Member Reviews

A decade in the life of a Black working class family – from cookouts and birthdays to funerals and calls from prison – is captured with warmth and honesty in the first novel from poet and activist DeLana R.A. Dameron. Teeta and Weesie Bolton had been married for nearly ten years when they claimed their bit of the American dream, buying a home in Columbia, South Carolina in the late 1960s. Their granddaughter Mika, born in 1985, is our guide as she watches the Bolton Family make their way through the 1990s, finding strength and understanding in family and community, while Mike grows from a child into a woman. Dameron's storytelling is subtly smart and has the ring of truth, finding room for heart and humor as the characters deal with good times and bad. Anyone who's ever watched the grown ups from the children's table will relate to Redwood Court.

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This is a multi-generational saga told from multiple viewpoints. It is a story of family, ancestry, community & daily lkfe. Each character goes through experience that show us the ways family can hurt you & save you. You immediately love Weesie and also feel fury for those who have wronged her. Then we meet a few members of her family and hear their stories. Finally, toward the end the story brings us to Mika who is living her own “coming of age” story. You feel for the injustices they each face on a global and personal scale. Their lives are nuanced and beautiful but often difficult. I loved hearing the stories & it felt like a gathering of family, passing around tales from the past.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.

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This was a very interesting book to read. I liked the main character and her point of view. I would highly recommend everyone check this book out. It is very good.

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“He pushes himself up a bit on the couch, but doesn’t sit upright fully. “How I see it, I either wallow in the unknowns that I ain’t never gone know, or I rest knowing my peoples over in Green Sea, South Carolina, is made of salt water and collards and oak-smoked ham.” What am I made of? That’s not quite the question for the project, but it has arrived on my heart. How do I know what I am made of?”

This book was so poignant and did such a great job showing instead of telling.

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Redwood Court is a beautifully written coming-of-age story set in the 1990s in Columbia, SC. The story encompasses three generations and provides a strong sense of time and place as Mika's story is told. You can tell that the author has written poetry by the beauty of her prose. This is not a plot-heavy page-turner but rather one to savor for the beauty of the writing..

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of Redwood Court in exchange for an honest review. It is available now.

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Thank you for the opportunity to read this novel. I was not able to connect with the characters and did not finish. I won't be leaving a full review at this time.

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Beautifully written story!
I live multigenerational stories, especially those that include povs of younger generations.
I learned a lot from this and it motivated me to explore my family roots.

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A beautiful, thought provoking story of the all Black cul-de-sac of Redwood Court in S.C. Heartbreak and happiness. Good fortune and hard times. Being invisible and being seen. Loved the characters and the setting. Very well written.

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Not the book for me, this was very hard to read as there are no quotation marks or punctuation. Maybe it is just in this copy and not the final copy,

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This was just a great family saga. I started it and couldn't put it down. There was a lot to keep track of but it worked out well

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There is so much beauty in the language of this book. Seeped in southern storytelling traditions, Redwood court moves between narrators to piece together a multigenerational family history. I want so much to love this book and to be able to fully immerse in the story, however it difficult to follow with the formatting of the ebook. Lines with smushed together and it was difficult to tell the movement between narrators. I am encouraged enough to seek out this book in its print copy (which is why I am not sharing a review on Goodreads yet.)

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What an incredible story about being seen and heard. As a high school teacher, it is one that I will ask to be put in our library. It is a transformative tale and gives a voice to all.

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This is a coming of age story that starts back before the main character is born. It did keep me interested throughout most of the book and I loved the '90's/early '00's references. The book started to lose steam during the end and I felt myself wanting it to be over. There really was no plot, which was obviously the goal so I'm not sure this book is for everyone.

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This was a very interesting and eye opening book! I read it in one day, would have in one sitting if I didn't have to adult! I would recommend this book!

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I love family sagas so when i read the synopsis I was convinced. The book follows a Black family living in South Carolina and covers three generations. On Redwood Court, a Black community where our characters live, Mika, our main character is enthralled in the community as she witnesses the lives and hardships of those around her. There are a few different points of view but then into settles into Mika's voice. As the story develops we get to see the stories of her grandparents, Weesie and Teeta who move into Redwood Court soon after the Korean War with a determination to build a life and community there.

I think what I truly enjoy about this book is the beauty of the writing and the simplicity of the story. We get to see Mika's coming of age but we also get to see the everyday small heroes that live in the community.

A touching read.

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Well written and deeply moving. There are quite a few character POVs that can be a little difficult to keep up with initially. Overall this novel is thought provoking and worth your time, very important messages

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In 1960 Weesie and Teeta purchased their home in Redwood Court, part of an all-Black suburb of Columbia, South Carolina. They would raise their family, gather around the barbecue that Teeta built and share gossip with the neighbors. DeLana Dameron allows the reader to become a member of the community as you share all of their joys and sorrows and fall in love with Weesie and Teeta. This is also a coming of age story as their granddaughter Mika enters their lives and you watch her grow and begin to question.what has always been accepted. She is especially close to Teeta and spends her time with him as her parents work long hours. It is especially heartbreaking as Teeta ages and becomes ill, but life gos on in Redwood Court and Weesie continues to dispense her words of wisdom.

Dameron explores the African American experience when Weesie is approached by two women involved in tracing the descendants of the slaves of the Bolton plantation. It allows Weesie to connect with additional family and learn more about Teeta’s history. This is a story that is beautifully told and celebrates the importance of family. I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House/Dial Prss for providing this book for my review.

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A multigenerational family drama set in South Carolina. I found it hard to connect with the characters and struggled to finish.

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The title of the book is where the main character's grandparents live in Columbia, SC. Through Mika's eyes we see the three generations of her family as well as the neighbors on Redwood Court. Her grandparents lived through Jim Crow and were able to buy the house in the 60s, a dream of leaving something for their family.
DéLana R. A. Dameron's novel, Redwood Court, Mika Tabor's tale begins with a family tree assignment — something particularly difficult to both explore and encapsulate in the same way or to the same degree as her white classmates. So the unfurling of Mika's beautifully rich tapestry of matriarchal generations begins with the idea of filling out the tree with stories, rather than simply names, branching the idea of the tree outwards instead of focusing on the typical upwards angle. There is many important topics that more focused writing would assist in forming this book better. The topics are important and the underlying idea of learning more about your family, what they have been through as well as the importance to your life is something mostly lost in today's families. You can only know where you are going if you know where you have been. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher.

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What are we made of? We are made of our stories. This is the point of author DéLana R.A. Dameron's debut novel. Thus, Redwood Court itself is made up of a collection of tightly linked stories. While there is not really a straightforward narrative, each story builds upon the next, creating a rich portrait of a family and their true north -- the house on Redwood Court.

[Thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]

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