Sing, Unburied, Sing

by Jesmyn Ward

[nannah]

This was a very difficult book to read. I struggled through pretty much all of it and was desperately waiting for any scrap of happiness that never came. This isn’t to say it’s a bad book, because it isn’t, but it’s definitely not a fun experience.

Content warnings:
- child abuse
- ableism
- racism and anti black racism (in book)
- age gap between the grandparents (met and fell in love when she was 19 and he 30 - just mentioned)
- slavery
- n slur
- fatphobia
- a LOT of violence
- lynching
- emetophobia (there is a LOT of throwing up in this book, and lots of detailed description about it)
- sexual harassment & rape
- cancer

Representation:
- most of the characters in the story are black

Jojo and his young sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop (and sometimes their mother, Leonie) in Mississippi along the Gulf Coast. Mam is dying of cancer, Leonie struggles with drug addiction and visions of her dead brother, and Pop is left trying to raise Jojo, who in turn raises Kayla. When Jojo and Kayla’s father is released from the same prison Pop had once been in, Leonie goes to pick him up along with a friend and the kids. The trip reveals the horrors of life on the penitentiary, the abuse of power, but also the strength of family bonds.

I’m going to be honest (though you probably got this from my rating): I didn’t enjoy this book very much. I have the feeling this isn’t a book to be enjoyed in any case, but I almost wish I had quit reading every time I got the impulse to stop. Not because I don’t believe what’s talked about isn’t important, but because the book is misery added upon misery and because the book has no main drive. I’m not even sure what the central story problem is; is it the ghosts and their need for resolution? Then what are we doing mostly in Jojo and Leonie’s PoVs for, dealing with their immediate road trip problems rather than the ghosts and their stories?

The child abuse also made it very, very difficult for me to read this, as a survivor of abuse myself. Especially being in the abusive mother’s PoV and reading her excuses. Reading her justify her behavior. Especially reading how, at the end, Jojo himself has inclinations where he feels like lashing out at his little sister as well. Where he sympathizes with his mother. I basically had an emotional breakdown at that point (once again wishing books had content warnings inside the covers before the actual novel somewhere so this wouldn't happen …).

I know this is a pretty incomplete review. Maybe I’ll be able to write more about it later. I know this book has a lot of awards and even more five-star reviews and enthusiastic fans, but it was too much for me. Too much vomit, description of that vomit, and too much going nowhere with no drive.