Many of us have a tendency to judge those we don't understand. When I was given a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, I didn't think I would like it.
Frankly, I didn't want to read about poor people living on the edge of society, drug addicts and uneducated people. I just didn't think I would like it. But I am so glad I did read this wonderful novel, for many reasons.
Most importantly, it opened my eyes. Human beings all over the world will feel things you have felt before, do things you have done before and regret things you regret. We all have something in common - the breadth of emotions we feel for ourselves and our families. No matter what part of the world you are from.
This book is what reading is about. It's magical and beautifully written, opening the readers' eyes and hearts. An absolute pleasure to read every page, even when it presents very uncomfortable subjects and exposes some of your own hypocrisies. I simultaneously loved and hated the main characters. It was a real gift to experience even a small part of their lives.
I don't really want to provide a synopsis of the story, because I think that would ruin the experience. Just pick it up and start reading.

Oh my GAWD, this felt that being smacked in the face with two open hands - one that reads "literary significance" and the other "the contemporary black experience." And GHOSTS. Anyway, read Ms. Ward's The Men We Reaped, or any Toni Morrison, or any Zora Neale Hurston, and take a hard pass on this murky mess.

Thirteen-year-old Jojo and his baby sister Kayla are being largely brought up by their grandparents while their drug-taking mother Leonie disappears for days at a time. Their father Michael has been in prison for 3 years in Parchman Farm, the infamous State Penitentiary, an institution which has hardly changed from when it operated much like a plantation. When he calls to say he’s been released, Leonie leaves on the long journey to meet him, taking along with her the two children and her friend Misty. The journey is far from uncomplicated and we get to know the whole family as their make their way to and from the penitentiary. We also get to know characters from the past, as a supernatural element comes into the story. This at first I found a little off-putting but which gradually came to feel more natural and part of the all too realistic descriptions of the family’s life in poor rural Mississippi. Ward comes from the sort of background that she describes so vividly in her novels and their authenticity is undeniable. Vivid and evocative descriptions, dialogue and characterisation make this a moving and unforgettable novel.

Jesmyn Ward's latest novel is a beautifully written piece on family. Poignant but realistically harsh, Sing, Unburied, Sing shines the spotlight on more than a few of the difficulties of growing up poor and non-white in the south. Her imagery and her characters are so vivid that they leave indelible impressions on readers.

For as lyrical as her prose is and as vibrant as her characters are, the story itself, while important and fascinating, did not entice me to read it. I found myself finding reasons not to pick up the book and continue reading, plus I found I had only enough attention to last one chapter. Some of this is due to the fact that nothing about Jojo's story is easy. Between the racism, the abject poverty, the drugs, and the cancer that afflict one or all of his family members, the reader gets hit with wave after wave of despair and darkness, making frequent breaks a requirement.

While I could muscle through Jojo's story, important because it allows non-white readers the chance to somewhat understand what it feels like to live in this country as a person of color, the magical realism elements of the story left me completely uninterested. These scenes seemingly come out of nowhere and do not mesh with the rest of the narrative. In addition, one might even feel that they are not necessary to complete Jojo's story. While the ghost is the medium through which Jojo and the reader learn Pop's story, these scenes provide little else in the way of enhancing the novel and made it even more difficult a chore to finish reading the novel.

There is no doubt that Sing, Unburied, Sing is an important story for understanding the racial, social, and economic divides that not only still exist but seem to be growing ever farther apart. There are scenes that will quite literally haunt me forever in their bleak realism. In such an honest novel though, the magical realism does not sit well. It adds nothing and, if anything, makes it easier for readers to dismiss the entire story as fanciful and therefore less realistic than it is. As such, I wanted to love this critics' darling but ended up struggling through it to the point where I was relieved when I was done. It is an unfortunate response to a novel which is as timely as it is vital to building empathy within society.

