A harrowing and devastating novel with the most stunning writing I’ve read in a while. Jesmyn Ward turns to the historical genre with Let Us Descend, which follows Annis, a young enslaved woman in the South. Annis is a fierce survivor but also a woman struggling under grief for her mother and against her horrific circumstances of slavery. She is watched over by and touched by spirits of the natural world - wind and storms, the earth, rivers - and beyond - the Water - in Ward’s signature beautiful magical realism. The spiritual elements are haunting and lyrical as well as well integrated into Annis’ journey through grief and survival. Ward also brings out small details of love, friendship, family, and joy amidst the horrors of life on southern plantations, drawing out the families and communities people had to build for themselves. Let Us Descend is certainly a difficult read, but unsurprisingly poetic and beautiful in Jesmyn Ward’s hands.

A haunting, lyrical, fever dream of a novel from Jesmyn Ward (one of my very favorite authors) about a young woman’s enslavement in the pre-Civil War American south.

There are magical realism elements that reminded me of Colson Whitehead’s novel on the same topic, The Underground Railroad, but the similarities end there.

Ward has had a tremendous amount of personal loss across her life-see the phenomenal memoir Men We Reaped and her heartbreaking 2020 @vanityfair essay on the death of her husband-and it seems like the emotions described in this book must be ripped from her own heart. Additionally, the novel being set solely in the main character’s thoughts, without an outside narrator perspective, creates a deep intimacy and absorbs the reader in every moment.

The history of slavery in the US is a topic that has been and will continue to be extensively written about. Let Us Descend is a unique voice within a vast canon and a new modern classic.

In her first novel in six years, Jesmyn Ward returns to the American South, this time in the years preceding the Civil War. Let Us Descend, taken from Dante Alighieri’s epic poem Inferno, follows a similar chronicle as its namesake: a lost soul journeys through the circles of hell. The soul in question is a girl named Annis, born into slavery, and the “circles” are defined by their landscape. From the plantation in the Carolinas on which Annis was “sired” to the smoky city of New Orleans where Annis would be sold in the slave market. What carries our protagonist through this terrible journey is the love and compassion shown to her by her mother. Understanding Ward’s own recent life experiences, it’s fair to say that this book explores the love that persists after losing someone beloved. And to lose that beloved someone during a period of great trauma. To walk with Annis is to grieve for the people who lost their name, their lives, their souls to this world.

In the vein of Toni Morrison, Let Us Descend (along with Ward’s award-winning back list) deserves to be mentioned in the conversations of what constitutes great American literature.

This work is a triumph. Full of pain, heartbreak, strength. A tale of struggle to find yourself, to find freedom, to find light. I can’t begin to describe how much I loved it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for gifting me a digital ARC of the new book by Jesmyn Ward - 4 stars!

Annis was sold south by her white master, who was also her father. She along with her slaves had to walk from the Carolinas to New Orleans, to a sugar plantation. Desperate for comfort, she turns to memories of her mother and the stories she told Annis of her African warrior grandmother. As she endures unimaginable horrors along the way and once at the plantation, those stories help keep her spirit strong.

This is a gorgeously-written book and highlights the atrocities of slavery. Every time I read a book like this or one that talks about the Holocaust, I'm embarrassed to be a member of the same human race that could treat others in these ways. It's difficult to sit in a nice home with easy access to food and comfort, and read about people so starved and mistreated. The only part of the book that I struggled with was a lot of the magical realism of Annis talking to her spirit ancestors, because there was a lot of that. But even those parts are beautifully written, and show the talent of the author. A book with much for us to learn from.

Jesmyn Ward takes the reader on a journey through the hellscape of antebellum life, from the rice plantations of the Carolinas to the sugar plantations of Louisiana. Follow the trail of Annis, a young, enslaved woman who possesses skills and the stories from her mother, Sasha, to sustain her. But Sasha is sold when she intervenes in the plantation owner’s (who is Annis’s sire) attempt to rape Annis. Subsequently Annis is also sold down south. Though her nightmarish journey she recalls her mother’s admonition that Annis is her own weapon. She also encounters a spirit who assumes the name of Aza, her African, grandmother warrior. But is this spirit one who will lead her out of pain or cause more untold hardship? Trust is not to be found through the external forces, only from within. This is a difficult, emotional read with magic realism brought to intercede or not at the most heart-wrenching times. Beautiful prose eases the book for the reader, but does not take away the harshness of the message. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this title.

