Date of Release: July 30, 2019
Summary:
“The dead can’t hurt you. Only the living can.” Effie Jones, a former slave who escaped to the Union side as a child, knows the truth of her words. Taken in by an army surgeon and his wife during the War, she learned to read and write, to tolerate the sight of blood and broken bodies–and to forget what is too painful to bear. Now a young freedwoman, she has returned south to New Orleans and earns her living as an embalmer, her steady hand and skillful incisions compensating for her white employer’s shortcomings.
Tall and serious, Effie keeps her distance from the other girls in her boarding house, holding tight to the satisfaction she finds in her work. But despite her reticence, two encounters–with a charismatic state legislator named Samson Greene, and a beautiful young Creole, Adeline–introduce her to new worlds of protests and activism, of soirees and social ambition. Effie decides to seek out the past she has blocked from her memory and try to trace her kin. As her hopes are tested by betrayal, and New Orleans grapples with violence and growing racial turmoil, Effie faces loss and heartache, but also a chance to finally find her place . . .
Review:
Amanda Skenandore reminded me of The Reconstruction Era, an era in our history I had forgotten about. This story is one of my favorite’s this year. It is rich in actual-history, which had me looking everything up to teach myself more about this era.
Effie Jones is a character I would love to sit and talk with. She is a strong, powerful survivor!
Reading a book that makes me smarter is always an ace in the hole!!
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.
5 Stars.
The Write Review 