This outstanding book read like nothing I've ever read. Sing, Unburied, Sing is the true embodiment of the American modern classic. A ghost story of sorts, the ancestral spirits that appear throughout are not the sort that terrify you or have you on the edge of your seat necessarily, but more like a crack open in the seams of time that allow you some insight into our living characters' lives.

The tragedies in many Americans' daily realities are presented without judgement in their purest forms of truth, and I think that's the real brilliance here. Ward manages the difficult task of making subjects like prison, drug abuse, the "broken family", poverty, all accessible to the reader in a way that doesn't invite distance, observation or judgement. These themes are so difficult to explore (or even talk about in a review!) without making a reader feel as if they are being informed on something that may not have much to do with their own way of life. But rather, Ward's style of writing has such honesty that it's less of a "window in" and more of an invitation for the reader to step directly into the present truth of these characters and understand. Her voice is so so powerful and alarmingly universal.

That said, it's important going into this book that the reader understands at the very core this is simply a very good story. Its heavy themes seem like they could be intimidating but it's not like that. There is also so much love and humanity in this story. I just wanted to know and understand these characters fully and it was such an adventure to just be taken away with that.

If you are sensitive like me, you should also know: there is a graphic scene in the first chapter involving the killing of an animal. You DON'T need to put the book down, you can trust her - there is no more of that. Nothing is gratuitous for Ward and honestly, this just seems to be her way to say to us, "Look, this is Jojo's reality, he is just as horrified as you are - come, step into his shoes".

The book Title and cover art kind of threw me. It wasn't until I had read the book that I understood the relationship of the story/title/cover art. I wasn't a big fan of the cover. I can imagine many better cover art designs that would, in my opinion, have drawn the readers eyes and had them grabbing this book off the shelves. The cover is the reason for only 3 star rating.

I did enjoy reading this book. The characters are well defined and there is a strength to each character. The story is set in the MS Delta and Coastal regions. The author's very poetic descriptions of MS is thick with visual imagery. Readers will see the fields, the trees, the beautiful coastal areas – and you will almost break a sweat visualizing that thick, humid and unrelenting heat of the MS Delta that is typical of a MS summer.

The story seems to be set (to me) in the 1970s. The story tells of a young black girl, her white boyfriend and their 2 bi-racial children. It includes the racism of decades ago, the harsh truth of drug addiction, poverty, and the increasingly more common situation of grandparents raising their grand children.

The book delves deeply into the legends, folklore and strong spiritual and cultural beliefs of the South which includes the belief in “gifts” of psychic abilities that may be inherited by a few. And ghosts, don't forget the strong belief in ghosts and spirits. The 'grandmother' in the story was a “healer” and seems to have practiced something similar (if not in fact) voodoo.

If you like paranormal/ghost stories mixed in with a strong Southern cultural..... here's your book.

I honestly don’t know how many stars to give this book. Like others in this crop, it was told from the viewpoint of several characters. The center of the book is Jojo, a Black teenager living in abject poverty in the rural South. Unlike Unravelling Oliver, this book has rich, emotional characters. The language is swoon-worthy. So why not an immediate 5 stars? THE GRIM, PEOPLE. SO MUCH GRIM. Beautiful grim, but still. There was also an element of the supernatural that did not work 100% for me. Ward just won a MacArthur Genius Grant, and I’m betting this will be on a lot of literary award short lists.

Read if: You love beautiful language and can handle grimness.

Another hit from Jesmyn Ward. Would recommend this title to others.

I've never heard of the writer before, but the hype around this book and my love for contemporary novels especially ones which revolve around character driven family dramas, made me pick this up, and I wasn't disappointed!

Ward's writing was raw, honest and flawless - switching with such ease from past to present, the point of views of different characters and descriptions of feelings to nature, establishing a valuable connection of the reader with every character's dilemmas, faults, and their story. Every character had a distinct voice and Ward's empathy for her own characters and fragmented humans in general shined throughout, somehow making terrible actions of a character, something that I could forgive as a reader because of how beautifully, human nature was reflected through them.

