This is one of those types of books that your sophomore English teacher was talking about when they said everything an author chooses to do has meaning. The curtains are never just blue in this one. 

It is beautifully crafted as a novel and even more so as an exploration of so many different ways people have faced traumas and experienced love over generations. No one’s story is 100% good or bad, and while the content is often heavy, there are moments of peace, of family, of levity, of pleasure.

I love generational arcs and this one is particularly well done. The author is artful and deliberate. The fire set on page one destroys 7 yams and it burns through 7 generations before there is a homegoing. Each generational line is a mirror of each other while also a complete divergence. 

Ultimately: Devastating. gorgeous