THE REVISIONERS by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Synopsis: In 1925, Josephine is the proud owner of a thriving farm. As a child, she channeled otherworldly power to free herself from slavery. Now, her new neighbor, a white woman named Charlotte, seeks her company, and an uneasy friendship grows between them. But Charlotte has also sought solace in the Ku Klux Klan, a relationship that jeopardizes Josephine's family.

Nearly one hundred years later, Josephine's descendant, Ava, is a single mother who has just lost her job. She moves in with her white grandmother Martha, a wealthy but lonely woman who pays her grandchild to be her companion. But Martha's behavior soon becomes erratic, then even threatening, and Ava must escape before her story and Josephine's converge.

The Revisioners explores the depths of women's relationships—powerful women and marginalized women, healers and survivors. It is a novel about the bonds between a mother and a child, the dangers that upend those bonds. At its core, The Revisioners ponders generational legacies, the endurance of hope, and the undying promise of freedom.

Review: You know how you finish a book and rate it right away, but then you wake up the next day after you've had time to sleep on that book and you're like, no, that book wasn't really a 5 star, it's more of a 4 star? That's me with The Revisioners.

I love the way Margaret Wilkerson Sexton travels back and forth between two different eras and two different protagonists. She did it really well in A Kind of Freedom and does it fairly well in The Revisioners, except when I woke up thinking about the story line this morning, it dawned on me that there were a number of loose ends that weren't tied up by the end of the book.

Without giving too much away, I'll say there were characters in the present and in the past who were tied to each other, that much was spelled out. But there were other characters in the present and in the past who I think may have been tied to each other (or really should have been in my opinion), but I don't know if they were or if there was just an underlying message about the kind of people you can and cannot trust.

Another thing that kind of shook me was the abrupt ending because it left a big question unanswered about one of the two protagonists. There were also unanswered questions in regards to some of the present day characters that left me scratching my proverbial head. I didn't sign up for a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Sometimes I want the story spelled out for me instead of being left to guess what happened.

Overall, The Revisioners is still a solid read, which is why I gave it four stars, I just wish the author had taken a little more time to give definitive answers instead of leaving readers to guess.

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#BookReview A KIND OF FREEDOM by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Summary: Evelyn is a Creole woman who comes of age in New Orleans at the height of World War II. Her family inhabits the upper echelon of Black society, and when she falls for no-account Renard, she is forced to choose between her life of privilege and the man she loves.

In 1982, Evelyn’s daughter, Jackie, is a frazzled single mother grappling with her absent husband’s drug addiction. Just as she comes to terms with his abandoning the family, he returns, ready to resume their old life.

Jackie’s son, T.C., loves the creative process of growing marijuana more than the weed itself. He was a square before Hurricane Katrina, but the New Orleans he knew didn't survive the storm. Fresh out of a four-month stint for drug charges, T.C. decides to start over—until an old friend convinces him to stake his new beginning on one last deal.

Review: Early into A Kind of Freedom, I was struck by the setting, the domineering father, the generations explored and the era. It immediately reminded me of Eleni N. Gage's The Ladies of Managua. And though the books have those factors in common, that is where the similarities end.

As the daughters of a respected doctor, as Creoles, Evelyn and her sister Ruby are expected to conduct themselves as proper ladies. For Evelyn, that has never been a problem, but Ruby likes pushing boundaries. It comes as a surprise then that Evelyn is the one that marries Renard, not quite the man her parents would have chosen for her. While we get glimpses into Ruby's life, the main focus of the book is Evelyn and her progeny.

We see Evelyn's daughter, Jackie, fall in love with a functional addict right as crack swept the country. And we see the affect that has on Jackie's son, T.C., fresh out of jail and already plotting and planning. I really love how the author focuses on the effect the previous generation has on the present generation, as well as how their environment affects them. It's interesting to read and realize that while Evelyn, Ruby and their parents lived through the Jim Crow South, financially and class wise, they're better off than their future generations. Isn't it the dream of every parent to see their child do better than them? Can that happen in an unstable environment? Can they succeed against all odds?

There's so much covered in just 256 pages, so many questions still to be answered. I would love to see another book that covers a more developed story line for Ruby. And I'd be open to reading more about their parents before Evelyn and Ruby came along. Honestly, I'm open to reading whatever comes next from this author.

256 p.
Published: August 2017
Disclaimer: Copy  of book received from publisher, opinions are my own.