Remembrance was an interesting book. I read an excerpt of it before receiving the actual book, and what I expected was quite different from what the book turned out to be. The book focuses on the stories of 4 different women (despite the synopsis saying 3 women), and as you can imagine, I anticipated that eventually all of these stories would intertwine. Three of the stories are based in a pre-civil war era, while the 4th story is based in present day. While the 3 older stories did intertwine, the link to the current day story was pretty weak.
The writing style was descriptive and well-written. The author did a good job of describing the areas where these women came from as well as what shaped them into the people that they were. There was a historical fiction element to it, focusing on slavery and the Underground Railroad.
That said, if you are just expecting a historical fiction novel you will be surprised, as I was. This book included quite a bit of magical realism, of which I am not a big fan. While I did not enjoy that particular aspect of the story (and it was a big part of the story), I did still find myself engaged in the story and wanting to see where it would lead.
As for the characters, I felt that the character of Gaelle, the present day character, was not fully fleshed out at all. It felt like the vast majority of the book was focused on the other three characters, and I felt that Gaelle's story didn't even need to be included in the book. I was expecting a mind-blowing conclusion, explaining how she was related to the rest of the story, and was left feeling underwhelmed. I thought the connection would be much deeper than it was.
There was also a character in the book which the reader was led to dislike. There were many hints alluding to this character not being a good person, but I felt as if that part of the storyline was forgotten about and never explained.
If you like historical fiction and magical realism, I think you will really enjoy this book. Overall it was an interesting story, just not necessarily my cup of tea. There were obviously aspects that I think could have been handled better (or left out altogether), but the bulk of the story was interesting and enjoyable to read.
I was provided a copy of this book by BookishFirst and Forge in exchange for my honest review.
The writing style was descriptive and well-written. The author did a good job of describing the areas where these women came from as well as what shaped them into the people that they were. There was a historical fiction element to it, focusing on slavery and the Underground Railroad.
That said, if you are just expecting a historical fiction novel you will be surprised, as I was. This book included quite a bit of magical realism, of which I am not a big fan. While I did not enjoy that particular aspect of the story (and it was a big part of the story), I did still find myself engaged in the story and wanting to see where it would lead.
As for the characters, I felt that the character of Gaelle, the present day character, was not fully fleshed out at all. It felt like the vast majority of the book was focused on the other three characters, and I felt that Gaelle's story didn't even need to be included in the book. I was expecting a mind-blowing conclusion, explaining how she was related to the rest of the story, and was left feeling underwhelmed. I thought the connection would be much deeper than it was.
There was also a character in the book which the reader was led to dislike. There were many hints alluding to this character not being a good person, but I felt as if that part of the storyline was forgotten about and never explained.
If you like historical fiction and magical realism, I think you will really enjoy this book. Overall it was an interesting story, just not necessarily my cup of tea. There were obviously aspects that I think could have been handled better (or left out altogether), but the bulk of the story was interesting and enjoyable to read.
I was provided a copy of this book by BookishFirst and Forge in exchange for my honest review.