Ria
This was a children's picture book, a bit hard hitting with trigger warnings for starvation. I read this in one sitting, as it's only a few pages but it's meaningful and won numerous awards so of course I had to read it. I also read it for AAPI month, and am happy I finally read it. It's a very good little book and I'm happy to give it 5 ⭐!
TW for mentioning animal abuse, bullying towards kids that have autism (? Not sure it's outright autism) and abuse implied towards children.
This started out strong but the abuse towards animals made me dnf it about halfway through. A pet dog is multilated and killed, and mentions of a cat threatened with the same is also in the story. Having just lost a cat, this was not a good read for me right now despite how good the writing is. I may come back to this later.
3.5 ⭐.
There's a lot to unpack here. Racism, slavery, rape, bigotry, sexism, and cruelty being defended by religion as usual.
Despite all that, this book is a masterpiece of storytelling. Captivating, well written, and making everything tie together, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. The characters were believable, the story fascinating, and the details were intriguing enough to keep turning pages. It's less than two hundred pages but this book packs a punch!
This is a 4.5 rounded up to 5 ⭐ because it is a heavy read. I kept having to pause and let what I read settle in. It's definitely a book you need to pay attention to trigger warnings to, but well worth reading. Recommend for those that enjoy historical fiction.
