The set up for this story is phenomenal! I have added it to my MUST Read list of 2024 and even suggested it to family and friends who like to watch shows with family drama. If there is to be a show or movie in place I would not be surprised! This was truly a story to be reckoned with. There are many tropes that coincide with issues within the black community and I honestly can’t rave enough about how it is addressed here.

I love a good family saga. Long After We Are Gone starts with the death of King Solomon and his four adult children coming back together. Each of them has their own secrets and challenges that the others aren’t aware of and they quickly learn that their family home and the 200 acres it sits on are at risk of being taken by developers.

I really enjoyed learning the stories of the four different siblings and seeing how the story all came together. However at times I wish the author had trusted us to understand more subtlety - I felt like some situations and characters were really over exaggerated. I would have been more along for the ride if there was some more nuance at points. I really loved the last few lines and how it brought it all together.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook to review.

When King Solomon passed away, his last words are, "Don't let the white man take the house." As each of his four children return home with their own struggles and secrets, the difficulty of this request becomes apparent. Since the property has been passed on as heir property a legal loophole may mean they can't fulfill their Dad's last request! Each of the siblings is wrestling with some big issues and they have their reasons for fighting.
I enjoyed a lot about this book, the writing style, the multiple points of view, and what I learned about the issue of heir property. However, it lost stars for me because I wasn't able to root for the main characters. I understand needing flawed characters and trying to gain redemption... But i think it was too much. Some of the actions at the end were so out of character and without realistic consequences.
It was an interesting read, and had some major issues that need to be discussed, but I wish I had someone to root for. But, maybe that's what also made it realistic, there isn't always a hero in life.
This one was published earlier this month, so if it peaks your interest, go check it out!

Thank you to @netgalley for providing me with this ARC to read.
#NetGalley #LongAfterWeAreGone

This deeply immersive family drama unfolds in Diggs, NC, where the Solomon siblings – Junior, Mance, Cece, and Tokey – reunite following the death of their father, King. As they grapple with the uncertain fate of their ancestral home, the Kingdom in Diggs, questions linger about their family's tangled history. Secrets of power, money, abuse, and blackmail surface, shrouding each sibling in mystery. Amidst the turmoil, the siblings are bound by a shared past marked by unresolved questions: the disappearance of their mother, the missing deed to their land, the sudden departure of Uncle Shad, the enigma of Tokey's appearance, and the true reason behind Cece's return home. In a narrative rich with intrigue and familial complexities, Diggs emerges as a place where hidden truths converge, beckoning the siblings to confront their past and reclaim their legacy.

I went into this book with basically no knowledge of the subject matter and was very interested in it. It sounded like a story I would be able to submerse myself into at the same time learning about an important subject matter. However, the Solomon family didn’t really have any characters that you could find yourself rooting for. They have all made terrible life choices and are a a quartet of immature siblings so unlikeable it’s hard to have compassion for those choices. And while the base of the story “heir property” in black families was what could have stood out, it was drowned out by the awful people at the center of the story.
This was a story that could have been but missed the mark. I think I see what the author was trying to go for in making the characters down on their luck, and I think the story had potential because the subject is an important one, but by the time I got to the end I really didn’t care whether or not they were able to save the land. And that’s a shame.
Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for this eArc in exchange for my review.

For whatver reason this book is not what I thought it to be. I will be picking it up in the future but it is not gelling with me at the moment unfortunately.

What an amazing story. I was fully engrossed in this family drama and loved the narration of the audiobook. High,y recommend, thank you for my copy.

One family. Four siblings. An ancestral home being snatched away.

