Another fantastic book by Jesmyn Ward! This one is set in the south during slavery, as opposed to her other books that took place closer to the events of Hurricane Katrina.

Let Us Descend is a stunning work of art. Much like the bees that accompany Annis on her descent, Ward's language alternates between the stinging, hyper-realism of her protagonist's plight and the honeyed lyricism of Annis's interior world. The evocative imagery and potent symbolism of this novel are a huge testament to Ward's craft, reaffirming her positionality as one of this century's foremost wordsmiths and storytellers.

The writing was lyrical and beautiful, but I just couldn’t get into the story. The pacing was so slow and I didn’t understand the spirits. I also thought the main character was kind of flat, defined mostly by her suffering.

This is a powerful book about a difficult subject, American slavery. At a time when the worst among us are trying to depict slavery as beneficial to the enslaved, I challenge everyone to read this book and not be moved by the harrowing story and horrific treatment inflicted upon Annis and the other Black individuals in the story. Ultimately, Ward has given us a tale of hope and survival in a world full of despair and pain. Highly recommended.
I was given an advanced copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Annis is a slave girl born into a world of unthinkable injustice. Mama is her only shield from "her sire," a white man who owns a Carolina rice field that serves as the only home Annis has ever known. When in a blink, Annis' entire world is upended and she's moved further south to be sold, her grief takes the form of a visceral being as she makes the incomprehensible journey on foot alongside of other sold slaves to New Orleans where her future hangs in the balance.

Through undeniably masterful storytelling, Ward tells the story of Annis' journey as she makes her way through deplorable conditions to the New Orleans slave markets and eventually onto a Louisiana sugar plantation. As the story marches further into dread-filled darkness, spirit guides and otherworldly beings emerge from the swamp, the dark wood, and the waters to guide Annis along the way.

And despite the remarkable storytelling in "Let Us Descend," I found that I never fully connected to the story despite its shocking (but tragically-familiar?) brutality. Ward pens a lyrical story reminiscent of Dante's "Inferno" that woven with magical realism, folklore, and graphic depictions of slavery before the Civil War. And yet, this is a story nearly drowned in its own grief; the gorgeous prose felt so bogged down that it lacked the crisp clarity of a well-woven plot.

In reading "Let Us Descend" I simultaneously acknowledged the important truth Ward is telling while recognizing it lacked the originality necessary to make it stand apart from other novels of a similar kind. At the end of the day, I have no doubt this book will have a massive following simply because of Ward's beloved status and her undeniable abilities, but this did not work the way I'd hoped for me. I'm interested to visit some of her older works in the near future, however.

Jasmyn Ward writes beautifully about a hard topic. The depiction of slavery is honestly brutal. The love between mother and daughter tender and beautiful.

Jesmyn Ward is an incredibly talented writer. Not only can she paint a vivid scene, but more impressively, she evokes such intense feelings in the reader's mind. It's an experience to immerse yourself in one of her books, and it's impossible to come away not having been deeply moved in some way.

Annis is an enslaved girl sold during Pre-Civil War times. She, along with many others, is forced to walk to New Orleans - through swamps and rivers infested by crocodiles. The journey is long and arduous...and with Ward's writing, the reader feels every pebble prick, painful joint, and shackle bleed.

Grief is a heavily explored theme in this book, and realizing that Ward lost her husband at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, she presumably takes the opportunity to explore grief on the pages and through Annis. There is such depth to the emotion of loss and longing that prevade every thought, and the way she has Annis move with that grief was beautiful. If you've been around my page for any amount of time, you know that I gravitate towards stories that deal with grief, so it's no surprise that I really liked this aspect of this story.

Ward is masterful at Southern lit and Let Us Descend is another example in her impressive resume of outstanding and evocative writing. She is a go-to author for me in this genre, and I encourage you to get your preorders in for her latest! This book is out on October 3, 2023!