I am grateful to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to have read an ARC of this masterpiece. I can't honestly say that I enjoyed it--I'm not sure than anyone is intended to enjoy being immersed in the brought-to-vivid-life story of overwhelming suffering. The brutality depicted in this novel, with its allusions to Dante's Inferno (almost as if to say, yes, but a literal hell and far beyond whatever you thought you knew) was sometimes so great that I had to stop reading as the darkness of it overcame me. And then I was ashamed: people lived this, and in my own country. How dare I find it too hard to read?

The writing is quite rich, and the diction brilliantly crafted. I think the author's intention was to suggest some hope in the ending. I found it somewhat ambiguous and wasn't sure how much hope it held for the fierce and courageous protagonist, but am willing to suspend my skepticism and hope for hope.

I think Let Us Descend will, indeed, be rightly considered a great novel.

In this harrowing magical realism novel about the atrocities of slavery, Annis is sold by her slaveowner who also happens to be her father and endures a brutal journey into the deep South to be resold.

I read a lot of horror novels, but enslaving people is one of the most horrific examples of human monsters I have ever come across. Since this book deals with the topic of slavery, it is on the heavy side and there is pain there. I enjoyed the magical realism and Dante's Inferno connection that the author incorporated in this and found it to be a unique novel. Although, it is a beautifully written and thoughtfully planned story, it is one you need to be in the right headspace for.

Ward’s Let Us Descend was a fascinating story of a slave girl who is torn apart from her mother and the spirits that help guide her journey in the aftermath. Beautifully written and thought provoking!

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward tells a compelling tale of an enslaved young woman being sold down the river from the Carolinas to a sugar plantation in Louisiana, drawing parallels to the descent into hell in Dante’s Inferno.

During her own ordeals, Annis also seeks her mother, who recently suffered the same fate. She is guided by the voices and spirits of her mother, grandmother and ancestors through a nightmarish odyssey through rivers and swamps, through unbearable humiliation at a slave auction, grueling work at a sugar plantation and punishments akin to Dante's circles of Hell. Ward vividly portrays the horrors of slavery, inviting readers to feel the excruciating physical and emotional pain endured by the characters.

While the Dante references and direct quotes felt heavy-handed at times for me, they provided a useful framework for Annis's suffering and I thought the references and structure become more and more effective towards the story's end.

Ward skillfully uses the spirit world and the complex relationships among women to aid or hinder Annis in her quest. Annis' uncertain fate forces us to contemplate what freedom and escape from this hellish brutality mean.

Despite its harrowing content, the novel beautifully explores empowering and nuanced female relationships, highlighting how the enslaved women retained their identity and humanity in the face of inhuman brutality and oppression. The powerful, visceral storytelling will probably be compared to Toni Morrison’s Beloved and A Mercy, but Jesmyn Ward’s crisp, arresting prose needs no comparisons. She wields her own masterful magic. Highly recommended.

4.5/5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the eARC..

Let Us Descend is the first Jesmyn Ward novel that I have read, although when I posted a recommendation on my Facebook page, several friends commented that they had read her previous books. Let Us Descend is a short novel, taking me just over 5 hours to read. The story is that of Annis, a young slave. Readers who are not fans of magical realism will either find they love the genre or are turned off by its use in this novel. Ward’s writing is beautiful and lyrical and tragic and cruel but also hopeful. Just in case readers think they have read all there is to know about slavery, Ward’s approach will demonstrate there is more to learn. There are multiple references to Dante’s Inferno. I have read Dante, but prior knowledge is not necessary to read Let Us Descend. The references are easily understood.

Let Us Descend is beautifully written, poetic in its descriptions of Annis, as she imagines a different ending to her life. Ward captures the cruelty of human ownership, from the sexual risk that male owners pose for their female slaves, to the slave markets in New Orleans, to the brutality of beatings and punishments that are dehumanizing. Slaves are machines, who are overworked and underfed. All that matters to these owners is the work that must be done. Ward's view will no doubt offend those who believe that owners were loving and taught their slaves useful skills, but the realities were far different. The descriptions of how Annis survives her journey from the Carolinas to New Orleans is sad and desperate. The casualness of death and injury is at times heartbreaking. Ward humanizes the slaves and they become individuals, not a group of poorly defined people.

