This book … what a gut-punch and simultaneous testament to beautiful mother-daughter love. The language, which one expects from Ward, is poetic and lovely. So dreamlike, especially with its magical realism.

I think, knowing the author wrote this after the loss of her young husband to COVID during the earliest days of the pandemic (with two young children to care for and when so much was unknown about the illness) made me appreciate this book even more. Ward wrote in the throes of anguish, and I think that emotion made its way through the character of Annis, which means the reader feels every bit of her pain. And, given that this is a story of slavery, there is plenty of misery and pain within these pages.

But, in the end, love and hope – and female strength – transcends.

My mama’s face is slack as a child’s; her limbs are so close, they could be my own. I put my hand on her neck, feel the rush of blood there, the red river that binds her to me. I feel as I only can with her.

Many novels have been written with bees as a symbolic device, but this one stands out. It is presented with a light hand but manages to artfully display the books’ themes of ‘magic’ and wonder, specifically the magic that is a hive of bees – their collaboration, their intelligence, their creation, their collective memory.

This book, with its African spiritual themes of water and memory reminded me of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Water Dancer, and also Robert Jones Jr.’s The Prophets (and probably, also, The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois). The magical realm of the novel was incredible, posing the question of what spirits may be out there among us, guiding us, protecting us, thwarting us, and wishing us harm … but most intriguing to me is the notion of matrilineal legacy … that powerful women have been - and still are - hovering among the descendants of enslaved African women today.

The spiritual world was just so well done: one of them, Aza: Aza’s hair settles sleekly to her scalp: dozens of dark rivers winding to the ocean, before sprouting again.

And Annis’s comment: “Mama knew the world was sopping with spirit, that you didn’t need to go to heaven or hell to witness it; she knew it was all here. And now I know, too.”

Most of you know that books with strong senses of place and the natural world really sing to me.

The earth bathes me in the musk of mushrooms and the wilting flower of worm casings.

A buzzard flies overhead before sinking like a spear over the tops of trees.

This book is no exception. Annis’s rebirth and acceptance of the natural world was sublime. I felt the American south on my skin, smelled its damp, saw its tangled greenery, heard the bass of frogs and the hiss of alligators.

I read this book simultaneously with another novel showcasing similar journey themes of a young girl through the wilderness/elements (though in different time frames and under different circumstances – and even girls of different skin color). While the books are wholly different in style (and I preferred this one more), what came across in both is the resilience of the women who came before us – in the case of these two books, teens – facing the harshest elements. Their will to survive, despite all odds, is beyond inspirational.

Having recently finished “Let Us Descend" by Jesmyn Ward, I am happy to have had the chance for the Advanced Reader’s Edition e-copy; thank you NetGalley and Scribner!

The beautiful collage bee art on the cover, and wanting to finally read a story by Ms. Ward drew me to choose this book. It was written in a way that brought me along as a witness to the vivid and historic stories of proud royal heritage, and then through the darkness and brutal reality of slavery. Through all the storms on their journey, the spirit of this family of women remained strong and eternally connected.

Let Us Descend tells the heartbreaking story of Annis, a young, enslaved woman who is sold by her white father. Annis is an unforgettable character whose journey illuminates the many evils of slavery while also revealing how deeply rooted our love for one another can be. Ward uses a lot of magical realism throughout this novel, and there were scenes when it didn't work for me and left me unsure of what was happening. Despite that, Let Us Descend is a powerful book I'm sure will become a classic.

Set in the antebellum US, this novel tells the story of a young enslaved woman as she experiences and resists the horrors of slavery. The book is expertly written, with references to classical literature and magical realism that often features in Ward’s writing. As a historian, I could tell that she had done her research.

A new great novel from an amazing writer, Jesmyn Ward. This is different from her prior work. Spiritual prose telling the story of an enslaved young woman, Annis, as she is sold from a rice plantation and forced to walk to southern Louisiana where she is sold to a sugarcane planter. The thread of maternal love, strength, and spirits is strong and powerful. A survival story.

This novel was beautiful. Painful but beautiful. Ward writes in such a poetic expertise. Annie’s story was heartbreaking but so powerful. She does a wonderful job of vividly describing this world and these characters she is writing about. I absolutely loved this story and would recommend it to anyone regardless of what genres you enjoy.

Two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward has gifted readers with another winner, a heartbreaking, yet innovative portrayal of American slavery.