In Diggs, South Carolina, sits a 200 acre property that was once known as the Solomon Plantation but is now more commonly referred to as the Kingdom. Generations of the Solomon family have lived here, struggling to make a living and provide for their families. Above all things, every family member knows the cardinal rule….they are never, ever to sell the land. When King Solomon, the current patriarch, drops dead of a heart attack without leaving a will, the Kingdom passes to his family as “heir property”, a legal construct which makes the land vulnerable to outside acquisition. King’s four children are all at an inflection point in their lives: elder son Junior is the local high school principal, married to Genesis and father of two young daughters…and is a deep-in-the-closet homosexual involved with a man named SImon; second son Mance is a carpenter like his father, has been in and out of jail given an uncontrollable violent streak, and is in a relationship with librarian Lisha with whom he has an infant son Henry who has just been diagnosed with significant deafness; daughter CeCe is a lawyer with a large firm in NYC who could not escape the impoverished small town where she was raised quickly enough, leaving behind the man she loved (Ellis)….and whose embezzlement at her law firm has been uncovered by at least one member of the firm, who is keeping it quiet in exchange for her sexual favors; and younger daughter Tokey, who lived at home with her father and is an emotional eater who has become obese. King was not an easy man to know, and had raised his children alone after the disappearance of their mother for reasons unknown years ago. The siblings are still processing his death and what it will mean to their individual struggles when they receive an eviction notice…..developers claim that they own the acreage on which their family home sits. They need to come together to fight for their inheritance, even as they disagree on what they want to do with it, and each needs to work through their problems to steer a course for the future.
This is a family saga filled with well-developed if flawed characters who are in the midst of a struggle to discover who they are, where they want their lives to lead, and how they can go about achieving those goals. They are hiding secrets from one another and the world at large, things that they feel will not be understood or accepted….but only in revealing their true selves will they be able to move forward. The narrations alternates between the four siblings, and each of their stories…..where they are, what they’ve done and why, and what crisis they confront….is carefully shared with the reader. I found the concept of heir properties to be fascinating; I had never heard of them (and suspect that I am not alone in that regard) and yet it is the leading cause of involuntary land loss for Black families, a troubling reality. I was drawn into this family’s drama from the beginning, and rooted for them to find peace and retain their inheritance throughout their struggles. Readers of authors like Terry McMillan, Celeste Ng and Caroline Leavitt (to name just a few) should treat themselves to discovering the stories at the heart of Long After We Are Gone….there is sadness and loss but also strength and redemption contained within these pages. Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for allowing me early access to this thought provoking novel.

I loved Harris's debut novel and was worried she couldn't top it, but this book is just as good. I had a little difficulty getting into it, but as it progressed, it got better and better until I was sobbing at the end.I learned a lot about how land ownership evolved for blacks after the civil war.
This is a story about family love, estrangement, and secrets. Four siblings come back to Diggs,NC when their father dies, each with their own very overwhelming problems.
Each generation of Kings owned 200 acres of land with a house they called The Kingdom.
Junior is married and a school principal with a secret. Dance is more like his father, a carpenter who loves woodworking and continually fixing the house. He has a girlfriend and a new baby who is deaf.
Cece is an attorney in NY who has been embezzling, and Tokey, the baby of the family, has a food addiction.
The ramifications of all of these problems come to a head when the siblings discover what their uncle has done to their inheritance.
The last 3rd of the book really picks up the pace as each character must come to terms with their mistakes and their futures. There is violence, there is love, and best of all, the siblings finally share all their secrets.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the EARC. This is my honest review.

There are books you feel “meh” about, and then there are books you feel strongly conflicted about.  This one was the latter.  I tore through it while on vacation and I really got into this generational family drama. But I also felt the violence was excessive and even glorified. Unlike Hard By a Great Forest, which was violent in a devastating way, this book seemed to equate violence with manhood.  

The story is set in North Carolina, where patriarch King has just passed away. His last words to his son are “Don’t let white men get the house.” His four children, Junior, Mance, Cecily and Tokey, reunite for his funeral and then learn that the land they grew up on is being sold to a developer.  Some of the siblings desperately need the money and want to sell, but the others are adamant that the land must stay in the family. 

The book explores the concept of property inheritance, specifically heir property, which has been common for black families in the United States. largely because they do not trust estate lawyers. Unfortunately that creates legal loopholes where it’s easier for developers to seize property, and it has been recognized as a leading cause of property loss for African-American families.

I loved the complicated nature of the siblings’ relationships with each other and with their father. They know nothing about their mother, and each sibling seems to have settled into a clear role in the family dynamic. Junior is the outcast, a school principal who was considered weak by their father. He's married but gay; he's in love with a man but afraid to come out to his family. Mance is the tough guy, who’s carrying on King's carpentry business, but his toughness has also led to a criminal record. He's trying to go straight but keeps getting sucked back in to fighting and crime. Cecily is the smart, ambitious one, a lawyer who wants nothing to do with her hometown. She's also in desperate legal trouble. Tokey, in contrast to her older sister, is the dependent one, the one who’s never left home. She's struggling with an eating disorder.

