Kalela Williams weaves a mesmerizing tale in Tangleroot, where history, magic, and resilience intertwine. Set against a rich, atmospheric backdrop, this novel explores ancestral legacies and personal transformation with lyrical prose and unforgettable characters. Williams masterfully blends folklore and reality, creating a story that feels both timeless and urgent. A captivating read for fans of lush, evocative storytelling.

Tangleroot is a juicy historical mystery where every answer open up more questions. Noni is less than thrilled when, after graduation, rather than getting to stay in Boston and work the costume internship of her dreams, her mother drags her to Virginia to live in a tiny town on a plantation their ancestors built. While there, Noni discovers the grave of one of the planter family's daughters, a young woman who shares her name and birthday and died a bit mysteriously. Slowly, Noni gets sucked deep into town history, her family's history, and her own role in that.
I'm not always crazy about historical mysteries like this, but this one was delightful. Tangled and full of twists, I had to keep listening to figure out, okay, what now?? Noni and her mother are both complex characters, at times annoying, at times heartbreaking, but always real feeling. Their relationship was also well-written. The cast of side characters was really fun, if you can call racist old ladies fun. So the rest were fun. The ending was satisfying as well. I really enjoyed this book.

What a delightful listen this was! I really enjoyed this story about family, history, and race in the United States. I found Noni to be a super relatable main character, a teen in the modern world dealing with shitty people, parental overreach, and her own emotions as she works to find her way in the world. I especially loved the mixed media entries interspersed throughout the novel — diary entries, letters, and historical interviews added to bring the story to life. And I thought Maggie Thompson gave a wonderful performance as this audiobook's narrator!

2.5 This book was a mixed bag for me, and I know my take may be an outlier. While there’s been praise for the main character, Noni, and her journey, I personally could not connect with her. Noni’s choices often left me frustrated—particularly her decision to make a dress for a racist, Laura Jean. That moment, and others, made it hard for me to stand behind her as a protagonist.

Noni is the daughter of Radiance, a Black literature scholar, and her mother uproots her from Boston to Virginia, hoping she will better understand herself and her heritage. While I’ve seen some readers describe Radiance as cold or emotionally abusive, I didn’t get that impression. To me, Radiance came across as a mother grappling with the reality that her daughter—who wants to pursue fashion, particularly theatre and costume design—has little connection to her identity or history as a Black girl. Radiance wanted Noni to grow into her full self, even if the process was difficult or uncomfortable.

However, Noni’s disinterest in her heritage and her overwhelming angst made it difficult for me to root for her. She seemed more focused on returning to Boston—even after it was clear her old friends weren’t true friends—than on taking advantage of the opportunities her mother wanted to provide. One glaring moment for me was when Noni engaged with Laura Jean, a clear antagonist who showed microaggressions from the start. Despite this, Noni not only interacted with her but agreed to make a dress for her, knowing it was inappropriate and suspecting Laura Jean wouldn’t give her the answers she truly wanted. This decision felt like a betrayal of her morals and undermined her personal growth.

Thematically, the book seemed to rely on the idea that biracial children have no connection to their Blackness unless forced to confront it, which felt limiting. I would have found it far more compelling if Noni had been written as a biracial teen already grounded in her Black identity, with her journey focusing on uncovering her family’s history from a place of strength rather than reluctance. The late emphasis on learning about the Black people tormented on the plantation—after initially prioritizing the white slave owners—also felt uneven.

There were missed opportunities for deeper character exploration. Laura Jean, the main antagonist, had so much potential for complexity, but her grief and misplaced anger toward Radiance were only skimmed over. The shocking reveal about Laura Jean’s history with Noni’s family, including the fact that she spit on Noni as a baby, was not fully unpacked. That scene deserved far more weight and discussion than it received.

On a positive note, the audiobook narration was excellent—clear, expressive, and engaging, which made the reading experience easy to follow. However, even reading it in tandem with the physical copy couldn’t salvage the uneven execution. While I appreciate the themes of growth, self-discovery, and heritage, the book ultimately left me underwhelmed.

