This book should had been a trigger for me since same happened to me. Wedding cancelled. But instead I felt that the main character had strength in how she dealt with seeing him again and with someone else. Eventhough a tragedy happen, I loved how the family still remain close and continue legacy.

I enjoyed Wilkerson’s debut Black Cake so much, that I just knew whatever she wrote next, I’d want to read it.

Good Dirt is SO GOOD ya’ll!

What I like most about Wilkerson’s books is that they teach the reader something you wouldn’t automatically know or find in a standard history book unless you searched for that exact topic. The amount of historical context and importance placed upon clay and water is enlightening.

I was confused about a specific scene that seemed to pull the story away from a family saga and towards a thriller instead. Luckily, it was short-lived and wasn’t revisited.

I thoroughly enjoyed how the book wrapped up. It stands the testament well that Black History is American History.

Superb book!

Thank you @RandomHouse and @NetGalley for sending an Advance Reader’s Copy for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Affluent young New England African American girl witnesses her 15 year old brother murder in a robbery gone wrong. Media coverage makes matters worse and she is unable to shake recognition of this.

The author makes mention of so many media events; I wish I had kept track of the number of them. The author was a journalist prior to becoming an author. It didn't occur to me until now, but with the media hounding the main character for a decade or two, it is likely that the author brings up so many media frenzy events intentionally.

Another theme in Good Dirt is a pottery piece that was passed down through generations and was broken with the brothers murder. The pottery was made by African American slaves and had words hidden in the piece. I enjoyed this part of the story very much and it had not occurred to me that slaves made the pottery ... but ... duh ... its a lot of work.

The author dragged out and foreshadowed the words hidden in the pottery to the point that I didn't care anymore. One of a couple reasons for 4 stars vs 5 stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson in exchange for an honest review. 368 pages. Jan 28, 2025 publication date.

Great read. I'm so happy to have been introduced to Charmaine Wilkerson's writing. This story skillfully jumps between timelines and POVs to tell the story of hurt, trauma, and healing. We see how past and generational traumas loom over and tangle with current pains. We also get, essentially, a jar of dirt pov? which actually added richly to the story and was so unique. Recommend! Will pick up black cake having read and enjoyed this.

This is my first Wilkerson book, but certainly not my last. I kept seeing this around my newsfeeds and other social media platforms. What a great book. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it because this is not usually my genre.
The book comes out in January and I hope others give it a chance, like I did. They wont regret it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ballantine Books and Charmaine Wilkerson for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Good Dirt.
I loved this book! A young Black womanly along with her family piece together the connection between a devastating tragedy and an unusual piece of historic art. Only bits and pieces are given at a time and it is a roller coaster ride putting this puzzle together. I was totally immersed in the situation and felt like I wanted to be part of the solution.
The characters are well developed with many attributes along with many flaws. No one is perfect. The storyline is fast paced and the reader and other characters are given only pieces at a time in attempt for this all to make sense. There are many questions of who to trust and how much is left unsaid. It takes awhile, a slow burn of information but the pieces fit together beautifully and I loved the ending and the important message that connected it all. I’m looking forward to more from Charmaine Wilkerson as I loved Black Cake. I hope there is an adaptation as well for Good Dirt.

I loved parts of this book and disliked others. I felt like the timelines were disjointed and difficult to follow and there several points at which the story lagged for felt unnecessary. Still an engaging read by the end.

Good Dirt examines how we cope and move on from familial trauma. Ebby Freeman was 10 years old when her 15-year-old brother was shot and killed, a victim of a theft gone wrong. In present day, she is waiting for her husband to be on her wedding day, when inexplicably, he leaves her standing at the altar without a phone call or an explanation. The Freemans are a well-known and affluent family in their area, and Ebby runs away to France to run her friend's vacation rental to escape from the gossip of her failed romance. While there, Ebby has to come to grips with her breakup, but also her trauma from witnessing her brother's murder.
Throughout the novel, we jump from present day to the day of the murder, but also back in time to the Freeman's ancestors as they are enslaved in the South. An important "character" in the novel is Old Mo, an antique storage jar that was crafted by a slave and brought North by a Freeman predecessor. As noted in the book summary, this book does explore how our past shapes our present, jumping back and forth with different characters narratives. The various viewpoint tie together as the book moves along, showing how we cope and move on from trauma is different for each person, with Ebby finally moving forward and finding a way to heal both herself and help her parents heal too from the tragedy that shaped their past.
The author skillfully weaves the various narrators together to build the book up to its conclusion. It's a story about pain, but also about healing and felt realistic in its exploration of the human response to tragedy.
Thank you to Random House Ballantine and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

Dirt: we don’t always think about the organic substance even though it’s a treasure right under our feet.

