Welcome to Litsy!

Continuing my journey of “oh shoot, I read that and forgot to review it”. I read Junie in, well, June. It was great but the time since I‘ve read it has diminished my ability to remember specifics of the story. I do remember some intense scenes and a tangled web of characters—enslavers and enslaved. Traumatic, but I have read others in this genre with more of a lasting impact.

Random book from our personal library.

#haikuhive #haikuaday

Pictured: Engagement photo of my niece and her fiancee. ♥️🧡💛

At my niece's shower––
The wonderment in her eyes
was a sight to behold.

An unpopular opinion for sure. While I appreciated the attempt to focus on more than trauma, much of this book felt oddly safe, and the slaves seemed largely unaffected by the violence and danger of their reality until the final chapters. Minnie‘s ghost was an interesting concept but didn‘t resonate. And Junie‘s development felt lacking as she pushed others away only to seem surprised by her own isolation, which made it hard to root for her.

This isn‘t anything new, the story of a slave on an Alabama plantation just before the Civil War but it is really well written. I did like the twist of her sister in the bardo and the ending was bittersweet, not tied up with a perfect bow, but it leaves room for hope. Overall, a solid read.

I loved this book; it will break your heart, and that‘s why you should read it. For me, it had vibes of Beloved and Kinder. Our main character has complex feelings when she begins to see the spirit of her sister. When she learns the secrets of her death, she must make a difficult decision as new relationships arise and major events begin to unfold around her.

Ruthless. Stealing people‘s lives from ‘em and making ‘em work to make ‘em money. The old folks back on the island used to say that‘s why they were white; they lost all their color when they lost their souls. You gotta be a certain type of soulless to believe you can own somebody the way they do.

I loved this author‘s writing style. This book was a mix of historical fiction, romance and whimsy. There were painful themes mixed with beauty. It‘s hard to put this book into one box, and I wouldn‘t want to do that. My daughter and I picked this book strictly based on the cover and I‘m glad we did. It was beautiful.

This was such a beautiful story. A debut novel about a subject that is not talked about very much. A story that will draw you in and have you cringing at things that happened. A story about slavery in Alabama in the 1800s right before the Civil War.

Full review: https://lsmoore49.blogspot.com/2025/02/junie-by-erin-crosby-eckstine.html