Tangleroot by Kalela Williams delivers a powerful, layered story about identity, history, and family secrets. Noni, a talented costume designer, dreams of an exciting summer before college but finds herself pulled into the shadow of her mother’s academic ambitions in a Virginia town with deep-rooted family history. As she delves into the legacy of her ancestor’s plantation, she uncovers uncomfortable truths about her heritage and the town’s racist past. Williams skillfully weaves a coming-of-age story that explores race, self-discovery, and the tensions within mother-daughter bonds. The pacing builds slowly but rewards readers with a moving, thought-provoking journey.

⭐️@THATBOOKBETCHHH BOOK TOUR STOP⭐️✨

📖: TANGLEROOT
📝: KALELA WILLIAMS ( @blackhistorymaven )
🛒PUB DATE: OCT 17 (OUT NOW!)
⭐️Sponsored by: @coloredpagesbt and @fiercereads
✨My Rating: 5.0⭐️

I was lucky enough to get a chance to be a part of this book tour sponsored by @coloredpagesbt and @fiercereads !

My thoughts:
This book was everything I was wishing and hoping for from the start! It was really a perfect example of finding/figuring out who you are and where you come from. A coming to age that the FMC, Noni, could have truly never seen coming. From the start, and throughout the whole book I really love how the author keeps us, the reader, remembering that Noni is still just a teenager and she’s angsty, likes to not listen to her mom, and just want to have a “normal” summer filled with friends and fun before college starts. It was done with the opposite of a heavy hand and that’s something that is hard to do sometimes in YA Fiction.

To sum everything up, I love that this book was able to tackle tough topics head on, but with targeted nuance and was filled with beautiful and very needed content and context of learning not so great things about our history, as Black Americans.

5.0⭐️

Thank you again, to @blackhistorymaven @fiercereads and @coloredpagesbt for allowing me to be a part of this book tour, and for the gifted final and eARC copies of Tangleroot! Thank you as well to MacmillanAudio for the gifted ALC!!!

#tangleroot #kalelawilliams #fiercereads #coloredpagesbooktours #booktour #feiwelandfriends

This book was beautifully written and captivated me from the beginning. The story follows high school senior Noni as she prepares for a fun-filled summer before college. All that comes to a haunt when her mother, Radiance, takes a new position as the President of a small, liberal arts college. Radiance forces Noni to spend the summer with her and explore their family connection to the college. Noni and Radiance butt heads throughout the story with Noni trying to find her identity outside of her accomplished mother and Radiance trying to protect Noni from buried secrets and scandal. Kalela Williams’ debut novel tackled difficult, historical events, the importance of self-identity, and the growing pains of a mother-daughter relationship. I hope this book reaches the necessary readers so more people can experience this story. Thank you NetGalley & McMillan Audio for this advanced reader copy.

Tangleroot is the name of a plantation in rural Virginia and it's where our main character, Noni, is forced to spend her summer after graduating high school. Her mother is a well known scholar of Black literature. She takes a job at a college in VA which prompts the move for her and Noni.

Noni hates it there. She's a genius at the sewing machine and she was planning on spending her summer in Boston, working on costumes for the theater. Instead, she's working at the local food joint and taking classes at the community college.



This narrator brought the story to life with her accents and inflections. Every character felt complete.
In light of recent world events, reading (listening) to this book felt surreal. I was reminded that racism is alive and racist people have always and will continue to hold powerful positions in society. I want to thank Kalela Williams for giving us Noni's story.


Narrator: Maggie Thompson

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Young Listeners for this ARC Audio Copy!

The FMC Noni is an artist who has been living under the shadow of her mother who is a famous scholar of black literature and has dedicated her life to uncovering the secrets of her family member, a freed slave who successfully starts a college. Noni and her mother move to the planation house and Nonis life is upended as she learns to maneuver life in town that feels like stepping back into the past. Faced with racism, mysteries, and family secrets Noni dedicates herself to getting to the bottom of her family history.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC of this book. I was blown away by Tangleroot. This is such an important book. It is very eye opening and tackles some difficult subjects: racism, abuse, enslavement, and small town secrets. Williams expertly weaves a story through generations that keeps you invested and interested in what happened in the past and what is happening in the present day story. She also tackles small town life, friendship, coming of age, figuring out who you are, and mother-daughter/ family relationships. I loved watching Noni grow and learn about her family and herself. The story starts out a little slowly but quickly builds--it is worth the wait. I can't wait to recommend this book to my High School students and staff.