Jesmyn Ward has written another beautifully dark harrowing novel.From page to page the pain of slavery the sadness the harrowing scenes tore at my heart but I continued reading drawn in by her storytelling.#netgalley #scribner

Let Us Descend is a beautiful and heartbreaking story of slavery and strength. Annis is taught by her mother sparring skills passed down through the women warriors that she is descended from. Annis loses her mother and then she gets sold from her plantation as punishment. As her hardships grow from the brutal and chained walk south, she reaches out to a spirit mother Aza. Jesmyn Ward is an incredible storyteller with beautiful flowing language. I prefer some of her other works, but I am so glad to have read this one. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I have been a fan of Ward for a long time but she really outdid herself in this latest novel. This book is intense. I had to read it a chapter at a time and then give myself a break in reading because it is such an emotional read. This book is like swimming in grief. This book is a powerful story about one woman's journey through enslavement and the deep family ties that bind her through generations. It is a story about finding strength and comfort where you can even in a sea of troubles. It is about the spirits that inhabit the natural world. The book is beautifully written though the subject matter is often harsh. Watching Annis continue to endure and refuse to surrender herself is a journey I won't soon forget. One of the best books of 2023.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for an advance reading copy of this novel for review.

A beautiful, heart-wrenching, and unique journey into the familiar history of chattel slavery. Ward manages to make the wounds of slavery fresh while also using the speculative arc to give hope to the children of the future. Beautiful.

A very well written book. Not as difficult to read as some books I have read about slavery. Relatively short and well paced. Not sure how I felt about the magical realism pieces. Worth the read!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Scribner for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Time: Pre-civil war North Carolina. Focus: Annis, a young black woman and her mother and the sire, Annis's father, who turned out to have impregnated her mother and had two white daughters. The daughters were educated by tutors; it was overhearing conversations that Annis grasped some of the lessons of Dante's Inferno, whose theme follows throughout the book. The mother was descended from a warrior queen and covertly taught Annis how to fight and parry, building up strength and flexibility. As happens too often in these stories, the mother is torn away to be sold and soon Annis is sent on a grueling horrific long march to New Orleans to be auctioned off at a slave market. Here she meets the spirit of Mama Aza and the remaining part of the book is filled with heavy magic realism. Mama Aza became a guardian spirit or angel that served to safeguard her against other sinister spirits. Unfortunately, I could not completely follow alot of the dialogue; I understood the dread, fear, inhumanity and grinding labor told in poetic prose at an experiential level, but not sure I grasped all that it meant to say. Her lush sentences, though, will appeal to many.

4.5 stars
It’s brutal to read and not surprisingly. It’s about slavery after all . But that doesn’t mean it can’t be beautifully written. It’s written by Jesmyn Ward, after all . She takes us on the harrowing and horrific journey of Annis , a young slave woman as she is led, tied in ropes to other slave women, made to walk a treacherous landscape, cross rivers, while starving and wounded from from North Carolina to Louisiana. Horrific doesn’t adequately describe it, nor does gut wrenching and heartbreaking, but for lack of better words… Her wounds run deeper than on the body, deep in her heart and soul, suffering losses, and struggling to find her self. Annis’ journey is more than this brutal journey. It is a journey to be the strong woman her mother taught her to be, through stories, through her legacy to defend herself, a journey to be free.

I won’t say more about the plot. This is a story you should experience for yourself. I loved Jesmyn Ward’s [book:Sing, Unburied, Sing|32920226] and loved the ghost there , but there was a little too much magical realism here for me. I can’t quite give it 5 stars, but overall this is a stunning read that will shake you to your core .

Ward’s writing is just so beautiful: “ There's a green hill, trees all around us in an overturned bowl, a waterfall tossing down into a pool the same deep green as the trees around us. It's so beautiful I feel a turning in my chest, my heart a small bird stirring in its nest. For a moment, I don't feel bound. I forget what holds me. But the ache of me, through wrist and hip and thigh, tunnels me back down into my body, along with the rope. “


I received an advanced copy of this from Scribner through NetGalley.

Truly a perfect novel! I will not be surprised if Jesmyn Ward gets her 3rd National Book Award for this one!