Each sibling pair has become extreme opposites, and one thing this book explores is how King as a father encouraged those divisions (though not intentionally). I think this happens to some degree among all siblings. You see your “niche” in the family and you think that’s who you are. It’s only a lot later that you come to understand that you can all be smart, strong, quiet, outgoing, etc.

This is a book with a lot of drama and emotion. The four siblings had very distinct voices and all were sympathetic despite their making some terrible decisions. But I was very troubled by some of the things that happened towards the end, which I found very hard to square with characters I had come to like. In looking at other reviews, I seem to be an outlier on this point, but I found the violence excessive and at times gratuitous. And the idea that all four siblings never once asked any questions about their mother didn't feel realistic. But there was much about this book I enjoyed and related to, and I really appreciated the complexity and the resolution of the property issue.

Note: I received an advanced review copy of this book from NetGalley and publisher Sourcebooks Landmark.  This book published May 14, 2024.

Wow. This was a gripping, emotional family drama that I could not tear my eyes away from. Everyone is fighting their own battles as the family fights the larger battle of land loss from heir property. I appreciate how the author writes real stories of little talked about issues.

A great pick for anyone who enjoys historical fiction, dysfunctional family stories, and love, lies, and redemption.

Has anyone read this yet??? This was one of the best books I’ve read this year! It was realistic, emotional and engaging. It was written with such intensity and grit. It was a sobering look at families and each person had secrets, struggles. Parts were so heartfelt that I’ll be thinking about it for awhile. I almost put it down in the beginning because the writing was rough, crude? Maybe I mean to realistic to start? But it brought me right up against the rawness of this narrative. The writing swept me away and I couldn’t stop reading it. I even cried happy tears at the end. Whew… I highly recommend this well done novel.
Thanks Sourcebooks Landmark via NetGalley.

This book was everything. It had me hooked from beginning to end and had me running the gamut of emotions.

Told from multiple POVs, we meet the four Solomon siblings and are immersed in their lives and their struggles after the death of their father, King Solomon. Faced with the threat of losing their legacy they must come to terms with their pasts before they are free to look ahead to their futures.

The story touches on many serious issues, including grief, homophobia, family estrangement, and sexual exploitation. Terah Shelton Harris handles it all beautifully, skillfully juggling each of these threads and drawing us firmly into the lives of the complex characters she has created. Her writing was evocative, making it easy to feel invested in the siblings’ insecurities and their struggles as they tried to save their home, heal long-standing estrangements, and free themselves from the burdens and traumas that were handed down to them from earlier generations.

This is a story about real life. It’s a story about family, grief, love, and forgiveness. It’s about the events and the people who tie us to our pasts, and who also underly how we view our presents and our futures. And it’s a story about hope and living a life true to yourself.

This one will stick with me for a long time.

Thanks NetGally and Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced copy.

Family saga revolving around an ancestral house and a deeply flawed family. The patriarch King has died and his four children are left to pick up the pieces. They have to confront their fraught relationships with each other while dealing with the imminent possibility that they may lose their inheritance. Each of them has been keeping a secret of some sort. Learnt about Heir laws affecting the Black community for the first time. None of the characters were particularly likeable and the book could have been a bit shorter. If you are a fan of succession drama and family sagas or if you love to read about sibling dynamics, this is the book for you.

Thank you Netgalley, Terah Shelton Harris and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC

Long After We Are Gone was a fantastic sophomore release from Terah Shelton Harris! I am a fan of complex characters and layered stories, and this book blew me away. I was reading every chance I could.

When the head of the Solomon family passes, unexpectedly, his four children have to come together and decide the fate of the “Kingdom”. The book highlights the importance of having advanced directives, wills, last wishes etc. estate planning is very complicated but it was explained in a way that is understandable. I loved that the author exposes large companies who take advantage of those who have less knowledge. It’s truly predatory behavior. ☹️

The four siblings couldn’t be more different from the other. Each had their own barriers that they needed to overcome and face throughout the story. I sympathized a lot with Tokey’s character because she suffered in silence and didn’t have a “huge role” assigned to her. But she was the key to the family understanding their history and helped them to make a choice- “It always comes down to choices, and they chose.” This final sentence was the best description of the story. Choices had to be made, egos set aside, personal agendas, included. I was shocked by some of the things that were uncovered but also proud that the siblings were able to work together. I don’t think the family land was cursed, it was just time for a new beginning. Loved this book!

