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lostinthebooks_'s review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Violence, Bullying, Grief, Car accident, Sexual content, Abortion, and Death
twirlsandwhirls's review
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This book was incredibly interesting to me but also very hard to read. I loved Efe from page one but struggled to identify with Sam. From the beginning he seems too put together and by the middle and end I absolutely couldn't stand him. It was hard to get through the chapters that were about him. As promised, it went into detail about being a wife and mother in a relationship that's not all it's cracked up to be. There were many hard truths: Efe asks why we "measure a woman's strength by the amount she is able to endure." It's definitely worth pondering.
Krystle Zara Appiah has a flair for the dramatic. As real as Efe and her family felt to me, as well as her palpable loneliness, the plotlines of Rootless felt too eventful for me. I'm all about internal dialogue and struggle. I don't need for a lot to happen, especially if I'm engaged enough with the characters, which I was. I bickered with Sam and I felt Efe's lows. It felt like insult to injury to have to endure bad news as often as I did in this novel. It was so hard for folks to catch a break. The fact that I wanted so badly for good things to happen to these characters speaks volumes.
I appreciated the bits of Twi sprinkled in. They weren't overly explained to outsiders like myself. I got the gist and if I wanted to learn more, I could ask someone or start with Google. I love a multilingual book, a story about a diaspora, and stories from other countries (England & Ghana). The structure of Rootless was ingenious. The author started the story in the middle/near the end and skipped back in time to the beginning, adding in details year by year, then month by month until we felt like we knew the characters.Then she continued past where we started and kept going to the tragic event that really brings the story to a halt. I feel like we didn't need something so final but so it goes.
Serwaa, Efe's sister could have been fleshed out a lot more. We learned a lot more about her in the teenage years of Efe's story than we did in the glimpses we caught of her adult life. Maybe that's the point, the fact that she was eclipsed by her husband and children. The only woman who didn't have to sacrifice herself in ways that split her open was Phoebe. I would have liked to hear something from her perspective but she was a supporting character in Sam's story, not a fully fleshed out character in her own right.</spoler>
Krystle Zara Appiah has a flair for the dramatic. As real as Efe and her family felt to me, as well as her palpable loneliness, the plotlines of Rootless felt too eventful for me. I'm all about internal dialogue and struggle. I don't need for a lot to happen, especially if I'm engaged enough with the characters, which I was. I bickered with Sam and I felt Efe's lows. It felt like insult to injury to have to endure bad news as often as I did in this novel. It was so hard for folks to catch a break. The fact that I wanted so badly for good things to happen to these characters speaks volumes.
I appreciated the bits of Twi sprinkled in. They weren't overly explained to outsiders like myself. I got the gist and if I wanted to learn more, I could ask someone or start with Google. I love a multilingual book, a story about a diaspora, and stories from other countries (England & Ghana). The structure of Rootless was ingenious. The author started the story in the middle/near the end and skipped back in time to the beginning, adding in details year by year, then month by month until we felt like we knew the characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abortion and Self harm
Moderate: Violence
wellreadmegs's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
This one took me a while to get through and I couldn't tell how I felt about the book until the end. The first chapter really caught my attention and then I struggled as the chapters went on. I was expecting the book to go back and forth between current day and the past but the book went back in time almost 20 years and then every year brought you closer to the present day.
After finishing the book I realize now that it was always counting down to an event but I have to say I didn't see it coming. It was frustrating to read through all the struggles and then see this book end the way it did. I was caught off guard - in not a good way. As someone who was on the fence about the book while reading it, the ending really frustrated me and made my quest to read the book less fruitful. Maybe I am just being unrealistic though.
I really think I would have been able to keep track of the timeline of the book a lot better if the scenes switched back and forth. It was hard for me to conceptualize ages and timeframes which made the book drag.
After finishing the book I realize now that it was always counting down to an event but I have to say I didn't see it coming. It was frustrating to read through all the struggles and then see this book end the way it did. I was caught off guard - in not a good way. As someone who was on the fence about the book while reading it, the ending really frustrated me and made my quest to read the book less fruitful. Maybe I am just being unrealistic though.
I really think I would have been able to keep track of the timeline of the book a lot better if the scenes switched back and forth. It was hard for me to conceptualize ages and timeframes which made the book drag.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Abortion
Minor: Child abuse and Violence
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