BookBrowse Reviews The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams

BookBrowse:

A powerful story of generational trauma and the resilience of a family of Black women who make peace with the past and build a better future.

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For access to our digital magazine, free books,and other benefits, become a member today.

How does generational trauma flow through a family? What does it take to placate the ghosts who suffered that trauma and to move past the crimes that caused it? In her new novel, The Seven Daughters of Dupree, Nikesha Elise Williams untangles these questions through the stories of seven generations of Black women, creating a braided tale spanning more than two centuries and reaching from Alabama to Illinois and back.

The Seven Daughters of Dupree begins in 1995 with 14-year-old Tati (short for Tatiana) seeking answers about her father—whom she has never met and whose name she doesn't know—from her mother, Nadia, and her grandmother, Gladys. But her questions only engender recrimination and veiled allusions to past mistakes between her mother and grandmother, leaving Tati confused and still looking for answers.

The story then swiftly moves to the late 1800s, forward to the 1950s, and back again to the 1930s before returning to the 1980s and '90s. This movement through time introduces the reader to the women of the Dupree line, which began with Emma, born into slavery on the eve of the Civil War. The story of Emma, her adoptive mother, Evangeline, and her immediate descendants takes place in Alabama, while Tati, Nadia, and Gladys's is set in Chicago's South Side.

The intriguing shifts in chronological and geographical setting effectively bring the reader into the family's story. These early chapters are suffused with strange resentments and anger between the various daughters, mothers, and grandmothers, such as Gladys muttering to herself, "'After all I went through just to get them here, they could at least be grateful.' Neither Nadia nor Tati knew what she meant. And in the moment they didn't have the presence of mind to ask."

Much is left unsaid, but it's obvious many dark episodes have cast shadows across generations. Each generation of women also comes to understand that they carry a curse of bearing only daughters, each of whom searches to understand their mother's suffering before experiencing their own.

After many chapters of hints and innuendo about the past, readers may find themselves on the verge of frustration as they wade through arguments without understanding their underlying causes. It's just at that point in the story that Williams wisely shifts to chapters that begin to answer the many lingering questions. She maintains the overlapping structure, thereby bringing clarity through a slow build as each woman's life story unfolds.

In addition to carrying buried traumas and bearing only female offspring, the Dupree women also share an ability to braid and style hair. For example, Nadia runs a salon in her basement, and her grandmother, Ruby, has no formal training but creates elaborate braids. These talents act as a connecting thread through the decades and the women's stories. Slowly, the arguments and resentments from the earlier chapters start to make sense. Dupree women who got pregnant out of wedlock, one who pretended to be white until the birth of a daughter revealed her race, a woman who survived a violent rape that destroyed her chance for an education—these painful moments changed the women's life trajectories but are also stories of incredible strength to overcome difficult obstacles.

Finally, the story circles back to the original sin that cursed the Dupree family. Their enslaved ancestor, Emma's mother, suffered a horrific end that was made worse by her ingenious ability to braid, a talent that almost got her to freedom in the antebellum South.

As deep and lasting as the wounds have been, by sharing these traumas the Dupree women make peace with the past and with each other. Speaking out loud the things that have never been said allows Tati, Nadia, and Gladys to forgive and move forward, and even to assuage the trauma that started it all. The story ends back in Alabama, as Tati and Nadia move to their ancestral home, living the lives they want while honoring the women who came before them.

The Seven Daughters of Dupree requires a little patience to push through the veil of secrets and find out what really happened to these women, mirroring Tati's childhood experience of asking unanswered questions. But the reader is richly rewarded with a moving tale of resilience that also captures the wounds, wrongs, and mistakes that make up the story of a family.

This review first ran in the March 11, 2026 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.