FULL REVIEW: https://readingbeyondthebookcover.com/book-reaction-for-lamb-by-lesa-cline-ransome/

Told in alternating viewpoints, For Lamb is a story that left me in deep reverence for all who have put themselves in mortal danger to protect and give their loved ones a chance at a more purposeful life. In this heart-wrenching story of family, friendship, and sacrifice, Cline-Ransome highlights the significance of black women, the stability of the black family structure, and the domino effect of forbidden relationships during the Jim Crow Era of U.S. History.

If you liked Mildred D. Taylor’s, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, then you are sure to enjoy Lesa Cline-Ransome’s, For Lamb. So I did.

4/5, I recommend this book. It would be a great addition to any classroom or children’s library. It’s informative and evokes emotions and further discussion around the treatment of African Americans through time.

Many thanks to Holiday House Books for Young People, Lesa Cline-Ransome, and NetGalley for an Advanced Review Copy in exchange for an honest review. My review/reaction is voluntary, all thoughts are mine and unbiased, and receiving the Advanced Review Copy does not influence my rating and/or recommendation.

In a Nutshell: Slow but hardhitting. This is one YA book that will work wonderfully even beyond its target age group. Good for literary fiction lovers who like character-oriented fiction.

Story Synopsis:
Late 1930s. Jackson, Mississippi. Lamb is a young studious girl who is protected at every step by her mother Marion and brother Simeon. Marion is a hardworking seamstress while Simeon is a clever boy who has earned a college scholarship on his own merit. All three of them however have their major flaws. Lamb is naïve, Marion is dominating, and Simeon is impulsive.
When Lamb allows a white girl to offer her friendship, their lives will change in an irreparable manner.
The story is written in the first person perspective of various characters.

Note: Don’t read the blurb if you don’t like spoilers. It reveals almost the entire story!

Where the book worked for me:
😍 Have you ever experienced a book that leaves you frustrated and furious and devastated and hopeful at the same time? This book subtly churns all possible intense emotions without going over the top.
😍 While there is a lot of brutality in the book, there is nothing much on page. The author creates impact without sensationalising her writing, allowing the events to speak for themselves while also catering to its target reading segment.
😍 The personalities of the individual characters are written in a very nuanced style. Not once will you question why someone behaves a certain way.
😍 I loved the strong bond between the central trio—Lamb, Simeon, and Marion. It was heartwarming and realistic.
😍 The ending is spellbinding and shocking, while being somewhat bittersweet. There are some things settled, and some things left for us to guess. But it does perfect justice to the story.
😍 Tackling white supremacy and black lynching in a YA book isn’t an easy task, but the author goes just as dark as required. Her focussed approach makes this a good enough read even for adults.
😍 The author’s note left me stunned. The data she provides are shocking. That said, I admire her reason for choosing the names of the Black characters in this book.


Where the book could have worked better for me:
😐 There were too many first person perspectives. While they were written well, it became a bit tedious to keep switching across character voices, especially in the final quarter when the jumps happen more frequently. The first person helps us to know the characters’ inner thoughts especially in times of crisis. So this point has a positive side too. But maybe some of the minor character perspectives could have been written in third person.
😐 It was too slow. (Character-oriented books are always relatively slower, but this was even slower than usual.)
😐 The setting is somewhat underdeveloped, though I am unsure if this is because it was a YA novel. I would have loved some more insights into the town and the time period.
😐 Unlike what the blurb suggests, the LGBTQ angle is barely present in the story.

I wish publishers learnt to keep some things secret in the blurb. This book’s blurb leaves nothing for us to discover. I am not allowing this to affect my rating as this isn’t a flaw of the book. But it still needs to be mentioned: leave a little for us to find out!

Despite the (mostly minor) flaws, this is a book that will not leave me easily. The characters, especially, Marion, are the main reason to pick up this impactful novel. There are some brutal scenes off the page, but as the topic covers Black lynching, I guess you should be prepared. It is not an easy read by far.
Strongly recommended to those wanting to read a powerful but slow-paced YA novel. This is one author whose books will now definitely be on my radar.
4.25 stars.

My thanks to Holiday House and NetGalley for the DRC of “For Lamb”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Thank you to Holiday House/NetGalley for a copy of For Lamb in exchange for an honest review. 

