Thank you to Kensingston Books and Net Galley for the chance to read and review this book! At first, I didn't know if I was going to like this because of the emphasis on dead bodies. Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed it. This is the story of Effie Jones, a former slave and a freedwoman. It takes place right after the Civil War. Even though the slaves have been emancipated, there is still a lot of unrest and prejudice in the south. Effie settles in New Orleans and gets a job as an undertaker's assistant. Because of her hard life, Effie has developed quite a hard shell around her feelings so she is able to effectively do this job. Along the way she meets two people-State Legislator Samson Green and a young creole woman named Adeline. Both of these characters have a profound effect on Effie and help her unlock the mystery of her early life as well as help her get in touch with her feelings. Excellent book! I recommend this story to all readers who like Historical Fiction!

Interesting story of a black woman who escaped slavery and became an undertaker's assistant. She endured much more than any other apprentice, fell in love with a black leader, and made friends with a fortune teller. A good story of survival.

Effie, a former slave, was taught the art of undertaking by a northern doctor. After the war, she travels back south to New Orleans to find a new life. When she meets Samson Greene, she is immediately stricken by his charisma and ability to turn a phrase. Later, she meets Adeline, a formerly rich woman who is struggling to maintain her lifestyle.

Although the premise of this book was interesting, the characters were flat. They were a bit one-dimensional. There wasn't enough of the post woven in to make Effie believable or likeable. Without interesting characters, the rest of the story was hard to get into. Overall, 2 out of 5 stars.

Euphemia (Effie) Jones returns to New Orleans, the city where a Northern officer took her in. She has been educated and trained in the work of an undertaker. Can she make a life for herself or will being in a recovering Southern state only bring heartache?

Effie was a difficult character to like. She is logical, analytical, and had difficulty understanding social cues like other girls. Once she, begrudgingly, befriends Adeline and begins to learn social manners, she becomes tolerable at most.

However, there was an immediate star reduction for a completely (in my opinion) unnecessary sex scene. It was not overly detailed, but enough to make me very uncomfortable. And for what? To cement Effie's emotional attachment to a man? There was no other reason to include it.

It was interesting to follow Effie's journey and struggles. The danger for African Americans at the times really shines through. I did get squeamish with the details of undertaking at the time. Definitely not to be read while eating.

While not a bad read, it's not one I would pick up again. For readers looking for a historical novel set in New Orleans during the Reconstruction, they may enjoy this.

I received this from Netgalley.com for a review.

Set 11 yrs after the Civil War. Effie Jones, a former slave who escaped to the Union side as a child. She has returned south to New Orleans and earns her living as an embalmer, her steady hand and skillful incisions compensating for her employer’s shortcomings.

It was a little rough getting into it but ended up being a very Good story. I liked Effie and how she could be so brutally honest.

4☆

4.5 stars, rounded up
The Undertaker’s Assistant both educated and entertained me. My knowledge of the time period immediately after the Civil War is limited, but Amanda’s well researched novel brought this dire period to life with believable characters with depth and the fascinating 1870s New Orleans setting. The Undertaker’s Assistant held me rapt. I absolutely needed to know more about Effie.

Effie is one of the best characters I’ve come to know in my recent extensive reading; one-of -a kind, strong yet naive, smart, independent, gutsy. Effie’s history unfolds forwards and backwards, as she begins to remember how she came to the Union lines as a young girl during the Civil War.

While the nature of embalming could be described as gruesome, Amanda makes it interesting with medical details, never being overly graphic. War and violence are nasty stuff. The descriptions are vivid, but not overdone.

I hope this will reach a wide audience because of the difficult racial truths it contains. It’s definitely not just a ‘women’s book.’ I could easily see The Undertaker’s Assistant as a Netflix movie or limited series too. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a heavy read. It starts slow and the characters seem not to have depth but as you read it becomes clear that that is only because they do not have the knowledge of themselves to give that depth. Gradually you learn about many people, you learn about levels of society and how each person has a role and how to identify the roles. And because it takes place during the reconstruction era you feel the frustrations...the heaviness of the times and how that effects each and every day.

The Undertaker’s Assistant follows the story of Effie Jones an embalmer trying to put her past behind her not even sure what that past entails. Effie finds work with an undertaker who is struggling to keep his business afloat as an ex-Union soldier in post-civil war New Orleans. Struggling under the constrictions of being both a female and a freedwoman Effie finds solace in like-minded friends within the Republican activist community and an unlikely ally from affluent Creole society. Establishing herself within her profession as racial tension increase Effie is drawn to the position of discovering herself among forgotten memories.