Our attention in this book goes to a 20-gallon hand-made ceramic jar from the clay of the earth that dates back to the 1850s. It was made by Moses, a slave in South Carolina. Six generations of families embraced and passed along this decorated pot until the year 2000 when it was shattered during a tragic Massachusetts house robbery.

Ebby was 10 years old when she witnessed this traumatic scene in their home while hiding. She was in another room and heard the shot when her 15-year-old beloved brother, Baz, was murdered. Her parents did everything they could to try to help her heal from the emotional stress. Therapy was good but wasn’t enough to overcome the disastrous feelings of that day. As an adult, Ebby had the challenge of finding someone to love.

The story is beautifully written with the setting and dialogue that works well. It points to the horrors of slavery in the 1800s and how it came with violence, hate and fear. There are parts that make you pause – important thoughts that point to what went wrong and how prejudice still has a strong presence almost 200 years later.

On a recent visit to the Charleston Museum, I saw jars much like the ones described in this book. In the past, I would read about it and move onward to other exhibits. However, this time when I saw the ceramic jugs with meaningful words and signatures, I spent time thinking about the message from this story. Books like this change how we see what’s in front of us – what critically needs to be changed -- by making us more aware of this part of history.

My thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for having the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of January 28, 2025.

Again, just like her previous book, I loved this one. The story kept me wondering and kept me engaged and wanting to read more. This, to me, makes it a great book. Most books, at some point, I am irritated with, and feel like there are issues with a multitude of things, and this did not happen. I enjoyed reading this one and can't wait to read her next one!
This book follows Ebby, as the main character in the story, but so many other people come into play, both living and dead. Ebby is handling a lot of unresolved trauma in her life, as well as dealing with generational trauma from her ancestors. She is busy trying to keep up appearances for the vast majority of her life, and finally by the end of our story, she is really moving forward and handling things that she hadn't dealt with from her childhood and beyond. This was one of those books I wish I could keep going with to watch the characters, especially Ebby, to continue to move forward.

I read and loved Black Cake, so I was looking forward to reading Good Dirt. I really liked this book, but had a few quibbles - mainly, I found it to be somewhat disjointed as we jump from timeline-to-timeline and cycle through (at my count) eleven different characters’ points-of-view (some for just one chapter, some for many more). While I appreciated the historical stories, which explored slavery and explained how the titular jar came to be, I almost felt as if I were reading two different books. Things came together nicely in the last 10% or so, and toward the end of the book it becomes clear that the author was making a comment on the importance of community storytelling, but I wonder if there was a way to structure this novel so that it felt more cohesive throughout.

Despite my minor quibbles about the structure, there’s a lot to like about this book. It tackles some very heavy topics—including slavery, racism, grief, trauma, the differences in generational wealth for Black people versus the descendants of slaveowners—while being propulsive and accessible.

While we do follow quite a few narratives, I would say Ebby is our main character, and I found her sections to be the most compelling. As I mentioned before, I almost felt as though I was reading two different books, and I would have gladly spent an entire book with Ebby, who I felt really jumped off the page, as she navigates life after the world has dealt her some really awful hands. We also spent a lot of time with Ebby’s ancestor Willis, an enslaved potter, but he never felt like a fully fleshed-out character to me. I felt like with so many perspectives, it was difficult to really connect deeply with the other characters.

I didn’t LOVE this novel the way I loved Black Cake, but I still liked it a lot, and look forward to reading what Charmaine Wilkerson writes next!

I was given an advance reader copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I love the way this author weaves a complex story and is able to tell it in a succinct way. Highly recommend .

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the copy of Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson. This was a heartbreakingly beautiful book that left me in tears. I love books that touch me emotionally, and this one really hit the mark. I loved how the masterfully crafted story alternated between the ancestors and more current members of the Freeman family. The characters were vivid, which added to my emotional response. Learning about enslaved craftsmen was an additional bonus. The drama of Ebby remaking her life after being jilted at the altar was intensified by her need to deal with the childhood trauma of seeing her big brother murdered. Do not miss this book! 5 stars.

Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson is a beautifully written novel that explores themes of family, resilience, and the power of storytelling. Set in a vibrant community, the narrative follows several interconnected characters whose lives are shaped by their shared histories and the secrets they hold. Wilkerson’s prose is rich and evocative, immersing readers in the emotional landscapes of her characters. I appreciated the depth and nuance with which she addresses complex issues like identity and belonging. This book is a heartfelt and thought-provoking read that lingers long after the final page, making it a must-read for fans of character-driven fiction!

