I enjoyed the second book in this penitentially related horror/mystery series from Tiffany D Jackson. While I did not catch any crossover from the first story, there may have been some that I missed. In this story, the main character moves to Savannah to stay with close family friends while her dad continues to tour as a blues musician. They recently lost their mother/wife and so are also dealing with grief. The main character is obsessed with ghosts and in a town like Savannah, this obsession is easily fed. Jackson did an excellent job dangling the paranormal mystery throughout the plot as well as forcing the main character to confront issues that she has made assumptions about. I really enjoyed this one.
Cunningham wrote an excellent debut. However, certain things about the ending betray her inexperience and led to a slightly off taste in the mouth at the ending. For most of this book, set in Chicago during prohibition, the main character works with another character. – one that the readers see his origins in the prologue – to find the titular mayor of Maxwell Street. I definitely figured out the twist much earlier than the main character, but since this is a historical fiction novel, not a thriller or mystery, that did not impact my enjoyment of the read. The ending, however, felt incredibly rushed, and inadequately resolved many of the other plot aspects lay down earlier in the novel. I wish the ending had not been fumbled because I really enjoyed the rest.
I’m not really sure why I chose to get this book as an advanced listening copy from libro.fm. It has some interesting information about whales and the science behind what humans call their singing. However, I don’t actually have an interest in this area so not much made an impact. I also did not deeply engage with the book for that reason. Is it a bad book? No. It’s just not the book for me.
While I still really enjoy the Keeper of the Lost Cities and understand why Shannon Messenger felt like she needed to create a completely separate story for Keefe, I did not enjoy book 9.5 as much as I have some of the others in the series. That being said, I still enjoyed being able to return to this world and also appreciate the news that booked 10 will finally be coming out, hopefully, next year.
I knew going into this book that I would likely rate this book 5 stars and indeed I predicted well. The author does not mince words, but also does not veer into overly emotional leaps of logic like many on the other side of the political spectrum. This book fits my passions incredibly well as someone trained as a historian and as an educator who also now teaches English language arts. I highly recommend this book.
With memoirs while I always appreciate my reading experience, sometimes the individual book does not necessarily work as well as others for me. Unfortunately, this is the case with this one. Of course, every person is entitled to their own story and how deep they will open themselves up when they share. However, when the text feels like it skims through years or back-and-forth between events, it’s more difficult to engage and really sync into the story of the life that the author is sharing. I definitely still think that Viola Davis is a strong, incredibly capable woman who is done amazing things despite everything against her.
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