Let Us Descend is a stunningly beautiful novel that looks at the atrocities of slavery through the story of a young woman's journey. This story is heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, and harrowing, at the same time it is full of love and hope. That is such a fine line to ride and Ward does so with such masterful storytelling, beautiful, lush prose, and visceral threads of magical realism. Although the novel reads quickly, do yourself a favor and take the time to fully sink in and savor.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Let Us Descend is as beautifully written as Ward’s other books, though this may be the best example of it. While this book is so unlike Ward’s other books, it holds the things that stick with us from her other books: the intense love of family and spirits. Let Us Descend is a book about slavery, and it honors the cultures of both Africa and African Americans. There is a heavier tone throughout this book that isn’t as prevalent in her other novels. But it’s this heaviness that makes the ending all the more freeing. My overarching feelings after finishing the book were: 1. that I really have no words to adequately describe the experience of reading it and 2. that I need to immediately read it again, slower in a way that brings out the nuance that is often missed in a first devouring. This novel lives up to the hype. Read it.
I received an ARC from NetGalley

I am in the minority on this one and maybe I just wasn’t in the mood or right mindset for this book. I ended up not finishing it. It was slow for me and I had a hard time with the way the characters spoke.

Let Us Descend is a sensory experience like no other. Every searing page beckons the reader to descend further into Jesmyn Ward's nightmare world of grief, enslavement, and spiritual mysteries.

Taking literary inspiration from Dante's Inferno, Ward invites us to follow along on an odyssey through hell. That hell, of course, being slavery. Our guide is Annis, born enslaved in North Carolina but the granddaughter of a woman warrior from Africa. Annis is already well acquainted with loss and pain by the time we meet her, but things quickly go from bad to worse. Her mother, who has taught Annis to fight even though these skills appear useless to them in their present circumstances, is sent away with a slave trader after protecting her daughter from the advances of the plantation owner (who is also Annis' father). After allowing herself to be consumed by grief and a sexual relationship with another enslaved girl, Annis herself is picked up by the slave trader and sent through dangerous, unknown wilds to New Orleans before ending up on a sugar plantation.

The hype machine can be unforgiving. If you set your expectations very high, it can be nearly impossible for anyone to reach them. So allow me to be a little measured when I say that Let Us Descend is one of those rare gems capable of withstanding the pressure of expectation.

What Jesmyn Ward does bring to the table is a rather unprecedented sensory experience. She makes you feel what Annis feels, gets you to smell what she smells and taste what she tastes. When Annis touches something, you can imagine exactly what it feels like. When she hurts, the pages blister with her pain. When she gets hungry, your stomach contracts.

This, combined with the overwhelming sense of grief that pervades the novel (understandably, given that Ward lost her husband in January of 2020) can make for an unpleasant reading experience--in much the same way that Toni Morrison's Beloved feels unpleasant to read. However, in both cases the prickliness is deliberate. After all, why should a novel about enslavement make you feel good? In that sense, Let Us Descend feels like a, well, descendant of Morrison's landmark novel.

But while Beloved is largely intellectual and punctuated with violence, Let Us Descend is a more visceral experience. It isn't using metaphor or symbolism, and it isn't forcing the reader to be an active participant in order to understand what it's doing. It does have that stuff with the spirit world, and honestly, I'm not quite sure I understand everything happening there, but the power of Let Us Descend comes from Ward's ability to put you on the ground with its characters. She situates you in the text so you experience everything.

But I don’t make these comparisons to imply that Jesmyn Ward is derivative–far from it, in fact. Her work is imbued with a sharp ferocity, a desperate desire to survive. It is also full of love, frequently maternal in nature (especially Salvage the Bones). That is where a lot of the power of Ward’s writing can be found.

If I say that Let Us Descend doesn’t tower over Salvage the Bones or Sing, Unburied, Sing, please don’t take it as an insult. It is not. It is merely a sign that Jesmyn Ward has set an incredibly high bar for quality–and the fact that she continues to meet it is quite impressive.

This is an inordinately beautiful and blisteringly powerful book. Each page a raw nerve. Each sentence a testament to atrocities that no one should ever endure. Jesmyn Ward pulls no punches. And yet, she is able end the book in a place of hope and almost peace. I would not be surprised if she is the first to win three NBA’s!

Most everyone who reads this novel will love it, because it’s Jesmyn Ward and she’s a genius, because Dante, because it’s about the biggest story one American can tell to another American, because, wow, the author has clearly thought over and struggled over and worked over every word in this novel many many times, and it’s this last part that hung me up eventually, the sense that what I was reading might have worked better two or three or maybe even a half-dozen drafts earlier. For me the novel lacks both the stark urgency as well as the wondrous, almost magical clarity of Ward’s earlier novels. To me the novel feels like something Ward needed to write, or maybe, something she needed to pass through, like Dante, on her way to a better place.