coates’s writing is often beautiful and powerful, this is a richly imagined novel but I must admit I also found it somewhat clunky at times and felt that he had perhaps taken too much on. The Water Dancer can also be seen as a coming of age novel and there are magical realism elements too. Hiram has a special power, which is sort of both fantastical and metaphorical but to me, this wasn’t completely convincing and I couldn’t stop comparing The Water Dancer with Colston Whitehead’s Underground Railroad. Perhaps this is a little unfair but it is unavoidable.

The Water Dancer is a good first novel and I’m looking forward to seeing what Coates does next. Three and a half stars.

My thanks to Penguin Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review The Water Dancer.

A breathtakingly imaginative, lyrical and well researched antebellum historical fiction debut novel, infused with magical realism from Ta-Nehisi Coates. Follow the life of the extraordinary enslaved Hiram Walker, the black son of Howell Walker, plantation owner in Virginia, whose mother is sold by his father at the tender age of 9, gifted with the ability to remember everything, except memories of his mother, and later the power of conduction. A new vocabulary is created for slaves and whites, the fight for freedom leads to the Underground Railway with its hopes and dreams of a better future. This is a richly descriptive and detailed picture of the horrors of slavery, the deliberate practice of breaking up families and loving relationships and the psychological trauma this inflicts. Underpinning these inhuman wicked acts is the drive to crush and extinguish any embers of resistance to the status quo. Coates gives us profoundly traumatic, heartbreaking and moving storytelling that haunts, a necessary retelling of American history, the repercussions of which continue to bedevil contemporary America, doing it with humanity and compassion. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Penguin UK for an ARC.

An uneven book for me, which takes obvious cues from [book:Beloved|1411617] and [book:The Underground Railroad|30555488], and which bears some comparison to [book:Washington Black|39603810]. All three try to do something new with the slavery narrative, and Coates creates the 'conduction' where Hi is able to spirit himself from one place to another (which also made me think of Harry Potter...). As was the case with Underground Railroad and Beloved, events are both fantastic and metaphorical at the same time.

Coates concentrates his depiction of the brutality of slavery in the way it distorts families: Hi's relationships to his white plantation-owner father and his black slave mother are both twisted out of shape, and affect his own life and outlook as we might expect. He also does a fine job of offering up powerful scenes of slaves being torn apart from loved ones: children are taken from mothers, husbands from wives, lovers from lovers as they are sold at whim.

In places the writing is beautiful; in others Coates' more analytical voice is heard as he coolly explores the system of slavery and its meanings. But there are also places where this becomes a kind of adventure story which takes away from the more subtle aspects of the story. Perhaps fiction just isn't Coates' natural habitat; perhaps this just suffers from first-novel jitters. While not wholly satisfied, I'm not sorry I read this.