Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Review: The Mothers by Brit Bennett

The MothersThe Mothers by Brit Bennett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is such lovely book. I cannot recommend it more highly. It's probably my favorite book of 2016. It's beautifully written and the story is so well done. It almost felt as if it snuck up on me in some way - I was enjoying the story, loving the prose and then BOOM it's suddenly even more than all that. I was liking it but there came a point when it all came together for me and my strong like became an absolute LOVE! Such a beautiful, haunting story with characters that I don't think I'll ever forget. It's about so much ... friendship, faith, life within a church community, and girls without a mother. It's so good and a MUST read, in my opinion.

I thought the collective voice was an interesting choice. I'm not sure it completely worked for me but I did think it was really compelling. I've read some interviews with Brit Bennett and I was really impressed with all she said about this novel and it's scope. She made me like the novel even more! Her ability to put a feeling into words effectively is one of my favorite things about this novel. There were so many passages that I couldn't get out of my head or that just summed up my feelings so perfectly. She definitely has a way with words!

Please pick up this book ... it's so worth the read! Such a beautiful and thoughtful novel! I think it's a novel that most will enjoy and find something in.

Just to give you a sense of how beautiful her writing is ... here are just a few of my favorite passages ...

“Grief was not a line, carrying you infinitely further from loss. You never knew when you would be sling-shot backward into its grip.”

“Years later, she wondered if that was the point, if sometimes the glory was in rebuilding the broken thing, not the result but the process of trying."

"Suffering pain is what made you a woman. Most of the milestones in a woman’s life were accompanied by pain, like her first time having sex or birthing a child. For men, it was all orgasms and champagne."

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