Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Furrows

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Furrows by Namwali Serpell

8 reviews

lilaceous's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

characters - ⭐️

plot - .5⭐️

engaging to read - ⭐️

would recommend -

would read again -

it had me in the first half. it had me in the second half. but together, as one story? it didn’t work for me.

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serendipitysbooks's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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

3.75

he Furrows is a book in two parts and while I liked both parts- the first rather more than the second - I struggled with the switch and am not convinced that they combined to form a satisfying whole.

The first part begins with death of Wayne when he was 7 and his older sister Cassandra (aka C and Cee) was 12. The details surrounding his death are a little murky but what is clear is the impact his death had on C and her parents, and the feelings of responsibility she harbours. This was a brilliant literary depiction of the waves of grief, the way it appears and reappears in the same or different guises, in ways don’t don’t always seem to make a lot of sense.

The second half is narrated by a man who is using the same name is C’s dead brother. He’s had a rough go at life but is trying to reform, while also dealing with some ghosts from his past. He and C meet and a slightly uncomfortable relationship develops.

Apart from grief this novel also explores race in some subtle and not so subtle ways. I’m sure it does other things as well. But honestly? I just didn’t feel clever enough for parts of this book. I was sometimes confused, not always sure what was going on or why. In some places I felt that was the author’s intention; in others I’m not so sure.

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indiarose8's review

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

4.5

I love how beautifully this book is written. It was hard at times to differentiate between Cassandra's dreams and reality but that might be been intentional. A complex look into grief and identity.

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mzynda's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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

3.25

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ramskick's review

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dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I am kind of at a loss at what to say about The Furrows. I definitely like it and think Serpell is a daring, talented writer for pulling off what she did here, but I find myself struggling to put my emotions towards it into coherent sentences.

Let’s start with a summary. The Furrows starts off with a 12-year-old girl named Cassandra (Cee for short) on the day she sees her 7-year-old brother Wayne die. She returns home and tells her parents what happened but her mother refuses to believe that Wayne is dead. Based on that, you’d think that this is a straightforward tale about grief, but this is very much not that. Through the rest of the first part we see Cee grow up and see Wayne in various people. These appear to be grief-induced hallucinations until she meets a man named Wayne who bears a striking resemblance to her brother. From here on out we see Cee and Wayne develop a relationship and find out that Wayne’s past is murky and involves a kid who looked just like him and had his same name. I can’t possibly sum up the last part of the book in a way that does Serpell’s writing justice.

As I said above, this is not a basic story of familial grief. Instead, Serpell injects a lot of life into this tale, making it somewhat of a mystery novel as well as a romantic story. She never loses sight of what is important as it always comes back to the day that Wayne died, but Serpell tells the story in such a way that it feels like an emotional ocean, with big waves of grief surrounding calm periods of levity. This makes the book a really interesting read and I really like the choices Serpell made to continue to surprise the reader throughout.

I don’t think I quite get everything that this book is trying to say but I do find myself interested in it all the same and that is something that I find very valuable in a novel. Serpell is a genuine talent.

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acorny's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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vmdube's review

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bookreviewswithkb's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

4.25 ✨

elegy, psychological thriller, mystery, literary fiction

author of THE OLD DRIFT

this novel is the epitome of the protagonist’s desire - she isn’t here to tell us what happened, but to tell us how it felt. and you will feel. i don’t think it’s possible to fully grasp all Serpell offers in this novel on the first read through and i think it would be easy to give up on this novel but you absolutely shouldn’t. it’s worth giving all of your attention to and then some

the first half is a kind of elegy, for the main character’s grief experienced by the death of her brother, but also for all the ways Black people are harmed by this world and the ever changing flow of grief that follows

in the second half there’s a shift in POV and in language and in feel. it is an exploration of the systems that oppress Black people and the ways it can manifest and how much power it can hold

“you get a rap like that, eighteen years old? in baltimore? it’s a wrap. it’s like you dead, and now you gotta spend the rest of your days as a ghost to the life you was supposed to be livin. and when i got out, what was i sposed to do? …get me an apartment and a job? aint nobody hirin an ex-con. nah, man. truth is, there ain’t no life but The Life once you done a nickel.”

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