A really intriguing premise and an innovative idea! The writing was also excellent. I did not finish in time but I thoroughly enjoyed what I did read! Really looking forward to finishing this.

This is the type of book that grabs you and doesn’t let go the characters are compelling and beautifully written.
Thanks to net galley and the publisher for letting me review the book

AN EXCELLENT read!

Compelling and heartwrenching. This book grabbed me from the first pages and still has not let go. The characters, the story... they all sit with you and stay. A haunting and captivating read about the struggles Post Slavery but with different viewpoints and told from multiple perspectives. Love, love, love and I look forward to more from this author.

The day after Felix H. Parker's funeral, Adelaide Parker shows up at his home and shares a story with his family of how their lives intertwined on and off Roads End Plantation. His family had heard some stories about his life during and after slavery, but Adelaide tells them of tales they couldn't have imagined.

As a young boy, Felix is tasked with keeping a secret that changes his and Adelaide's lives forever. Throughout the story, you see the trials both Parker families faced as well as the tribulations. I enjoyed the resilience of the formerly enslaved and how some things came back full circle. Adelaide's travels to Europe didn't really add to the story. Her secret could have been told in the same manner the interaction with Edna Mae was. The interaction between Felix and Claude was more compelling.

Although the topics were heavy, the story overall wasn't sad. I found myself rooting for Pleasant and Felix to fight back for what they deserved. The characters were memorable and fully developed. This was an incredible read and it reminded me why I love historical fictions so much.

This debut is a wonderful treasure to read and what a great story it told! I applaud you Mr. Charles B Fancher! I listened to the audiobook narrated by Dion Graham and what a phenomenal job he did as well! Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book in exchange for an honest review.

Red Clay by Charles B. Fancher, set in a fictional town of Red Clay, Alabama, this is a multigenerational epic depicting the fate two families, a Parker family and the family that was enslaved its family. Francher, depicting the power of secrets and how they shape and influence the lives of the characters spanning generations, and using his family history as inspiration for the novel, provides an engaging and immersive journey for the reader, allowing us to a realistic visualization the town and feel connected to the characters.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing for the opportunity to read this eARC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 4 Stars
Pub Date: Feb 25 2025

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#RedClay
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#HistoricalFiction
#YarisBookNook
#netgalley

✨ Review ✨ Red Clay by Charles B. Fancher, Narrated by Dion Graham

Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

This story starts in 1865 near the end of the Civil War with an enslaved and enslaver family in Red Clay Alabama, and shows the post-war period of sharecropping and negotiation of rights, the rise of the Klan and the violence that ensues. This multi-POV story features Felix, a Black enslaved child, and his family, as well as the family who has enslaved them and people who surround their stories.

This was brilliantly written, and is a fully immersive story, bringing you into this world. However, it has a bit of an abrupt ending, and I wanted the end a bit more fleshed out. There are also a few layers of complexity that maybe could have been trimmed, and I'm not sure it needed all of these things to still function.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5)
Genre: historical fiction
Setting: Red Clay, Alabama, starts in 1865
Length: 10 hours 34 minutes
Reminds me of: Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine, Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Pub Date: Feb 04 2025

Read this if you like:
⭕️ stories featured Black enslaved folks, from their POV
⭕️ pre/post Civil War historical fiction, looking at the lives of everyday people
⭕️ deep examination of gender, race, class, and power relations
⭕️ complex narrative with multi-POV and dual timeline

I ended up reading the audio version of Red Clay. Here is my feedback:

Red Clay is definitely a 2025 favorite for me. We learn the stories of a formerly enslaved family and the family that owned them through a shared oral history that takes place in 1943 after the death of Felix Parker. Addie Parker, now 90, was a member of the Parker family who owned Felix. She seeks to share the story of his life up to his early manhood with his family and to learn of his life as a free man with a family and a carpenter shop. Most of the novel is about the past. All of the historical pieces we learn about are the stories each family has learned through direct experiences or as passed down to them. In the novel, they are told from a third person omniscient point of view and so we are in each period of the lives of the various characters. Although the book is told in multiple timelines, it chronologically runs from the last year or two of the Civil War to 1943, when Felix dies.

As the Civil War is plainly drawing to a close, John Parker, owner of Roads End Plantation carries out a plan to ensure his family's future when his slaves are likely to be freed and the family's wealth seriously impacted as a result. The plan involves little Felix, the only remaining child of Elmira and Pleasant and burdens him forever with a dark secret. Felix's older brother and sister were recently sold. Felix's family has the "easier" life of working in the house. His mother is the cook, his father a kind of factotum to the master. Felix, a favorite of Addie, the spoiled only girl child of the Parkers spends each meal sitting on a stool behind Addie while she fees him table scraps. The family's view of the people they enslave is somewhat tempered by the mistress, Marie Louise, who grew up in New Orleans where there are free Black people, many people of mixed race. Make no mistake, Roads End has wicked overseers, works their slaves as hard as any plantation and whips and disfigures those who try to run. When the master dies, Claude, the son who is most interested in and capable of taking over the plantation does so, although not in the way he expects. Yet, the master wishes to leave ten acres of land to Pleasant and these wishes are passed on to Claude through his mother when she passes away after her husband. That ten acres plays its own role in the story over and over again.