The best thing about this book is the cover art. Sorry, but this one just didn't work for me. I found the story somewhat ridiculous and the relationships so unrealistic that I couldn't buy into the rest of it.

The historical fiction/flashback parts were fine, but everything else was ... not. Yes, this is an important topic. No, this was not helpful in clearing up stereotypes or making political statements - it was all a messy political statement that had no support or foundation.

An almost 18 year old being told she can't take a prestigious internship because she has to go with her mother for her new job? A parent taking away admission to a prestigious college for an indiscretion (ok, to be fair, Noni did say something pretty horrid, but.. does the punishment really "fit the crime"?). The whole parental situation was absurd. The whole Noni submissive stance was absurd. The friendships were uninteresting and when there was conflict it was suddenly brushed aside if that was needed for the plot.

I found everything too predictable, too trope, too obvious, too...
Honestly, I didn't like any of the characters, but I did like the narrator, so there's that.

Beautiful writing and a complex, multi-layered story that examines family, race, and personal ambitions, family expectations, and the lasting weight of oppression. I especially...enjoyed? Not sure if that's the right word. Appreciated I think--the complex relationship between Noni and her mom. I was so frustrated with her parents at the beginning of this book--especially her mom's dismissal of Noni's incredible talents/ambitions in costume design, and not even timing their move in a way that allowed Noni to be a part of the show she'd worked so hard on felt callous. So many kids have no idea what they want to do with their lives, but Noni does. And her mom wants to pigeonhole her into academia--to create a mini-me of herself. Her dad is spineless and unsupportive. Yet as the story develops, we learn secrets about Noni's family history--and horrifying truths about why her mom is so doggedly determined to pursue her goals and strongarm her daughter into following in her footsteps. I think her mom still had a lot of loosening up to do in terms of allowing her daughter to find her own way, but by the end I felt the real and intense love she had for her child in a big way. Much of the story involves Noni unraveling her family's history and it's intimate connection to their town's racist roots, and the historical elements of this story were very well done and deeply unsettling.
A fascinating and ambitious story with a good amount of satisfying payoff by the end. I listened to the audio and loved the narration too.

Special thanks to @coloredpagesbt 
@fiercereads @blackhistorymaven for my #gifted copy and @macmillian.audio for my gifted ALC #MacAudio2024‼️

I went into this one completely blind I picked the book because I loved the cover. I’m actually not disappointed that I read this since it turned out to be a great book. Exploring heavy themes surrounding ancestry, enslavement, racial tensions, and haunting family secrets.

The novel follows Noni Reid an ambitious young girl with a bright future in costume designing whose life is turned upside down when she’s forced to move to Magnolia, Virginia because her mother got a new job. Moving wasn’t the issue giving up her internship and living in a house built on Tangleroot plantation by one of her ancestors was apart of the problem.

Throughout the book we follow Noni as she journeys to uncover her family history, the house she lives in, and insights into the life of the late Sophronia Dearborn. Capturing the pure innocence and curiosity of a young woman the author provides intricate details about the harsh realities Noni will soon discover.

The book has a slow build but as the story develops it gets juicier. Those buried secrets do 👏🏽 it 👏🏽 every time cause them family roots were definitely tangled‼️ All I’m going to say is I don’t care how long it’s been it would’ve took God himself to get me off Lana Jean cause I would’ve turned her every way but loose for what she did. I mean THE DISRESPECT whew my blood pressure 😂. Also Noni’s mother had a whole lot of audacity knowing the secret she was keeping and her father that’s another story.

Overall, this was a decent coming-of-age YA novel. The authors intense research conjured such a powerfully authentic story. Her writing was straightforward, engaging, and the message she was trying to convey was made clear. It’s important to know your family history‼️How can you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been.