For Lamb 

Lesa Cline-Ransome's For Lamb is a beautiful book. I am sure it will win awards. It moved me, and I learned more in-depth about a disgusting part of my country's "legacy." This book is called For Lamb and is quite literally for Lamb. In her author's note, Cline-Ransome tells us that she wrote this book in honor of Lamb Whittle. 

Not much is known about Whittle other than she appears on the list of the 4,4000 lynching victims the Equal Justice Initiative recorded between 1877 and 1950. Women victims were often murdered for being in some way associated with men accused of a crime. Cline-Ransome states she "knew [she] had in some way to memorialize these women in a story."

The pain of it all 

As I said, For Lamb is captivating; the characters and story are incredibly well-drawn. I also learned things I never knew. Having said that, as someone who has read and watched their fair share of pieces about the pain inflicted on my communities, I can't say For Lamb is a book I'll come back to time and time again. It hurts to read. I will say it's a sound marketing tactic to let readers know all of this in the book's summary. 

Cline-Ransome's masterpiece deserves readership, but I really hope it doesn't get praise for the same reason that only movies about Black people that win Oscars are about Black suffering. For Lamb is about more than what white people "used to do" (a whole other kettle of fish). 

Beyond racism, the novel explores familial and parental love, generational trauma, religious trauma, queerness, the limits of friendship and more. Obviously, many of those things are inextricably tied to racism, but that's not the end of it.

Should you read it?

Lesa Cline-Ransome has woven a profoundly moving, bittersweet (leaning towards bitter) tale in For Lamb. It would be an excellent addition to high school US history classrooms. There, it could reach the people who need to read it, but they'd (hopefully) have people to guide them through it. That said, there are people for whom the material will be too much, too close to home. Because the world hasn't changed enough.

All in all, For Lamb honors the imagined history of a woman who was murdered for nothing other than the color of her skin. The book tells the story of a family who loves each other fiercely and only want to live better, but can't because of the world around them.

For Lamb is out on January 10th, 2022. Pick up a copy at your local indie bookstore or library. 📚🐑

4.5 Stars
One Liner: Touching, moving, and bittersweet

Lamb lives with her mother and older brother in Jackson, Mississippi. It’s the 1930s, and being Black means keeping their head down and staying quiet to avoid being lynched by white people. Lamb’s mother is a talented seamstress and a closet lesbian. Lamb’s brother, Simeon, is an intelligent and studious boy with dreams to go to the North and live a free life.
Lamb, true to her name, is a sweet and naïve girl with a beautiful voice. She is often the peacemaker between her mother and brother but loves them dearly. Her friendship with a white girl results in a series of events that put an end to everything. This story can end in only one way.
The story comes in the first-person POV of six characters, with Lamb and Simeon getting a major share of the chapters.

What I Like:
The blurb says, ‘Told with nuance and subtlety, avoiding sensationalism and unnecessary brutality…’, and I agree. The book doesn’t resort to graphical and prolonged descriptions of violence. It provides enough information and leaves the rest for the readers to comprehend.
The beginning is slow and takes its own time. However, it picks up pace after the first quarter. I like the unspoken bond between Marion, Lamb, and Simeon. It’s like hard candy. Tough on the outside, warm and loving on the inside.
The title makes sense as the plot comes together in the latter half. The author’s note provided more information. Don’t skip the note in this one. It’s a must-read.
While Lamb and Simeon are sweet and loving characters, I got hooked by Marion’s attitude and approach even before I read her POV. There’s something about her that isn’t immediately apparent to the reader. I also wish I could know more about her childhood (a novella about it, maybe?).
Marny’s character is well-crafted. She is what a white, young, bookish girl would be. Sweet and a little rebellious, but not strong enough to take a stand when things get worse. Nor capable of looking at things from another perspective and realizing what her actions finally led to.
Lamb’s character arc is tentative but steadies in the second half. Her desire to have a friend even at the risk of being targeted for it, her hope to yearn for a better life, and the struggle to stand up for herself without hurting her mother and brother are heart-touching.
The contrast between Simeon and Marion’s characters and the insights from Chem and Chester make the book a compelling read (despite the lack of a proper setting).