Amanda Skenandore successfully creates a worthy heroine in this work. The narrative is amplified with lush descriptions of New Orleans and engages the reader in the emotions of civil war reconstruction. The author uses a great deal of French in the book, a cursory knowledge of the language is beneficial but not necessarily essential. The text did require me to look some words up. Additionally, I felt the book left some loose ends especially with certain secondary characters.

Full disclosure- An ARC of this book was provided via NetGalley in return for this review.

In her latest novel, The Undertakers Assistant, Amanda Skenadore tells a story about life’s journey and about courage and perseverance. Effie Jones was born into slavery and at an early age she ran to what she thought was freedom. Effie was taken in by a Union captain and taken north to Indiana where she learned to become an undertaker’s assistant, Effie learned to make do with what she had until an incident forced her back to New Orleans with the hope to find where she came from. This novel is set in the time after the war when the south was rebuilding and life for former slaves was sometimes more terrifying than anyone could have imagined. This novel stirred many emotions within me and I highly recommend this tapestry of words. I was given an advanced copy of this book, and all of the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The Undertaker's Assistant by Amanda Skenandore takes readers to New Orleans during the Reconstruction Era as Effie Jones, a former slave works as an embalmer and uncovers the secrets of her childhood. Gripping and poignant Skenandore reflects on a turbulent time in America's history.

I laughed, and I cried right along with Effie. The scenes where she regained her full memories felt surreal, as did her fear by the river and in the woods. Mixed in we have romance, betrayal, friendship, family and finding home.

Full review will post at Caffeinated Reviewer on July 30th. I will share link on all social media. A review will be posted to both Amazon and Goodreads. Link below. (not valid until 7/30/19)

As a child, Effie Jones fled the Louisiana plantation where she was a slave and made her way to the Union Army. Throughout the rest of the Civil War, Effie helped a Union Army surgeon doctor the soldiers for their various wounds and illnesses. After the war, the surgeon took Effie North and taught her about the human anatomy and the art of embalming a dead body. As an adult, Effie returns to Louisiana to seek out the past that she has almost completely forgotten. She is also looking for a new beginning. Effie finds work as an embalmer, and her skills help her white employer rebuild his crumbling funerary business. With the help of a spoiled Creole woman and a state legislator who is fighting for the rights of the African Americans, Effie begins to step outside her comfort zone as she gets involved with New Orleans society and social activism.

I was a huge fan of Amanda Skenandore’s first novel – BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY – and I enjoyed THE UNDERTAKER’S ASSISTANT almost as much. Skenandore brings to life the time period, the social hierarchy, and the city of New Orleans.

I’ll admit my main interest was in Effie’s job as an embalmer – stuff like that fascinates me. I was also intrigued to read the story of a young freedwoman during the Reconstruction Era. The Civil War may be over, but the freedmen and women – as well as other people of color – are still fighting an uphill battle for their rights. Effie’s employer is a Southern who fought for the Union, but his political leanings slowly shift throughout the novel as he does what he deems necessary to please his customers and keep his business afloat. The issues this causes between Effie and her employer adds to the story.

Having spent most of her life in the North, Effie has little in common with the southerners that she encounters. She’s a fish out of water, and her serious personality, rigid self-control, and analytical way of thinking make it difficult for her to make friends and fit in the New Orleans society. Effie is an interesting character, though sometimes her emotional detachment and thought process can be a bit frustrating.

In “The Undertaker’s Assistant,” Skenandore takes her readers to a fraught time in American history: Reconstruction. In Skenandore's impressive sophomore novel, Effie Jones, formerly a slave and now an accomplished undertaker's assistant, returns to New Orleans to forge a new life and confront a traumatic past hidden deep in the recesses of her memory. Post-Civil War New Orleans itself faces a clash of politics and economics and a new reality still reeling from a bloody war and the horrors of slavery. Skenandore paints New Orleans and its people with such fine strokes that it’s hard to believe she didn’t somehow transport herself back in time to do her research. As a result, the reader is walking the streets and entering the homes of the dead right along with the characters. Wielding her words with nuance and compassion, Skenandore doesn't shy away from uncomfortable topics, pulling the reader forward with each word. Skenandore’s talent shines brightest in her ability to demonstrate hope while recognizing that hope doesn’t mean the absence of challenges and injustice, a timely and timeless truth.