Opening on a Carolina plantation with what could become one of the most memorable, enticing lines in literature, Chapter 1 introduces a mother-daughter relationship as Sasha teaches daughter Annis lessons in fighting along with the history of Annis’s African warrior grandmother Azagueni (“Mama Aza”), one of the many wives of a king before her capture. Annis questions the good of learning to fight with buried staffs dug up once a month if she cannot apply the fighting techniques she has practiced.

Back at the house, Mama runs the household while Annis performs miscellaneous chores for the widower owner, the father she thinks of only as “my Sire.” Aside from lessons in fighting, identification and gathering of wild herbs and mushrooms, and advice her mother insists she remember, the girl’s education comes mostly from eavesdropping outside her half-sisters’ classroom door as their tutor teaches them what Aristotle has to say about bees and what Dante has to say about descending into hell.

When Sasha intercedes to protect Annis from her own father’s attentions and, as punishment, is sold off to a slave trader, now motherless Annis is left with only memories and the other plantation slaves such as Safia. When circumstances eventually cause Annis and Safia to be sold to the slave trader who dragged Sasha from Annis several years earlier, the young women join a procession of slaves on a forced march to a New Orleans slave market.

During that grueling trip, a spirit calling herself Aza, Annis’s African warrior grandmother’s name, begins appearing and offering advice and protection. As Annis’s life goes from bad to worse on a plantation owned by the couple she views only as “the woman” and “the man,” the spirit Aza takes assumes an increasingly important role in the story, fantasy sometimes supplanting harsh reality. Recalling her mother’s advice to run and to remember she is her own weapon, Annis seeks ways to control her destiny.

However, Annis also realizes she’s at least partially reliant on the spirit calling itself Aza. With Annis questioning whether she can trust Aza or any of the other spirits who later call out to her, readers may sometimes wonder what poses the greater dangers to protagonist Annis and whether Annis will ever succeed in controlling her own destiny.

Although the fantasy elements sometimes left me thinking I did not fully understand everything Jesmyn Ward intended, her poetic language, particularly her masterful use of similes and metaphors, left me rereading an occasional sentence three or four times and making notes on my iPad as I marveled at how perfectly she had captured an object, action, or feeling.

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for an advance reader copy of this highly recommended new book from Jesmyn Ward.

Jesmyn Ward has become one of my favorite writers over the years. Her writing is so unique and powerful, and I always feel like it’s a privilege to see what she’s crafted on the page. “Let Us Descend” is no exception. It’s intense and heartbreaking but also hauntingly beautiful and hopeful.

The novel is written from the point-of-view of Annis, a slave in the American South whose life is filled with one horror after another. When she’s sold to another slaver, she begins a painful journey that leads her to communicate with the gods. This blend of fantasy and mysticism is where Ward’s writing truly shines. Not only does she incorporate the utter heartlessness of slavery in a realistic way, she also blends in the supernatural in a manner that feels both inspired and essential.

I was also blown away by Ward’s characterization. Every character in this novel feels distinct with a particular way of speaking and emoting – this makes the reader feel even more invested in their individual fates. Annis and each of the characters that help her along her journey are fighters – and their spirits seem to lift off the page (no matter how much they’ve been abused and mistreated). There is no way to truly understand how dehumanizing it was to be a slave, but Ward’s characters help us better grasp what that experience might have been like.

This is the third novel I’ve read by Ward, but by no means will it be my last. She’s truly one of the most gifted writers of our time.

I was already a huge fan of Ward, and this book blew me away. I don't think it's a stretch to number her among our greatest living writers. Let Us Descend is beautiful and painful, an instant classic.

I know how much others will love this book! The writing is gorgeous and transformative, but it was too much for me. Instead of elevating Arese (I don't want to use the name her white sire gave her), it felt incredibly distracting from the story. I am not opposed to magical realism, but I guess there is a certain point for me where it becomes too much. This won't dissuade me from reading Ms. Ward in the future. I have enjoyed every book of hers I have read. This one just not as much as the others.

