best friends and their books

A lot of books have made me cry… but this book left me absolutely sobbing. I was not prepared. How is it that a book so short at just 207 pages, made me feel such great emotion?

This book beautifully details a family’s challenges and history, through chapters about class, race, identity, loss, childhood, and parenthood. The characters were extremely well-rounded and authentic. I especially loved reading from both grandparents perspectives.

The books starts with a coming of age ceremony for 16 year old Melody, where she strides down the stairs to her party in a beautiful, custom-made dress. It was the same dress sewn for her mother, Iris, just 16 years prior though she never got to wear it because she became unexpectedly pregnant with Melody.

We instantly are taken into each character’s memory. Iris and Aubrey describe, from their different points of view, what it was like to become teenage parents. I really felt for Aubrey throughout the entire book, the way he was happy with so little, and how much he adored his daughter was so beautiful to me. Each characters’ memory revealed important details of this family’s past. For me, it really showed how we are shaped through multiple generations.

I truly can’t get over how poetic and beautiful Jacqueline Woodson’s story telling is! A lot of fiction books that i’ve read recently feel like they’re too commercialized, almost formulaic in a sense. This book is anything but that.

I will now be recommending this book to anyone who will listen! 😀

This was an easy 5/5 ⭐️’s for me!

“She felt red at the bone—like there was something inside of her undone and bleeding.”