As always, Jacqueline Woodson is a master storyteller. I love the briefness of this book - it’s just a perfect example of a complex story of multiple generations that is told completely within a couple hundred pages or a couple hours read.

Since the person speaking isn’t revealed, I got the mother and daughter confused and had to go back and re-read the Melody chapters (thank you Jen Hatmaker Book Club for the synopsis - and the 4 hour Woodson-created accompanying playlist).

This book makes you want to hold your family tighter and give love to all the people who don’t have it so good.

Thank you to Riverhead Books for the eARC of Red at the Bone.  Jacqueline Woodson is a phenomenal writer, I was immediately transported to Brooklyn for Melody's coming of age party.  Woodson weaves together both Melody's story and that of her mother, who had to make incredibly difficult choices when she found out she was pregnant as a teenager.  This story is incredibly poignant and personal, but there are also universal themes of love, belonging and parenthood that really connected.

Red at the Bone is a tour de force of exquisite writing and storylines that breathe with life and trauma, love and loss, relationships and aloneness. In its most powerful sense, Woodson’s novel of less than 200 pages merges historical truths with members of a family tree full of bold, dynamic reckonings for actions taken or withheld. Told from various perspectives of the people in this Black multigenerational unit, Red at the Bone also explores race, sexuality, religion and class, and how bloodlines that can hold one in place can also provide the impetus for self-discovery and freedom. 
The language, oh, the language: It is the space between the words, the space between the paragraphs that says, “Stop. Ponder. Breathe deeply into what I’m revealing.”  Only a skilled wordsmith can create such packed silence. Woodson has also allowed the characters to speak through her pen, their voices blending like poetry or ragtime or quiet inner musings. 
Red at the Bone is definitely one of the top two novels I’ve read in this challenging year. Sometimes the best gifts come at the eleventh hour, fifty-ninth minute.
Sincere thanks to the publisher Penguin Riverhead Books and to NetGalley for an opportunity to read this masterpiece for an honest review.

What is it about Jacqueline Woodson's writing? What makes it so easy for me to become immediately IN her novels? With the first few lines, I'm there--I'm caught. _Red at the Bone_ is no different. Woodson has done it again!

From the Publisher:
Moving forward and backward in time, Jacqueline Woodson's taut and powerful new novel uncovers the role that history and community have played in the experiences, decisions, and relationships of these families, and in the life of the new child.

As the book opens in 2001, it is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, that very dress was measured and sewn for a different wearer: Melody's mother, for her own ceremony-- a celebration that ultimately never took place.

Unfurling the history of Melody's parents and grandparents to show how they all arrived at this moment, Woodson considers not just their ambitions and successes but also the costs, the tolls they've paid for striving to overcome expectations and escape the pull of history. As it explores sexual desire and identity, ambition, gentrification, education, class and status, and the life-altering facts of parenthood, Red at the Bone most strikingly looks at the ways in which young people must so often make long-lasting decisions about their lives--even before they have begun to figure out who they are and what they want to be.

My Thoughts:
I was attending a NAISA (Native American and Indigenous Studies Association) conference last month and one of the speakers, talking about the difference between Indigenous researchers and western researchers said:
as Indigenous researchers, we have a different way of writing research. Our writing is full of poetry and metaphor that mirrors the way make meaning of the world.
I think Woodson also sees the world in poetry and metaphor. Her prose writing shows this rhythm. She is one of the authors that you go to readings for. It will change the way you read any of her novels.

This book, a tight, poetic 200 pages wet, covers time and relationships, disappointment and legacy in a way that is more similar to dancing while dreaming. These are busy dreams and when I put the book down after a long time underwater, I find myself having to sit on the beach and put the shells together again in some kind of lei.

Woodson is a powerfully gifted storyteller in short prose that packs a punch.

This short novel carries a lot of weight. Jacqueline Woodson is a strong writer, and her characters are well developed. I have recommended this one quite a few times already.

Absolutely stunning. How does Jacqueline Woodson manage to be such a prolific and wonderful writer, both things, at the same time? Red at the Bone is a perfect one-sitting gut punch about family and secrets.

Leave it to Jacqueline Woodson to create a masterpiece in a little over 200 pages. Red at the Bone is a stellar read. The fluid pace, the distinct voice of each character, the different narratives coming together to form this tapestry about love, family, and heritage---- it's just amazing. You can't put it down.

Phenomenal story of families who explore the pain and suffering and the love through three generations of Black men and women.  Exceptional portrayls of women and mothers and asks the questions what it means to be a parent?  I liked the change of viewpoint but it was confusing at first until about page 100.  Great story and excellent writing!

This book went straight to my heart. I was devastated when it was over because I really wanted Jacqueline Woodson to give me more. I wanted to learn more about each character. I wanted to hear more about their relationships. I wanted to spend more time with them. I have yet to come across a book by this author that I did not love.

This is an alternating multi-perspective story of several generations of a family, all the hopes, surprises, love, longings. The feelings and thoughts of each character are so gently presented yet full of depth and meaning, and the reader is changed irrevocably, in the best way.

Jacqueline Woodson is the master when it comes to saying so much in such a small package. A short book filled with characters who come to life from the page - not a word is spared in breathing emotion, pain, growth, and the entire human experience into the the family who narrates this book.

Red at the Bone is a beautiful story of a young lady coming of age and the chances she must take to make a life for herself in the world. Do parents always make the right decisions? Maybe not, but this story is a wonderful depiction of how life takes twists and turns that we never see coming. Interwoven into the mix are the stories of her mother and father, who also look back at their years growing up with their respective families. This is a great adult novel from Jacqueline Woodson, who is already so well-known for her Young Adult novels.

Jacqueline Woodson always delivers and this book is so special. I find myself thinking about hiding blocks of gold all the time now.

Jacqueline Woodson's novel evokes lyricism through language, imagery, and setting. This intergenerational story, based on a family of grandparents, daughter, and a granddaughter show their resilency in overcoming past and present experiences of queer love, violence, terminal illness, racism, and education disparities..

Being acquainted with Woodson through her children's books, this was my first foray into her adult fiction.  What a fascinating foray it has been.  Her writing is so beautifully crafted in both genres with a familiar thread running through them. 
The many topics she touches upon are amazing.  Parenting styles are a theme throughout this book along with class distinction.  The sense of loss is so pervasive and is captured through her direct prose.  This is one of those books that remains with you and provides much thought-provoking musing.

I heard many great things about this book before I was able to read it. It came highly recommended to me. I have recommended it to others.

It might be the stage I'm in, but the teenage truths got to me in ways I hadn't felt before. Beautiful prose from Ms. Woodson. I've been recommending to all sorts of readers.

Jacqueline Woodson never disappoints. This is another great novel about two generations and the challenges they encounter as they are growing up. Two different girls. Both turning sixteen. Both experiencing the same and yet different emotions growing up and experiencing love at a young age. One dealing with an unexpected pregnancy. The other, the result of that pregnancy.

This book is very different from other Jacqueline Woodson titles that I have read. It shifts around in time and is told from the perspectives of all of the main characters. Beautifully written.