Ward's ability to create a sense of place whether it be the old times or the present was brilliant and registered clear images in my mind of the different settings throughout the novel. The whole novel in general is rich with exquisite description which managed to amaze and simultaneously terrify me at several times and overall, I think, people can find faults in the novel but not in the writing, this is a well-written novel. Period.

This novel also had so many themes woven in it beautifully that I can't help but mention the diversity of themes that this story carries - it's about kids who have to grow up too fast because life happens, the history of humans tainted with racial inequality and the brutal consequences of it which minority social groups had to face, drug abuse, prison life, the assumed selfless maternal instinct which isn't instilled in every women, ghosts of pasts literally and figuratively and so much more! There were a myriad of really important themes intertwined in the story and in my opinion, every single one of them added to the novel as a whole, which isn't an achievement that can be undermined.

"But I knew this was her cottage, and when it all came down to it, I'm black and she's white, and if someone heard us tussling and decided to call the cops, I'd be the one going to jail. Not her. Best friend and all." - so unabashed and powerful, showing how racial inequality still thrives in every nook of our society.

I liked the fact that even though this is fiction, it mentioned actual events like Hurricane Katrina, the Deepwater horizon incident, and related it to the story, making it somehow more real. The word 'real' in its realest sense if that's a word was explored in this novel in my opinion - this story was a concoction of heartbreaks, messed up humans, and the realities of hard living from which it never once shied away, staring at it right in the face, urging the reader to do the same, and that experience was something.

Admittedly, there were some aspects of the book which I didn't immediately like such as Richie's perspective and his addition to the story but eventually everything came together and as a reader who highly appreciates a dark read which makes you challenge your ideas and morals, pushing you to make as many explorations about your nature as in the characters, I found this novel highly appealing right from the first page and enjoyed it thoroughly!

Thanks to NetGalley and to Scribner for providing me with an ARC copy of this book that I freely chose to review.
Sometimes, I’d try to write them down, but they were just bad poems, limping down the page: Training a horse. The next line. Cut with the knees.
It stays with me, a bruise in the memory that hurts when I touch it.
I would throw up everything. All of it: food and bile and stomach and intestines and esophagus, organs all, bones and muscle, until all that was left was skin. And then maybe that could turn inside out, and I wouldn’t be nothing no more. Not this…
“Because we don’t walk no straight lines. It’s all happening at once. All of it. We are all here at once. My mama and daddy and they mamas and daddies.” Mam looks to the wall, closes her eyes. “My son.”
Both of us bow together as Richie goes darker and darker, until he’s a black hole in the middle of the yard, like he done sucked all the light and darkness over them miles, over them years, into him, until he’s burning black, and then he isn’t. There…
“Let’s go,” I say. Knowing that tree is there makes the skin on my back burn, like hundreds of ants are crawling up my spine, seeking tenderness between the bones to bit. I know the boy is there, watching, waving like grass in water.
I decided to start with some quotes (and I would happily quote the whole book, but there would be no point) because I know I could not make its language justice. This is a book about a family, three generations of an African-American family in the South and it has been compared to works by Morrison and Faulkner, and that was what made me request the book as they are among my favourite authors. And then, I kept reading about it and, well, in my opinion, they are not wrong. We have incredible descriptions of life in the South for this rural family (smells, touch, sound, sight, taste, and even the sixth sense too), we have a nightmarish road trip to a prison, with some detours, we have characters that we get to know intimately in their beauty and ugliness, and we have their story and that of many others whose lives have been touched by them.
There are two main narrators, Leonie, a young woman, mother of two children, whose life seems to be on a downward spiral. Her white partner is in prison for cooking Amphetamines, she does drugs as often as she can and lives with her parents, who look after her children, and seems to live denying her true nature and her feelings. Her son, Jojo, is a teenager who has become the main support of the family, looking after his kid sister, Michaela, or Kayla, helping his grandfather and grandmother, rebellious and more grown-up and responsible than his mother and father. Oh, and he hears and understands what animals say, and later on, can also see and communicate with ghosts. His grandmother is also a healer and knows things, although she is riddled with cancer, and his baby sister also seems to have the gift. The third narrator is one of the ghosts, Richie, who before he makes his physical (ghostly?) appearance has been the subject of a story Jojo’s grandfather has been telling him, without ever quite finishing it, seemingly waiting for the right moment to tell him what really happened. When we get to that point, the story is devastating, but so are most of the stories in the novel. Fathers who physically fight with their sons because they love an African-American woman, young men killed because it was not right that a black man win a bet, men imprisoned for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and for being the wrong race… The stories pile up and even the ghosts fight with each other to try and gain a sense of self, to try to belong.
This is magic realism at its best. As I said, the descriptions of the characters, the locations, and the family relationships are compelling and detailed. But there are elements that break the boundaries of realism (yes, the ghosts, and the style of the narration, where we follow interrupted stories, stream of consciousness, and where the living and those who are not really there are given equal weight), and that might make the novel not suitable for everybody. As beautiful as the language is, it is also harsh and raw at times, and incredibly moving.
Although it is short and, for me at least, a page turner, this is not a light read and I’d recommend approaching it with caution if you are particularly sensitive to abuse, violence, drug use, or if you prefer your stories straight, with no otherworldly interferences. Otherwise, check a sample, and do yourselves a favour. Read it. I hadn’t read any of this author’s books before, but I’ll be on the lookout and I’ll try and catch up on her previous work. She is going places.