What Could Have Worked Better for Me:
The book is tagged LGBT+, and I was curious to see how it would be explored in such a setting. But this is a pretty minor aspect of the book. We know it’s there but doesn’t, as such, affect the plot. I’d love to see at least another chapter dedicated to exploring the character’s emotions.
I see the reason for the first-person POV of so many characters, but not all of them are impactful. A limited third-person POV would have given the same since a couple of characters get no more than 1-3 chapters to present their side.
While the blurb is true to the story, I would present this more as the story of Lamb’s family and the social dynamics during the 1930s. Interracial friendship is the trigger that changes everything, but it is not the sole focus. In fact, this comes quite late in the book, so expecting friendship to be the central point can affect the reader’s experience.

To summarize, For Lamb is a poignant book that presents racial injustice with sensitivity. It is written for the YA audience but works for adults too. I know I’ll be reading more books by her.
Thank you, NetGalley and Holiday House, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Jackson, Mississippi in the 1940s is not a safe place for its Black inhabitants, something that Lamb’s mother has done her best to protect them from. Lamb’s brother Simeon has always been smart and smart mouthed while Lamb often lives up to her name, being quiet and naïve. Months before her brother is set to leave for college in Ohio, Lamb meets a white girl who she has much in common with. But as their tentative encounters begin to blossom into friendship, unforeseen consequences arise, shattering the world of Lamb and those she loves.

I was absolutely blown away by this read. The author did an amazing job at bringing these characters to life and weaving their hopes, dreams, and fears together into a story that was well worth the read. The story is told from multiple POVs, but each character had their own unique voice and added important information to the primary plot. I enjoyed that the author used this technique to include the backstory of many of the adult characters, especially Lamb’s mother.

The work starts off somewhat slow, introducing the characters and situating their stories, though I didn’t find it to be boring in the slightest. The second half of the work dramatically increases in pace, making it impossible to put the book down. While some dark events took place in this work, the author wrote them in a way that wasn’t graphic but still highlighted the brutality of the moments, which was excellently done.

There was only one thing that I slightly disliked about this work – the author didn’t incorporate many setting details into the story. It took several chapters for the time and place to come up, then after that, there’s almost no real incorporation of the setting. However, somehow the atmosphere of the work was still everything I wanted it to be, so this was a very minor complaint for me. The formatting of the work was also awful, with many errors and missing headings, but as my copy was an ARC, I’m not subtracting from my rating as I assume these things will be fixed in the published copy.

This was not an easy read – it was tragic and beautifully written and is the first book in a very long time that made me cry (I’m not actually sure that I’ve ever cried because of a book before). I recommend this book to absolutely everyone (YA and older due to difficult themes), especially if you’re living in the U.S. Many thanks to NetGalley and Holiday House for allowing me to read this stunning work, which will be published on January 10th. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

A highly significant, excellent, and challenging read. I heartily endorse it. When the story is through, you should feel angry and a bit hopeful. That kind of strength is rare in books.
As a first-time reader of this author, I wasn't sure what to anticipate. The writing is superb and extremely talented.
Every protagonist has an own voice, is fully developed, and we do learn about the backstories of both Lamb and her brother as well as the protagonists who are adults. Only a few of them still have hope, but they all have dreams. The heroes' resolve to survive and continue is as strong as the author's writing, though.
The only thing I could have wanted was for Lamb and Marny to reconnect and for Marny to either accept what occurred or not. with the harm she had wrought. The setting and the story truly resonated with me.

I need a second to process this. The book is simply breathtaking. I honestly don’t know if I want to cry, curse, scream, or question everything around me. The story moves around segregation on the 1950s. And its honestly a strong tale. But it is incredible well told. You get to see the complicated life on the souther US from the perspectives of children and adults. Each of them surviving and trying to live. The narration of each chapter shows how much the author cared about the story. About her characters. And most of all about sharing history as undeniable as it was. Her focus on the lack of justice, violence and lynchings makes this tale tragic. But at the same time reminders you about how history needs to be shared. How those lives need to be acknowledged. And how important it is to remember to not repeat the past.
I honestly can not say with words how much i loved this book. There’s just no way of explaining how incredible this pages are.
This is a book for anyone who wants to lear more about one of the great injustices of the past. And most of all probably a book anyone should read.

I cant thank NetGalley enough for the chance to read an ebook of this book.

This is a heartbreaking story of a young girl named Lamb. Set in 1930s Mississippi, Lamb and her family are just trying to survive the Jim Crow South. Her mother wants the best for her children but doesn’t know how to express her love because she was never taught. Her brother is adamant in getting ahead and getting out of the South.
Young Lamb struggles to find her voice, always feeling trapped in between her mother and brother. She begrudgingly befriends a White girl causing her to keep secrets that turn her world upside down.