The Roads End enslaved population learns of their freedom while Claude is master. He takes steps to establish sharecropping for those who want to stay. In what he views as a savvy and very generous decision, Claude moves Pleasant, Elmira and Felix to the former overseer's house to work for wages. The complicated relationships between freed people and the town of Red Clay, Alabama evolves during postwar reconstruction to the violence perpetrated against Black people viewed as acting above their station. Fancher deftly illustrates both the petty and the deadly actions of the local plantation owners. The change influences Claude, who could be "benevolent" when he was in control, to an angry man who wants and cannot fully have control anymore.

While Claude manages Roads End after his father passes, his mother takes Addie to New Orleans. Addies life ends up exposing her to a broader view of the world, an unconventional turn related to her traveling abroad and a shift in her views of the formerly enslaved residents of Road's End and elsewhere. As she shares her story with Felix's descendants and they share his, the depth of their understanding and respect for one another grows in a lovely way.

Red Clay Alabama and the trajectory of its white and black populations never quite becomes stereotyped, but it is vividly drawn and at times, unbearably drawn. And that is as it should be. That there were people like Addie who grew and changed and brought a new perspective to the post-war south is indisputable and Fancher also keeps that real. Addie was a spoiled brat who would hurt Felix, the enslaved. Through life experience, she ends up at his funeral in 1943. He had lived a life that was by no means free of terrible suffering and danger due to her father's and brother's actions both during and after the times of slavery in the United States. While Fancher spares us nothing, he brings us much to ponder and appreciate about the possibilities that were there and that some achieved. Those enslaved people lucky enough to learn a trade let them fare better than others when they ventured off the plantation into post-slavery life. It is plain that those left to sharecropping were vulnerable to the quality of their harvests and were much more likely to lose everything.

In sum Red Clay shows us the varied stories about how people changed, for better or worse, when slavery ended, and does it to perfection. I have read a lot of history of this period and other historical fiction about this era. This book deserves a lot of attention. It is well researched, beautifully written and a nonstop compelling read. I read the audio version. The narrator, Dion Graham is astoundingly good. I looked him up and quickly realized I've listened to him narrate many other works of fiction. I need to add more of his work to my library. I strongly recommend that people who, like me, enjoy audiobooks read this one through Graham's narration, which is, as usual, impeccable.

I really enjoyed Red Clay. It’s a story told over multiple generations about a once enslaved family and their owners. Reading about slavery and the Jim Crow era is always difficult, but the author did a great job with this story. I definitely recommend you check out Red Clay!

Thank you Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC!

Red Clay is a compelling historical fiction novel that masterfully intertwines the lives of two families, one formerly enslaved and the other their former owners, on the Road's End Plantation in Red Clay, Alabama. The narrative spans from the Civil War era through Reconstruction and the Jim Crow period, offering a remarkable story of resilience, determination, and perseverance.

The story begins in 1943 with the funeral of Felix Parker, a former slave, and the provocative statement by Adelaide Parker, a frail, elderly white woman who once knew Felix. The novel delves into the dangerous and complex dynamics of the Parker families on the plantation during the Civil War and the upheaval that followed emancipation.

The prose is both beautiful and true to the setting; the characters are memorable and easy to care for and root for. Readers understand their desire for freedom and respect. There are uncomfortable passages – reflective of the era, but necessary to convey the weight and depth of this existence. The novel is a moving and beautifully written portrayal of a complex, painful time in American history, making it a must-read for anyone interested in historical fiction.

See full review on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution website:

"Pennsylvania journalist Charles B. Fancher was born six years after his great-grandfather died and didn’t know much about his ancestor until a few years ago. While visiting his “decorous” 92-year-old mother, Fancher was caught off guard when she started regaling him with wild stories about her grandfather with a “roguish streak” who was born into slavery on an Alabama plantation and proceeded to build a good life for his family in post-Reconstruction South.

Intrigued and encouraged by his mother to write about his grandfather’s life, Fancher consulted with regional historians and dug through online archives. He eventually returned to his family’s ancestral hometown, a place he hadn’t visited since childhood, to interview residents and reconnect with Alabama’s iconic red clay. Fancher details this journey in the afterword of his debut novel “Red Clay,” a powerful and evocative historical family saga that brings the stark reality of transitioning from enslavement to independence in the late 19th century to palpable, vibrant life..."

https://ajc.com/things-to-do/red-clay-traces-the-lives-of-slave-and-slaveholder-in-reconstruction-era-alabama/AUYOOIONMFDS5LVIYJTAE5VQ7Q/

This book is wonderful. The writing is exquisite and the story drew me in. I fell in love with all the characters and devoured this gem of a book. Highly recommend.

This book!!!