Jesmyn Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing is a painful but rewarding novel about a young boy, Jojo, and his family in Mississippi. Jojo and his baby sister are being raised by his grandparents because his mother is a meth addict and his father is in jail for cooking meth. His grandparents are loving, gentle people, but his grandmother is dying of cancer and things are falling apart. Jojo's mother, Leonie, comes in and out of their lives - when she needs something. Her children are, at best, inconsequential to her, and at worst, active sources of resentment.

Leonie's parents practice what I believe is Santaria - her mother is very knowledgeable about herbs and was a midwife and both she and her husband make "gris-gris" bags - small pouches to protect against evil spirits. The grandmother hears spirits and prays to some kind of sacred feminine. Ward's goal is not to educate the reader on this religion - it's just part of the rich history of this couple, which makes it all the more agonizing that they have this gifted daughter who turns out to be a terrible mother and makes horrible choices.

Leonie drags her children a long journey to retrieve her boyfriend from Parchman Prison - a place where her father and uncle also were incarcerated in the early 20th century. I was horrified to find out this is a real place and is in fact, still an operating prison. In case you're not aware of this place, for many years it operated as an extension of slavery well after slavery was outlawed in the United States, and black men and women were arrested for minor crimes and then forced to work long days under inhuman conditions. Anyway, all kinds of crazy shit goes down during this trip, with Leonie desperately trying to use her kids as props in what she imagines will be the joyous reuniting with her boyfriend while entirely ignoring their physical and emotional needs.

What I haven't mentioned is that Leonie and her son also have the gift of sight - what we are to understand from the Grandmother as the ne plus ultra gift, the one that she herself does not have. Leonie sees her brother, Given, who was killed by white men in his community, and Jojo sees his uncle Richie, who died in unknown circumstances in Parchman. Both are overwhelmed by these visions and unsure how to deal with them, and neither mention these occurrences to anyone. What these spirits, or unburied souls, come to exemplify is the literal embodiment of the destroyed black body in our terrible shared history. Unable to escape this history, which for Leonie and Jojo lurks and the peripheral of their nearly every moment, they remain plagued by the history of violence and heartbreak that wracked their community.

Sing, Unburied, Sing (that title!) has rightly been nominated for the National Book Award and I think will continue to do very well. Ward's lyricism and tight control of these many and various complex themes is so impressive. I hope you'll give this powerful book your attention.