I love historical fiction and this was written beautifully. I think the author did a great job in showing how the mother loved her children the best way she knew how in order to keep them safe in the cruel world they lived in. Her own childhood trauma was evident in the way she raised them.

This is a tragic and powerful story that reminds that one decision, one night, can change your life forever.

Thank you, NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
For Lamb takes place in 1930’s Mississippi, and truthfully I usually avoid these types of books. I was immediately drawn in by the synopsis of this book, though. It starts out a bit of a slow burner, but you really get to know Lamb, her mother, Marion, and her brother Simeon. I didn’t get bored looking in on their lives, and I could even see some of my own older relatives in the characters. Marion with her tough love reminded me so much of my own grandmother. I felt my heartbreak right along with Lamb’s. I didn’t know exactly how the story was going to play out, but I didn’t suspect Marion’s outcome. My only main issue was that the transition to different character’s POV wasn’t as smooth as it could be in some places. Overall, this is a powerful novel, and I felt all the emotions while reading. I love that the book’s characters are the names of actual lynching victims. I think many people will come to love this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Holiday House for letting me read this. I literally could not put this book down. I had so many different emotions reading this story and to realize that Lamb was actually a real person and lynching victim is devastating. This book really sent me down a rabbit hole of wanting to know more about lynching victims and plan a visit to Montgomery to The Legacy museum. This was one of my top reads of 2022.

A very important, very good, and tough read. Highly recommend it. Expect to be furious but also a little hopeful after finishing the story. Books with that kind of power are precious.

I‘ve never read anything by this author before and wasn‘t sure what to expect. The writing is outstanding, very skilled. Every protagonist has a unique voice, is fleshed out, and we do get the backstories of the grown-up protagonists as well as Lamb‘s and her brother‘s. All of them have dreams and only some still have hope. But the author’s writing is as strong as the protagonists will to live and go on.

The only thing I would have wished for was for Lamb and Marny to meet one more time, for Marny to get to terms - or not- with what happened. With what she had caused.

I really felt the story and the time it was set in and highly recommend it.

Thank you Netgalley and Holiday House for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The first half of this book was so boring, I nearly DNF’d it. I really only pushed through because I had nothing better to do while the power was out and I didn’t want to pick a new book.

I’m glad I pushed through, because the second half had me on the edge of my seat. It was moving and awful and powerful and raw and I wish I’d felt that energy in the first half too.

Lamb and Simeon are both such sweet, beautiful characters and my heart just went out to them for all they had to put up with and endure over the course of this book.

I found the other characters a lot harder to connect to and I found the constantly changing POV’s a bit jarring, though this did work with the frantic energy towards the end of the book.

This being marketed (at least on Netgalley) as LGBT+, I’d hoped for more of that, too, but it was mostly an implied aside until the very end, and while Marion was a POV character, she didn’t feel like a central character the way Lamb and Simeon did.

An amazing read due to the well described characters as well as their plight to find a better life. The book was a good length and didn’t add too many unneeded details. Many books try and fail to keep my attention because the author keeps writing themselves in circles. I love that this one was straight to the point with good descriptions of characters and locations. It was sad but not to the point that it was all the book could talk about.

Thank you, Holiday House, for allowing me to read For Lamb early!

Lesa Cline-Ransome wrote a powerful story, one which I'm sure was not easy telling, It deserves all the praise it is going to get and I'll be completely astounded if it doesn't win at least one literary prize. it is that good.

I love stories like this! It touched my heart deeply because of the events that took place in this book.
Lamb is definitely an unusual name and I liked it. I loved that the story is told from her point of view. Then there's multiple voices that tell theirs too. In fact, I think there's actually too many. That's the only fault I found with this book. Other than that it was a great book. I did finish it in one sitting. I just couldn't put it down until Lamb told me her story. I love it when characters do that to me. Plus, she left me thinking about them long after this book was finished. I didn't want it to end.
The Jim Crow South sure wasn't friendly. In fact, some things just weren't fair and that's what broke my heart. They're people too.
I really enjoyed this story. The cover is awesome. It was what made me want to read it and plus the description too. Well done!
However; 4 stars for too many points of view in my opinion.
I still highly recommend!
My thanks for a copy of this book. I was NOT required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.