How can a story be about one of the worst times in our history but be so BEAUTIFUL at the same. I wanted to title this review " How can a story be so ugly but yet beautiful at the same time"

Reading this book during February is quite the dare. I felt every emotion displayed in this book. Sadness, fear, gratefulness, hope, love, determination, resilience, survival, perseverance and every other emotions you can think of.

This story follows the life of an enslaved family mainly Felix and story is told by one of his previous owners Addie. It navigates their lives from the time of Emancipation of slaves, post Civil War, the Reconstruction Era and Jim Crow. This was an action packed, soul reflecting story and I would love to see it as a movie.
Not only did the men show strength and resilience but the women Elmira, Zilpha and others besides that Edna Mae (lol) also did.

After reading the afterword, the author wrote this book off the stories of his late great grandfather and I must say he did a wonderful job and without being cheesy, I felt like I knew him. I would say he would be very proud of this retelling whether true to fact or some embellishments.

This would be a repeat for me and a top recommendation for the Historical Fiction genre.

This book opens in the 1940s, at the funeral of Felix, a formerly enslaved person. His family and friends are there, as is an old white woman whom nobody knows. The old woman is Addie, the plantation owner's daughter and self-described friend of Felix as a child.

Most of the book takes place in the years around the end of the Civil War and the start of reconstruction. We follow Felix and his parents from when he is quite young through adulthood. The plantation owner (and ultimately his middle son) put their trust in Felix and his family, even giving the 8 year-old Felix a horrible secret he has to keep.

Overall, this is a good story. I definitely felt a lot of emotions about all of the main characters. I would have liked to get to know Felix's descendants (and more about his life, too!); as it is, they are merely a device to get Addie to tell the story. I wish it had been Felix telling his own story before his death. A couple of poor word choices ("unwanted sex," for example) also helped to make this a 4-star and not a 5-star review.

My thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Nelnet for giving me this ARC! Red Clay was amazing, it will be hard to beat this book in 2025. Red Clay, although historical fiction, gives readers a glimpse into how Black families lived through the agony of slavery, the elatedness of being free, and the unknown time periods odd the reconstruction era. Although the owners of Red Clay Plantation are described(by the main characters) as “there are worse” it does not discredit their feelings and shows that although they might not be as bad they still dos not have the Families best interest at heart. They were quick to jump on them when they started improving and doing better than them. Great read and beautiful writing by the author that allows you to be fully immersed in the story from beginning to end.

Thank you to NetGally for the ARC! A novel spanning decades, Red Clay by Charles B. Fancher expertly navigates the difficulties faced during slavery and the Jim Crow era. The novel explores humanity, friendship, family, redemption, and hatred. Every character in the novel is complex and multi-facetted, and you find yourself caring for some characters so deeply- that they feel like your friends and family. Felix and Pleasant in particular grabbed me by the heartstrings. The novel is written excellently, and I recommend the audiobook as well. Overall, this book may just be one of the best books about the slavery era I've read in a long, long time. I enjoyed the afterward from the author about his own experiences that wove their way into the novel.

TLDR; You should really read this novel!

Wow - what a fantastic book! I love historical fiction books with a dual timeline, and I love that this book handles difficult subject matter with so much empathy and compassion. This should be required reading for all!

This man FELIXH Parker was a young boy during the Civil War. And his family were enslaved to the family. It was an interesting story because there's a lot going on and I love how the author tied everything together. I like when Felix died in the Portuguese.It was very interesting because his granddaughter wanted to know about the history.And I like how the author went backwards in time to tell this man's story and that it's an amazing way of writing. Adel AI.D.E parker was the youngest of the family and she came to his funeral and told the story about the family. She had a very interesting pass as well. They touched on a lot of differen He describedt subjects in this book and it was done very tastefully I Especially about the kuka clan And how f e l I x stood up to them. Who's a very brave thing?Especially during the jim crow laws. And he did it in a very way because he went to Charles instead. Look, I know you killed my father, He blackmailed him and this was pretty powerful at that time. They also talked about racial matters as well . Felix off, it's also cheated on his wife butt the person he did it with helped in a situation which was really critical. Also, also I like when they found his family were sold to pay for the land. There is so.
Many twists and turns in this book.You will be so surprised as you read it and how everything is tied together

This is a great book. The subject matter is serious and I took my time reading it because there was so much to get into here and the writing is just fantastic. The characters in this story reflect the gamut from resilient and persevering to desperate and willing to compromise their morals and even humanity. This is a great representation of the antebellum age and the horrors and hopes that lie within. I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys deep, contemplative historical fiction.

Red Clay, by Charles B. Fancher, is a compelling multigenerational tale of two families, one Black and one White, in the American south from 1863 to 1943. The characters are three-dimensional with interesting backstories, the pace is steady, the history seems very well researched, and the story kept me engaged throughout. This is Faucher’s debut, based on his own family’s story, and it is a very impressive debut indeed. I look forward to reading more by him in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for an advanced eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review