I'll confess my bias: I grew up along the Gulf Coast and have witnessed my fair share of Southern racism; I have a personal connection with those who have been incarcerated; and my professional life regularly puts me in the path of those who suffer from both cancer and addiction. For me, this novel hit the spot; I may have highlighted half the book, and that is no exaggeration. I plan to post more on this one in the coming days, but it definitely earned 5 stars from me and I hope you'll read it. This is also a September selection for the Book of the Month Club; you will NOT be disappointed!

This is a beautifully written book but a little too gritty for me. If you open a book with animal slaughter it's pretty certain that I am not going to get over it and love the book. I am also not a fan of magical realism and ghosts were very present in this book. The book has violence, racism, poverty, drugs and child neglect. Other than the grandparents, there was not a single adult in this book with any childcare skills at all. Thank goodness Jojo and Kayla had their grandparents and each other because they weren't getting any love or attention anywhere else. This is a book that I admired, rather than enjoyed.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

4.5 Stars

This was the second book this week I've read that took place in a backward town that hasn't quite caught up to the 21st Century. And, like the other one, I loved this one.

Jojo is a great character who does a lot of the narrating of his story in this book. He's such a sweet child and the responsibilities placed on him at such a young age are horrendous!

Leonie is Jojo's mother, when she wants to be. She's a very selfish person, loves meth and will let her kids go days without eating.

During the trip to the prison to pick up Jojo's dad I wanted to crawl into this book and just squeeze the crap out of Leonie's neck. Well, maybe just slap her around a few times and show her some sense. Ha!

A sad, beautiful story that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Thanks to Scribner and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I always love reading books set in the South. This book is a wonderful example of how a great writer can capture the soul of the South and bring it to life. This book is set in the Mississippi Delta and Gulf Coast. Being from Mississippi herself, the author is able to poetically and passionately describe the Mississippi Delta and Coast in all it's true character. The South is something that just lives deep in your heart and even if you leave, you'll never get the South out of your heart or mind.

The author is able to capture with words, the soul of Mississippi of decades past – the land, the poverty, the racism of the past that is so hard to be left in the past, the southern folklore, the strong spirituality of the African-American “healer”, the ghosts and spirits that are all around us, seen, heard and felt only by those with the “gift”.
We are taken through the history of rural Mississippi to times and places that aren't nice or pretty, but through a harsh reality for many.
{Can I please tell the “Yankees” reading the book that ALL of Mississippi is not this way, nor ever was}

The book is set in rural Mississippi, in poverty, where the black grandparents are raising their 2 biracial grandchildren. They are the only strength, family stability and love these children have.
River - “Pop” the grandfather, is a quiet but very strong character who has emotional scars of his own related to his embarrassment of serving time in Parchman prison and of one particular responsibility he had to carry out.
Mam – the grandmother, a very gifted healer who practiced the ancient ways of early African- American healers [ strongly suggests she was similar to a voodoo priestess]. Mam has the ability to “read” the plants, trees, and to hear, but not see, the ghosts and spirits. During the story, Mam is already bedridden, dying of cancer. She still has a strong and binding presence in the story.
Leonie gave birth to the 2 biracial children but I'd never call her a mother and neither do the children. She is a self absorbed drug addict who sees her dead brother, Given, but only when she's high on drugs.
Michael is the white father who is absent most of the book since he's in Parchman prison.
JoJo, the 13 year old biracial son/grandson seems to be who ties this dysfunctional family together. JoJo's story is a heartbreaking story of coming of age in poverty, in rural Mississippi, born of very young parents ill equipped to raise him or his 3 year old little sister, Kayla. JoJo has inherited from Mam, the whole realm of the “gift”. He has the ability to see, hear, feel ghosts and spirits, he also is described as being able to “understand” the plants, trees and animals.
We have just a few glimpses of this powerful ability in 3 year old Kayla also.