Jesmyn Ward’s new book, Let Us Descend, is a GIS mapping of a certain corner of hell, in this instance, the space occupied by Annis, an enslaved young woman in the pre-Civil War South who is torn from her beloved mother by her father and sire, a predatory slave owner. Annis’s mother and later Annis is sold, making the long painful journey from the Carolinas to New Orleans. She is at first accompanied by her friend and lover, Safi, who does not complete the trip. Accompanying Annis then, is her long exquisite meditation of grief, and she becomes someone who, bumps against and frequently boxes with the capricious spirit world. On this journey, Annis encounters Aza, a spirit who takes the guise of her grandmother and mother at times, and who seems to know her family’s past and other secrets, but is reluctant to part with them. There are other spirits, Annis meets, many dangerous and holding a bargain-based ambivalence about providing help. Ward’s own magic is at work here, there are passages that are so beautifully compelling, anchored in the details of the moment and caught in a master wordsmith’s net of hunger, pain, fear and especially grief. Frequently I stopped to reread lines and wonder at their poetry and power. Yet, the balance of the story seemed skewed. The spirits, especially Aza, get the upper hand and the narrative focus too often, but they aren’t developed much past Annis’s one-sided perceptions and interiority. Their personalities were limited and their voices so similar that it was difficult to distinguish them apart from each other, beyond the names that Annis gives them. In contrast, though the dialogue is sparse, the other people in Annis’s orbit are clearly delineated, engaging, and alive in their cruelty, kindness and complexity, including the husband and wife plantation owners, the other enslaved workers in and out of the house and those she meets on her enforced march to New Orleans. I wanted to spend more time with all of them. In the end Annis loses much but finds a sort of solace; Ward’s words create a plot-driven nest that is inevitable and yet strikingly surprising.

"Let Us Descend" by Jesmyn Ward is an emotional book that takes you on a journey through the darkest chapters of American history. This reimagining of American slavery is both heart-wrenching and beautifully rendered.

The story revolves around Annis, sold south by her white enslaver, and her experiences in the brutal world of slavery. Ward's vivid storytelling makes you feel every step of Annis's painful journey, as she clings to her memories and ancestral stories for solace.

One of the novel's most compelling aspects is its exploration of spirituality. The spirits of earth, water, myth, and history are woven seamlessly into the narrative, adding an extra layer of depth to the story.

Ward's prose is breathtaking, capturing the essence of Black American grief and joy in the vivid backdrop of the American South. The book is a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity.

"Let Us Descend" is not an easy read, but it's a remarkable story of rebirth and reclamation, reminding us of the enduring power of hope and love. In Jesmyn Ward's hands, it becomes a literary masterpiece that lingers in your thoughts long after you've finished reading. This is a must-read for those who appreciate thought-provoking literature that leaves a deep impact. I am so thankful to have read this book and for the opportunity to receive an advanced Galley. Thanks so much to the publisher as well as to Netgalley.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. Jesmyn Ward is truly an artist and reading her work feels like a gift. This book is definitely different from her other work. The magical realism is a lot and isn’t my personal preference, but I still believe everyone should read this.

Ward's beautiful prose brings to life the harrowing story of an enslaved woman transported from the Carolinas to New Orleans. This is her story of survival and how she protected herself from worse things that could have happened to her. There is a magical realism element to the book that is very fitting to the storyline.

Jesmyn Ward has a WAY with words.

As one "descends" with Ward into her story of a young woman, Annis, born a slave and sold as a slave, her story is told through the horrors of the slavery markets. She begins as a child born of rape by her mother's owner. She is loved and taught by her mother. Beautiful words and depictions to behold of Annis's grandmother, Aza, who once lived in Africa as a woman warrior.

We follow Annis on her slavery journey. During this time her grandmother, Aza, is in the wind, leading and guiding Annis. It's almost a supernatural feel, yet real, and a connection with her history told from her mother. Her grandmothers spirit helps lead Annis through the horrors and struggles she must face in slavery. Aza gives Annis a reason to live, a reason to strive, a calming voice within.

There is a good plot to this book. but it's really not about that. This book is more about the poetic phrasing of what one may have felt like born into slavery. It almost felt like Annis was losing it, and rightfully so. Aza was there in the wind to help guide her.

The words. Wow. Read this book if you love beautiful writing. I feel positive this will win awards and accolades because of the magnetic writing within.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the advance e-copy of this book.

Know that this is often difficult to read but that it's an illuminating, soaring, thoughtful look at an enslaved young woman. Annis and her mother are guided by the spirits of their ancestors but that's small comfort when the man who owns them- Annis' father- sells them separately. Annis' trek from that plantation to the next is filled with horrors as the women in the group are roped together while the men are manacled. Things are if anything worse at the plantation in Louisiana where she ends up. She's starving, there is abuse, there are just so many awful things but she talks with the spirit of her grandmother. And then she meets the brother of one of her fellow slaves, a man who is living in the swamp who encourages his sister and Annis to join him. There's so much tragedy in this and then a significant amount of magical realism (especially in the last pages). Annis is a resilient young woman who keeps up and lives against all odds. The writing is urgent and beautiful, the plotting careful and propulsive. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This richly deserves the praise it has received.