The novel began so interesting regarding the story line but it became too wooden for me Had to put it down

I've never read a book like the Undertaker's Assistant before. Wonderful character development and great attention to detail, particularly protocols and details about what happens to the human body after death. Effie is well educated in Latin and anatomy but somewhat naive about social interactions and love. Completely free and living on her own during the Reconstruction, Effie who loves to collect various buttons, encounters seances, voodoo, and thrown in jail for trespassing all in an attempt to find Jonesy who could answer all her questions about her past as a sold slave. She is obsessed and falls in love with Samson Greene only to be betrayed by her friend, Adeline who taught her how to charm a man. I was intrigued by this book after returning from my very first trip to New Orleans. Skenadore's descriptive detail of the French Quarter and all that is New Orleans was the highlight of the book for me. Although at various times through the book the pacing stalled for me I found this a pleasurable book to read.

This is a story set in New Orleans after the Civil War. Effie Jones was a slave who escaped and lived a big part of her life in Indiana learning anatomy and the art of embalming. Looking for her roots she returns to New Orleans and experiences life on her own. Lots of action to experience in this work by Amanda Skenandore. "This book was provided by Kensington Books via NetGalley with no requirements for a review. Comments here are my honest opinion."

So interesting! I'm sure a film deal is in the works. A great and compelling story about a former slave girl, who becomes an undertaker's assistant, and then returns to the South to recover her own story. Great characters, and a novel look at the Reconstruction Period after the Civil War. Highly recommend.
I provided this honest review in exchange for a free advance reader's copy.

I couldn’t put this book down!
The characters and story were absolutely engaging and the subject manner was eye-opening.
I often find myself wondering what life is like AFTER wars are over. This was a phenomenal representation of what post civil war Louisiana must have been like.

This was an interesting and entertaining read. The historical aspects of the book were spot on and kept me wanting to read more. Overall I liked this book and recommend it to others!

As Effie explains when she's asked how she can be an undertaker's assistant, "“The dead can’t hurt you. Only the living can.” So sets the mood for this wonderfully dark, pervasive novel set amongst a strenuous time in our nation's history. Effie Jones is a former slave living and working in New Orleans, a place as dark and mysterious as much of the mood of this novel is. Living now, as a freedwoman, Effie is navigating her new life and her return to life in the South as she works for a white undertaker who does not share her skills that she acquired from a Union soldier and is fighting the urge to rekindle her old life and the ties she lost to her own family.

New Orleans
While slavery is now a piece of the past, the racial tensions that are building in New Orleans are not. Effie is among many who are now living as freed people in the southern city and for many, this is not always acceptable. For Effie, there is also an overbearing sense of loss both in her identity and within her ties to her family that was lost in the upheaval of slavery. It is within her past that Effie will also find her new beginnings.

New Orleans serves as a wonderful backdrop for such a turbulent time because New Orleans is itself dark and turbulent. The city really lends itself to the morose overtones that dominate much of the novel. Together, the setting and the political battles that are igniting through the racial tensions created by the end of slavery lend to a well-charted plot and inevitable end.

Racial Tension
The tension between white and black citizens exists throughout the book. People such as Effie are struggling to find their place in the world outside of slavery.  Effie has two encounters with a charismatic state legislator named Samson Greene, and a beautiful young Creole, Adeline that slightly change her course. Up until then, Effie stayed distant from the other girls in her boarding house and had no interest in getting involved in the politics of the city. However, her chance encounters change Effie and bring her into the world of activism and politicism which leads her into her own search for the family that she had long buried in her memories.

The Undertaker's Assistant by Amanda Skenandore is as much a wonderfully written historical fiction piece as it is the story of one woman's coming of age in a turbulent part of our nation's story. The novel is a bit slow in the beginning, but once you get into the meat of the novel, you become invested in the political turmoil, the mystique of the city of New Orleans and in Effie and the characters that she meets and encounters along her own journey.

Book Information
 The Undertaker's Assistant by Amanda Skenandore is scheduled to be released on July 30, 2019, from Kensington Books with ISBN 9781496713681. This review corresponds to an advanced electronic galley that was received from the publisher in exchange for this review. To be linked to special pre-order pricing, click the link above!

*ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
Rating (on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being excellent)
Quality of writing: 5
Pace: 4
Plot development: 4
Characters: 4
Enjoyability: 4
Ease of Reading: 5

Overall rating: 4 out of 5