This was a beautiful story. It broke my heart and then
healed it again. The sixties brought blacks and whites to the streets, and it
was ugly. The historic ugliness in the book is intercepted with a tender love
story that ends with a broken heart. Women
grown and still holding onto a piece of the past. But the book ends with hope.
At times I wished the telling of the story would stay in the
current era, 2010. The trails down 1965 were brutal at times and I didn’t want
to go back there. However, it was necessary. We shouldn’t forget the reality of
our history. The story was told well without any extraneous nonsense. This was
a serious work about a serious subject.
There were parts that were hard to read, parts I had to skip
over. I knew what happened, I was alive in those years I know what the kkk is
about. The hard part for many of us is knowing that behind those masks were our
relatives, ancestors and neighbors.
Kayla brings healing to the small community many years
later. She doesn’t know that’s what she’s doing, by choosing to live in the
house she and her husband built. But it was necessary, and her strength was
necessary.
It’s a story I won’t soon forget. I’m glad I read it.
I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from #NetGalley
in exchange for an honest review.