I listened to the audio version of this book narrated by Maggie Thompson. The narration was wonderful for the different characters and the different time period of the diary.

This is a YA coming of age story and finding out who you are. I loved that part of the book. Radiance, Noni's mother has been trying to prove that her African American ancestor founded the college she is teaching at and wants to have it renamed. Noni ends up researching to try to find out about her ancestors and hopes to find the answers that her mother hasn't been able to find.

The fact that Noni's mother was so controlling and abusive to her daughter gave me a lot of trouble. Radiance expresses her feelings about slavery left and right, and yet she is controlling her daughter's life and in my opinion has her enslaved to her wishes. When Noni begs her mother to let her do want she wants with her life, it tore me apart. I really hated it. Making me feel so strongly about it shows how good the story was.

Overall, the story was good and the narration was excellent. The ending tied things up nicely.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the audio. All thoughts are my own.

3.25 stars.
I honestly didn't know what this book was about before I started it. I assumed it was a thriller because the title and cover looked "thriller-y" to me. I was wrong! But there are still many scary and uncomfortable things in this book. I really enjoyed the story and the storyline of discovering family history. I think the author talked about some very important topics and handled them well.
I do, however, think that the MC's mother, Radiance, was emotionally manipulative and narcissistic. I was truly shocked at the mother-daughter relationship and how it was handled throughout the book, but especially the ending. I was incredibly disappointed with the ending. Many things were tied up nicely but this relationship made no sense.
The narrator was awesome! She did the various character voices and accents very well and was easy to listen to. I did find that the book, being audio, was a little hard to follow when it would change POVs because there was no "announcement" of it.

Overall, I enjoyed the book but am unsure if I would recommend it.

I would classify this as a historical fiction YA book, about a black teen girl forced to move with her mom back to the south to attend school. While there, she starts looking in to her past and discovers many hidden secrets about her family and their legacy. There were many characters in this story, so it was hard to keep track of them while listening to the audio version of this book. I found the relationship between mother and daughter felt distant and cold. The book touches on the racism in the south, specifically with white supremacy groups. It baffles my mind that these groups are still alive and thriving in the US. Overall, I enjoyed the historical story telling in the book.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book. My review is voluntary.

Tangleroot was hard to read at times, but it is a very important read. I felt for Noni's character, and her frustration with trying to follow her own dreams, but having to do what her mom tells her. For most of the book, I didn't like Radiance's character, and even after the end, I was still a bit dissatisfied with her, but I understood her more as things were revealed in the book. There were some great side characters, and sometimes I found myself wanting to know more about them (not Noni's friends from home, though!) I've read a lot of YA, and while there always seems to be some sort of family drama going on, this book felt different. This went beyond, and dug deep into secrets and family history. I found myself horrified and fascinated as Noni uncovered her family tree, the story felt so real-and I imagine it is/was for many families whose ancestors were forced into/born into slavery in the United States. The journal entries and snippets of the past uncovered the very real horrors of slavery in the South. I think many teens can relate to Noni and the pressures of life after high school, facing racism, overbearing parents, etc. This was a super solid read for me. The cover is also GORGEOUS.

"Tangleroot" by Kalela Williams is a captivating exploration of identity and resilience set against a richly imagined backdrop. The author weaves together elements of folklore and fantasy, creating a world that feels both familiar and otherworldly. Williams provides us with excellent character development and general storytelling across decades, families and locations. I appreciate how, despite being pulled into a world she does not wish to be a part of, Noni cannot resist the call of curiosity she feels while at her family home in Virgina. The stories Noni uncovers while trying to solve a mystery of her own are insightful and full of twists. The characters are well-developed, each grappling with their own challenges and growth. Williams' prose is lyrical and immersive, drawing readers into the emotional depths of the story. Themes of connection to nature and the complexity of relationships are skillfully handled, making it a thought-provoking read. Overall, "Tangleroot" is a beautifully crafted tale that resonates long after the last page.