If I have one complaint it is that the ending feels almost fanciful, but by the time readers get to the conclusion, we are ready for an ending with some hope.

I want to thank the author, Scribner, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for me to read and review. Let Us Descend is a novel that should not be missed.

I'm a huge Jesmyn Ward fan but I had a hard time getting thru this book. The story seemed all over the place and even 50% thru, the story still did not reel me in.

Absolutely stunning writing. The magicK realism elements weren't exactly my favorite, but Annis was an amazing main character.

Thank you to Scribner for the Advanced Book Review!

Painful yet beautiful, Jesmyn Ward's newest novel depicts what it means to become a woman when your soul.is owned by someone else. To own your truth and power, to build your inner strength, to draw upon your built environment. Ward takes an unflinching look at the particular cruelties of the Southern Plantations, especially in New Orleans, while continually celebrating the enduring spirit of the free Black woman. The element of the supernatural added another layer of complexity- how grief and tradition can both support us and restrict us from accessing our truest selves. What I loved the most was the vivid descriptions of nature. This is a book that will stay in your soul for a long time.

I can tell that Jesmyn Ward’s words are carefully chosen. I feel those words, what’s behind them, what’s underneath them, in this story. I am always drawn to her work, and I think part of that is the care she puts into every word. The grief in this book is present in a way that’s familiar but also foreign to me. Like I know what grief is for me, but I also know that grief is different for Annis. Her story is tough. It’s also filled with hope and a strong sense of self. I thought a lot about this book while I was reading it and kept coming back to the sacrifices that my ancestors were forced to make. I thought a lot about the small pieces of joy they were able to wrangle amid incredibly difficult times. That’s what I’m holding onto, the little ways that people were able to care for each other and themselves. This book makes me want to clear my own path and dive deeper into to my ancestry. I’m thankful for this book and the beautiful story that Jesmyn shared.

Thank you to Jesmyn Ward, Scribner, and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

More than any book I have ever read, this story is drenched in grief, with sorrow and loss deeply embedded into every sentence, every character, every turn of the page.

Author Jesmyn Ward lost her own young husband and father to her two small children in a tragic way in January of 2020 (highly recommend her memoir-article in Vanity Fair); this life event directs this book.

Ward uses the framework of Virgil’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘺. In this case Annis, a young enslaved girl, travels the circles of Hell (ie. slavery, the South, the slave markets) as she searches for Heaven (ie. freedom, autonomy, identity), and yes, I wish I was more familiar with this classic so I could more clearly see the connections, as I did with 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘥𝘺𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘺 in her last book, 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘜𝘯𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘨.

Lyrically written, steeped in mystical cultural beliefs , this was not an easy read for me. At times, I just felt stupid, like I should be understanding it more. I also needed to just get through it, as the trauma and sadness overwhelmed me. Yet, this feeling of deep sorrow is the authenticity of this story; slaves had to trudge through each day, knowing there was no hope in the following day, realizing that ‘𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘯.’

I will not be forgetting this book any time soon, and hope to reread it with a group of people so I can parse out further meaning.

HBU? Have you read it yet? Planning to? I mean, Jesmyn Ward has won TWO national book choice awards now!! Do you have a favorite of her’s? Mine is still 𝘔𝘦𝘯 𝘞𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘥.

Enter this beautifully crafted, lyrical book knowing that it is dark, brutally honest, deep, and thought provoking. It is a book crying to be read and discussed. How does a young Black woman survive when her dear mother is sold away? When she and her lover are sold away? How does she survive the death March to her new destination? The starvation diet at the plantation? Will the ghosts of the earth and air give her the strength she needs to survive? My heart still aches from experiencing this book. It will ache for a long time.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is nothing short of a masterpiece! A powerful and heartbreaking story of slavery that is set across the antebellum American south. Just read it!

gorgeously written historical fiction, cutting deep, making you feel the strength of love. the fantastical elements are vital, too.