I am going to start this review by saying that I have come to the conclusion that I am not a big fan of family dramas. I thought this book was really well written - the characters incredible, the drama well done. I could picture all the characters, their issues and where they were and who they were with. That being said, I just find family dramas to be exhausting. There are TOO many people. Too many issues. Just too much to keep track of. I feel as if I wanted more from all the stories, instead of more stories about a different person. So, if you are a big fan of Family Dramas, this one will give you everything you want. And ALL the emotions, too. 
Thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

Thank you to NetGalley, SOURCEBOOK Landmark, and the author for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Solomon children have lost their father and must all come home to honor him and his last wishes-not to let builders start building a community on their land. Between lies, secrets, dating relationships, and violent behaviors, each adult child has some issues to work out. In order to save the Solomon dynasty, each person has to come to terms with their personal issues and think about what is good for the family. I think you will be pleased with how hard they work for a positive outcome. I enjoyed this book.

"Long After We Are Gone" by Terah Shelton Harris captivates with its rich tapestry of family dynamics, secrets, and the struggle for identity against the backdrop of ancestral land under threat. Harris weaves a poignant narrative, drawing readers into the lives of the Solomon siblings as they confront the impending loss of their heritage.

The author skillfully explores the complexities of familial relationships, delving into the depths of each character's struggles and secrets. From Junior's poignant internal conflict to Tokey's quest for belonging, every character is vividly rendered with layers of emotion and authenticity. Harris masterfully portrays the intricacies of human nature, showing how the weight of expectations and the burden of secrets can shape individuals and relationships.

The novel's structure, and alternating viewpoints, add depth and richness to the storytelling, allowing readers to glimpse into the hearts and minds of each sibling as they navigate their shared crisis. Harris creates a compelling narrative through these alternating perspectives that unfolds with tension and emotional resonance, keeping readers engaged until the final page.

"Long After We Are Gone" is more than just a story about saving a piece of land; it's a profound exploration of love, loss, and the search for identity. Harris's prose is lyrical and evocative, vividly portraying the North Carolina landscape and the Solomon family's struggles. The novel's themes resonate long after the last page is turned, reminding readers of the enduring power of family bonds and the importance of letting go of the past to embrace the future.

"Long After We Are Gone" is a poignant and thought-provoking novel that should be savored. Terah Shelton Harris has crafted a compelling story that lingers in the mind, showcasing her talent for storytelling and deep understanding of the human experience. This book is a must-read for anyone who appreciates heartfelt family dramas with a literary flair.

Long After We Are Gone by Terah Shelton Harris is a family drama (maybe even melodrama) that also raises important questions about land inheritance among families of those who were formerly enslaved. I was interested in this book because of those issues and it was an involving read as it is told from numerous perspectives.

My major issue with the book is that no one seems to have a functional life (surely out of 4 children one could have survived in better emotional shape?). While it's true that each child is scarred because of their family upbringing, it's just that so many scenes result in BIG emotions or BIG outcomes-- it just seemed a bit melodramatic to me.

The author has a real gift for bringing a scene to life and Tokey's early scenes are especially vivid and heartbreaking, so on balance for the author's ability to bring a topical subject vividly to life I'll give it 4 stars and I will read other books by this author.

Long After We Are Gone by Terah Shelton Harris is LIVE! 💐💐💐💐💐
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Terah, Terah, Terah....I was ready not ready! 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Thank you Source Books Landmark Publishers for this arc! It was an absolute pleasure! Terah is a force!
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An anticipated read that did not disappoint. The layers and multiple POV were woven together beautifully to bring the pages alive!
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Terah had me committed, wrapped up, at the edge of my seat, shouting out loud, cheering, teary, praying and so reflective by the end. Just wow! 👏🏿

Are they cursed? Were they cursed? When do they let it be? Is it worth fighting for? How do they fight back?

"History seems to be repeating itself" - the sentiments echoed throughout this story as we followed the Solomon siblings. The sudden death of the Patriarch reveals and forces each sibling to come clean in order to move forward as life as they knew it turned inside out. Their collective futures were hinged on them trusting each other with the messiness and trauma of their individual lives! Powerful!
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Terah gave us angst, anger, love, passion, devotion and desire that were palpable off the pages.
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Families are messy! At the end of this story you will be questioning whether there are any families that are not messy.
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You have to experience it! Happy Reading!