Much like she did in Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson chooses a non-linear narrative to craft this uneven but ultimately satisfying novel. There are two concurrent threads running through this book. The very interesting contemporary story of Ebony Freeman who witnesses an horrific event at the tender age of just 10.

The other thread is the long history of the Freeman family going back to the days of bondage. The flaw here is that history is mostly represented through a story of a family heirloom, which is a stoneware jar that has been in the family over a century. The jar’s journey tends to drag the entire novel and accounts for all of this could-have-been-great novel’s lowest and slowest pages.

And as the two threads stand side by side, the contemporary narrative provides far more corpulence and propulsion. I’m rounding up to 3.5🌟because the prose was mostly page-turning. The ending was a little hokey, and teased for too long, making it really anticlimactic.

Charmaine Wilkerson is an obvious talent and I will continue to embrace all of her work. That being said, this one falls a little short of being a high recommendation. Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced DRC. Book will drop January 28, 2025

LOVED this book, maybe even more than I did Black Cake! Charmaine Wilkerson is the master of writing multi-generational stories that tug at your heart and make you reflect on everything about humanity. I have no doubt that this one will be just as successful.

“Good Dirt” is by Charmaine Wilkerson. This book broadly follows two stories that intertwine. The first story is about a clay jar that has been in the Freeman family for many generations. The history of the clay jar - from it’s creation to what it means to the family to those who have had it - is lovingly and well portrayed. I really liked the research that went into the story of the jar. The other story is about the family that currently has the clay jar - Ed, Soh, Baz, and Ebby Freeman. Baz was killed protecting the clay pot from robbers. The rest of the family tries to go on with that huge hole in their lives. The second story mainly follows Ebby - from being abandoned on the day of her wedding by her fiancé, trying to figure out what to do with her life, and making decisions. I liked the overall idea of this book, but I wish there had been fewer points of view in the modern/Ebby’s story - I didn’t feel like Ebby’s former fiancé’s new girlfriend’s POV chapters added to the overall story. I also found there were a lot of misconceptions - possibly more miscommunication - that went on in Ebby’s storyline. Why the fiancé left Ebby felt weak. There were a lot of “if this secret comes out, people will be hurt” thoughts by so many in this book - that when the secrets were “let out,” they weren’t as bad as the original person thought. I think this book needs some editing and tightening. However, again, the story about the clay jar I found interesting and well done. 3.5 stars overall.

So excited to read this book after loving the debut novel Black Cake. I really enjoy how this author tells an intriguing story. I would certainly read any book she wrote!
Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced reader copy.
In the end I have to say this book suffered a little bit by comparison for me, I had a hard time warming to the characters in this story and the plot seemed less developed and clear to me than the Black Cake book I loved so much.
This is a tragic tale of a family whose son was murdered and a family heirloom destroyed at the same time.
The highlights for me were reading of the family’s origins and the potter trade many of them were involved in. I liked these characters and felt connected and empathetic with them.
I do think the book does a wonderful job of exploring many issues in our society including grief and one’s reactions to trauma, racism and elitism and how history has shaped modern society.
I think this book will be a big hit with a diverse group of readers look forward to publication Jan 2025 and see other’s thoughts about the book. Also looking forward to the next offering of this author!

4.5
This had everything I love in a perfect family drama: united family, a family tragedy, a mystery element, amazing historical fiction, a devastating loss of love and more. This was such a strong book that kept me turning pages out of interest. I enjoyed all of the characters and was interested in their past and their future.

I loved the strong historical ties the current timeline characters had to their families past. The author then takes us to the past, generations past, that begins in Africa. When the first family member is stolen from her family. Throughout the book we see her family line suffer and succeed in the Americas. I thought that the timelines and spacing was done so well.

Ebby is our main character and she has her own struggles that have been thrust upon her more than anything she did in life. I loved watching her as she was a strong woman that was wrongly treated. I thought the character development of Ebby was so well done.

Thank you to NetGalley Ballantine Books for the gifted e-copy of this book.

When Ebby was 10 years old, her brother is murdered. This is partly the story of how she is affected by this tragedy for the rest of her life. It is also the story of a jug that was created by one of the family's ancestors. The jug is very important because it is a link to the family and their history. I liked Ebby's story the best. The jug story sometimes just seemed like an interruption to the story. I think this book was ok, but the author tried to present the story using too many POV (in my opinion). I think using so many POV interrupted the flow of the story. I would become involved in the story, and then the flow would just change. I enjoyed Charmaine Wilkerson's other book, Black Cake, but I didn't feel this one was quite as good.