This is my first taste of Jesmyn Ward's writing, even though her books have been on my radar for years. I was incredibly impressed by her descriptive writing skills. The main character Annis is the daughter of a slave and her master. She and her lover Safi are sent from North Carolina to New Orleans to be sold off and the reader makes that long brutal march along with the line of slaves chained together. Once sold, the new living conditions are even worse--the slaves are starved and subjected to horrifying punishments, such as spending days in a spiked hold underground.

The thing that keeps Annis going and gives her comfort are her memories of her mother and a spirit that seems to accompany her and her line of ancestors. Or is it just the wind? Experience slavery up close and personal in this well-told novel by a masterful writer.

I received an arc from the author and publisher via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

There are topics in history that we need to read about periodically. We do this as an act of acknowledgement of horrific acts that must not be repeated or forgotten, and as a sign of respect and empathy for those who suffered them. Stories of slavery and the Holocaust rank high among these. I cannot say that I have ever read a book about slavery quite like this. I already knew Jesmyn Ward was brilliant, but this book is a precious, terrifying gem. Should be required reading for every human.

Not sure how a book can be magnificent and devastating all at the same time, but somehow those are the best descriptions for this book. How can a book about slavery be anything but devastating? But the human bonds are beautiful in this book. They make you see and remember all the amazing and incredible parts about people and life… even when surrounded by the very very ugly. The characters were incredible- strong, real and awe inspiring. The descriptions and historical aspects were well researched and throughout. Difficult to describe the plot without ruining the book, but definitely a very worthwhile read.

Thank you NetGalley for my advanced reader copy.

This review will publish Oct. 31, 2023, in multiple newspapers and magazines.

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A season of reading: A dozen titles for your holiday basket

by Tom Mayer

The year-ending, pre-holiday book season is one bibliophiles wait for all year. October and November are traditionally the months we watch as names blockbuster (Grisham, King), rising (Gerritsen, Ward) or just heartwarmingly familiar (McCammon, Dugoni) descend from the upper echelons of ivy towers to the stacks of our local bookstores and online shopping carts.

This year is no different, though it is marked by a couple of significant deviations to the norm from two stalwart fall-release authors: Stephen King, who makes his own rules, gifted us with “Holly” in early September and Nicholas Sparks — almost unbelievably given his decades-long track record of releases — won’t have a new book for us this year (a fact I had to double check with his publicist, though when I spoke with Nicholas in 2022 about his wonderful book, “Dreamland,” he did promise something completely surprising and different for his next release. Give some grace, get some grace — surprising and different can take time.)

Still, October and November 2023 are filled with exciting and fresh titles, including a dozen that we’ll touch on here. Far from exhaustive and brief in scope, consider this a primer for the season we’re just dipping into.

I’ll be laser-focusing on some of these in pullout columns during the next few weeks — and adding more titles for November and December — but send me a quick note at tmayer132435@gmail.com if you want a link to those when they appear.

For now, happy holidays, book lovers.

‘One Last Kill’ (Thomas & Mercer, 379 pages, $16.99) by Robert Dugoni

The prolific Robert Dugoni gifts us with his 10th detective Tracy Crosswhite novel, and in this one the stakes are raised. Set in familiar environs, after 13 victims Tracy reopens the cold trail of Seattle’s Route 99 serial killer. Closure for the families and redemption for the Seattle Police Department are on the line, but if Tracy’s going to achieve either she’ll have to do it by partnering with an old nemesis: Captain Johnny Nolasco. Those who traveled with Tracy through her earlier thrillers know exactly what that means. New readers will soon find out.

‘Murder on the Christmas Express’ (Poisoned Pen Press, 272 pages, $24) by Alexandra Benedict

What’s the holiday season without a murder mystery to help pass the time? A sleeper train en route from London on Christmas Eve is buried in snow in a remote and isolated location. As a killer tries to pick off passengers one by one, a former detective, Roz Parker, decides to give the investigation a go. You’ve been here before, but this locked room puzzle both is and isn’t what you’ll expect. Bon voyage.

‘Long Past Dues’’ (Ace, 411 pages, $27) by James J. Butcher

Bringing us into volume 2 of The Unorthodox Chronicles, James J. Butcher now presents Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby as an auditor for Boston’s Department of Unorthodox Affairs. Tasked with enforcing laws about magic, the job sounds more glamorous than it is — which explains why Grimshaw steps outside of his role to take a special case for a friend. Werewolves and a journey to the bowels of Boston’s subterranean city ensue.