[when JoJo is in the woods with the tree full of ghosts] Quoted from the book:

She faces the tree, nose up to the air. Head tilted back to see. Her eyes Michael's, her nose Leonie's, the set of her shoulders Pop's, and the way she looks upward, like she is measuring the tree, all Mam. …......
“Go home”, she says ….................
Kayla begins to sing, a song of mismatched, half garbled words, nothing I can understand. Only the melody, which is low but still loud as the swish and sway of the trees, that cuts their whispering but twines with it at the same time. And the ghosts open their mouths wider and their faces fold at the edges so they look like they're crying, but they can't. And Kayla sings louder. She waves her hand in the air as she sings, and I know it, know the movement, know it's how Leonie rubbed my back, rubbed Kayla's back, when we were frightened of the world. Kayla sings, and the multitude of ghosts lean forward, nodding. They smile with something like relief, something like remembrance, something like ease. ….........
Kayla hums over my shoulder, says shhh.

Makes me wonder if the author is leaving the possibility for a sequel involving JoJo and Kayla ?? Can I be the 1st to call dibs if so !!
This would be an excellent book for English/Lit class, whether high school or college. A very powerful, moving, thought provoking book.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview this ARC of Sing, Unburied, Sing.

First off, this really is a literary masterpiece. The writing is just gorgeous, and the different perspectives make for a patchwork quilt of emotions.

Jojo, who I consider to be the main character in this book, struggles to make it in his family. His Pop, who is his grandfather and also probably the most stable figure in his life, is doing his best to teach him how to be a man. His Mam (grandmother) is sick with cancer and his mother, who he now calls Leonie, floats in and out of his life depending on her need to feed her drug addiction. Jojo is fiercely protective of his baby sister and unsure of his future.

When Jojo's white father is released from prison, Jojo, Kayla, Leonie and Leonie's friend Misty take a road trip to collect him, which is where the majority of the story takes place. During this road trip we get a really sober look into the lives and relationships of this family and how they function.

Recognizing what a beautiful piece of literature is, I can't say that I particularly loved it. I liked getting the different perspectives, especially of Jojo and Leonie, and I thought their experiences were fascinating. However, it's gritty, and there are parts that hurt to read. I don't regret reading it, I think it's important to be aware of family and cultural issues such as these, even though they aren't particularly enjoyable.

This book was just ok for me. It wasn't great and it wasn't awful. I enjoyed the perspective of Jo-Jo. L

The many positive reviews of this book had me eagerly wanting to read it. But unfortunately I never felt any emotions other than a heavy sadness and depression. I didn't enjoy it though it seems I am in the minority.

I’m really worried that I’m not going to be able to do this book justice with a review. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in a while. This is a novel about the south, about parenting, about racism, about growing up, about ghosts – especially those inside of us, and it’s about heartache. It’s all these things and more. It’s raw and unflinching. It’s gritty and atmospheric. It’s so beautifully written – Jesmyn Ward is one of my favorite writers and this is some of the best of her work! If you’re looking for something light and breezy, steer clear. If you’re looking for something that will push you to think a little harder and care a little more, then pick this one up. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the place and characters that Jesmyn Ward explores in this book. This book is a punch in the gut but the best punch in the gut you can have. The characters come alive – there is an intimacy in the way that Ward writes her characters. I felt as if I knew them, lived with them, felt them. Jojo will stay with me for some time. A child forced to become a man and care for himself and his sister. A child who is drowning in parental neglect and abuse yet finds solace with his grandparents who love him. The touches of magical realism (specifically, ghosts) were so beautifully done. Each of these ghosts tell a story that will break your heart. The exploration of drugs, violence and racism and its impact on one family is superb. This one spoke to me. I’d like to go back and read it again because it was so beautiful that I just know that I’ve missed some of it in just one reading. It’s an intense read that has many pieces that are painful to read. But, that darkness and pain is worth it given how engrossing it is. It’s a beautifully told story that you won’t forget. Jesmyn Ward is an amazing storyteller. You can’t go wrong with this one … it’s just magnificent!

If you're looking for an engaging and complex book, this is for you! It tells the story of a family and how decisions of one generation affect the next. The storytelling kept my attention, and I didn't see the ending coming! While it does have violence and drug use that could trigger some readers, it is an interesting and thought-provoking story.