Honestly, I quite enjoyed this. I'm pretty sure the target audience for this is YA, and the story has enough angst to fit nicely into that genre. I did feel frustrated with some of the unnecessarily complicated narrative, but it all came together in the end.

This is a coming-of-age story primarily with a Black main character. Noni is an only child, finished with high school, and the story begins the summer before she is set to attend Boston University. Her parents have recently divorced, and the parents agreed that Noni would join her mother in Virginia.

This is about ancestry, small southern towns, and white supremacy dressed up as "culture wars." This felt relevant, timely, and current.
While awkward in a few areas and some of the supporting characters aren't well developed, this is well worth the read.

I look forward to reading more novels written by this author in the future.

The narration of this audiobook really brought this story to life for me. Maggie Thompson did a fantastic job, particularly with her use of alternate tones for the supporting cast of characters. This was extensive and could be confusing, so the tonal changes helped to differentiate between the supporting characters.

Thank you to Kalela Williams, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

🎧+ 📖: Tangleroot-a standalone

✍️ By: Kalela Williams-new to me author

🗣️Narrator: Maggie Thompson voices all the characters with stand outs from Noni and Lana Jean. The reading style brought the text to life, and the author and narrator worked together perfectly. The pacing and flow allowed me to get lost in the story. The narrator paused and announced new chapters and there was a table of contents which helped me follow along.

🏃🏾‍♀️‍➡️ Run Time: 9:54

📃 Page Count: 324 eBook


🗓️ Publication Date: 10-15- 24 | Read 10-15-24


🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group | Feiwel & Friends, Macmillan Audio, and Kalela Williams for this ARC and ALC! I voluntarily give my honest review, and all opinions expressed are my own.

🌎Setting: Boston to Magnolia, VA

Genre: AA Interests, Historical, YA, Mystery

Tropes: genealogical research, family drama, forbidden romance, hidden truth, secret identity, small town


☝🏾POV: 1st person, single-Noni

⚠️TW: racism, racial slurs, slavery, lynching mentioned, SA mentioned, death of parent and children

💭Summary: Noni is upset her mother is forcing her to move to their family's Virginia plantation Tangleroot instead of taking an internship at a theater in Boston. Dr. Radiance is the new president of Stonepost but wants to right some wrongs in its history. She has written a book and researched to get the college to acknowledge its real founder an enslaved man name Cuffee Fortune.

🚺 Heroine: Sophronia "Noni" Reid-18, a theater costume designer. Curious about the white family who lived at Tangleroot and her mother's ancestors.

🚹 Heroine: Dr. Radiance Castine, scholar of black literature has new job at Stonepost Liberal Arts College. Her mother was Claire Castine died when she was six in a car accident, never knew her father.

🎭Side cast:

• Cuffee Dearborn-enslaved, founded the first all-black college Stonepost

• Calvin Dearborn-Cuffee's son with Lacey Castine-Noni's great-great-grandmother- a dressmaker

• Thomas Dearborn-owned Cuffee and his family.

• Vermilion Harper-white senator in VA who was for segregation, wife Priscilla Lavigne Harper-Lana Jean's grandparents

• Elaine Eugenia Harper/Lana Jean- Radiance's racist high school principal who she hates, owns an inn (Trianon), and offers Noni a job playing piano.

• Valerie Golden- manager at Trianon who helped raise Radiance, now estranged because she works for Lana Jean

•Blondell Pankey- Radiance's BFF, works at diner Charm, and Noni gets a job as server.

• Will Taylor-wildlife photographer, lived in Magnolia but left after high school, and is now a tenant staying at Tangleroot w/ Radiance and Noni

• Sophronia "Sophie" Dearborn-Noni's namesake who she researches and finds hidden secrets

🤔My Thoughts: I loved that this was told solely from Noni's POV, but I couldn't believe she was only 18. She did a lot of research and investigating to find out who Sophie Dearborn was. The story allowed you to go back to slavery experiencing being both white and black and being servants and family.


Range of emotions: 😬🤔🙄
🌶️: Spice 0/5
😭: Emotion 5/5
❤️: Couple 0/5
⭐️: Rating 4/5