‘Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird’ (Blackstone Publishing, 659 pages, $28) edited by Jonathan Maberry

Who doesn’t love a compilation of a century’s worth of stories from one of the world’s most storied publications? Coming from the hallowed halls of “Weird Tales Magazine,” this book is simply beautiful in style, substance and craft (pro tip: buy the hardcover; it’s a gem). Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the magazine, this volume contains 100 years of the most peculiar tales you’ll ever encounter or, as the periodical likes to boast, those “too strange to publish elsewhere.” A true reader’s delight.

‘The Exchange’ (Doubleday, 352 pages, $30) by John Grisham

You know you’ve been waiting for this one. Published 32 years after John Grisham’s “The Firm,” the king of legal thrillers picks up the thread of the lives of Mitch and Abby McDeere and family as they’re caught in an international kidnapping plot — and struggling to retain the normalcy they’ve worked 15 years to achieve since they exposed the crimes of the mob-related Memphis law firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke. With just enough backstory to fill in the history of those unfamiliar with “The Firm,” Grisham crafts a credible and timely (though it’s set in the mid-2000s) story filled with his hallmarks: greed, crime, deception and more than a bit of heroics. A worthy successor and one, I should mention, completely unlike the 2012 TV series sequel to both the original novel and film adaptation.

‘The Spy Coast’ (Thomas & Mercer, 341 pages, $29) by Tess Gerritsen

The Martini Club continues in Tess Gerritsen’s “The Spy Coast” as former spy Maggie Bird is drawn from her bucolic Maine chicken farm life into a new thriller — something that tends to happen when the body that appears in your driveway is sent as a message from your former adversaries. The former spies, like Bird, may all be retired, but they’re definitely up for a fresh case, and especially a case that involves those who are bent on killing one of their own.

‘The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The true story of the Bondwoman’s Narrative’ (Ecco, 432 pages, $40) by Gregg Hecimovich with a foreword by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

In 1857, a woman escaped enslavement from a North Carolina plantation. Fleeing to a farm in New York, she found time to craft a manuscript about her trials. This important and groundbreaking book about the nation’s first Black female novelist comes from the biographer who first solved the mystery of her identity.

‘American Girl’ (Blackstone Publishing, 246 pages, $27) by Wendy Walker

This important thriller from best-selling author Wendy Walker introduces Charlie Hudson, an autistic teen with a desire to leave her small, Pennsylvania town as soon as she graduates. But first, when the owner of the sandwich shop at which Wendy works is found dead, the 17-year-old and her friends are drawn into a dangerous case with an unusual point of view: The story is told through the eyes of the protagonist.

'Let Us Descend' (Scribner, 320 pages, $28) by Jesmyn Ward

Jesmyn Ward is a two-time National Book winner, and “Let Us Descend” shows us why. This tale, a reimagining of American slavery, is a beautifully harsh read. The story comes to us from Annis, a slave sold south by her white enslaver father and her heart-wrenching journey is punctuated only by the fleeting comfort of memories of her mother and African warrior grandmother. An emotional narrative rich in description.

‘The Last Applicant’ (Lake Union Publishing, 317 pages, $29) by Rebecca Hanover

A deep dive into this ripped-from-the-headlines story by Rebecca Hanover takes us into the life of Audrey Singer, an admissions director of an elite private school in Manhattan. One overachieving mother will do anything — anything — to get her son enrolled, but as the ploys escalate it rapidly becomes clear that this might not be all she is after. Secrets are threatened to be revealed as this tale takes a deep, dark turn.

‘Seven Shades of Evil’ (Lividian Publications, 424 pages, $39.50) by Robert McCammon

You had me at, Robert McCammon. Literally, I would buy anything with this Alabama author’s name on it, but you’ll never go afield picking up a book involving Matthew Corbett. This volume of short stories, the ninth installment in that world, is the penultimate volume of the Corbett series — a tremendous set of historical thrillers that have been drawing legions of readers into Early America for more than two decades.

‘Robots through the Ages: A Science Fiction Anthology’ (Blackstone, 495 pages, $26) by Robert Silverberg (introduction) and Bryan Thomas Schmidt (editor)

OK, I’m cheating a bit by including ‘Robots’ in this list — it first published during the summer — but with the conflation of technology and well, our entire world, igniting in the form of AI at an exponential pace, this is one that more than a few readers would welcome under the tree. A vast and inclusive sweep of robot stories told through the ages (really, we begin the journey with “The Iliad”), this volume includes tales from the heroes of science fiction, including names such as Philip K. Dick, Seanan McGuire, Connie Willis and Roger Zelazny. A fascinating journey, “Robots through the Ages” is replete with prescient tales of today.