Wow. I technically read this for a school project but I’ve been wanting to read Ward’s work for a while and thought this would be a great opportunity to start. And I was not disappointed. This is a heart wrenching, tragic memoir. I’m blown away.

Men We Reaped is told in two different timelines: the "past" of Ward's childhood and the "future," which chronicles the deaths of five young Black men in her community. These two narratives ultimately meet in the middle with the most impactful story for Ward, and arguably, in the book: the death of Ward's twenty year old younger brother, Joshua Adam Dedeaux.

Men We Reaped is filled with sorrow and rage and grief. It reflects on tender moments between Ward and the men she's loved and lost in some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read. Ward is angry and hurting, rightfully so, and she does not allow you to shy away from the injustices that have happened here. From the outset, she endeavors to discover "why [her] brother died while [she] live[s], and why [she's] been saddled with this rotten fucking story."

As tragic as this story is, Ward's prose adds another dimension to her story. Her writing is unflinching and direct--forcing us to look at what the intersections of race and poverty have done to her community. It is not exploitative in any way, it's simply the raw truth as Ward remembers it. And that vulnerability makes this one of the best memoirs I've ever read. I am so excited to dig into Ward's backlist now.