I could not bring myself to finish this book. The writing was 90 prose, almost no dialog. Descriptive. Chapter after chapter the two main characters demonstrated no insight into themselves, their relationship, their lives. Not being a writer, I do not say I could do better. I would have expected better from one who has a publishing company behind her.

Reconstruction-era black freedman citizenship is explored, along with the significance of relative “blackness,” in reference to actual skin color. Freedom in general is the main theme (“Libertie”). A twelve year old girl -very dark-skinned - assists her light-skinned physician mother in her clinic, vaguely in the North. The father has died around the time of the girl’s birth.

The mother-daughter relationship is contentious. Libertie does not seem to have “agency,” and seems to be reactive to most situations. Her mother insists she aid in the clinic. Her mother sends her to college. Emmanuel pushed for marriage, and pushed for Liberty to move to Haiti.

Until the final chapters, Libertie as a person did not interest me. Only as she comes to grips with her life choices did she seem of interest. I found this book neither compelling, nor particularly interesting.

With lilting fairy tale language the author re introduces us to the folklore and mythology of Greece, which is only vaguely familiar to me. In juxtaposing the lives of the sisters, Ariadne and Phaedra, the author illuminates sibling love and rivalry in a beautiful way. The sisters, each strong-willed in her unique manner, chart their passages through a world controlled by men, with unpredictable machinations of the gods as a bonus. The story is filled with love and hate, vengeance and revenge, drama and tragedy, as we can only wish from the Greeks. Not a gentle tale, in the end, but one which reinvigorates their mythology. Recommended.

With lilting fairy tale language the author re introduces us to the folklore and mythology of Greece, which is only vaguely familiar to me. In juxtaposing the lives of the sisters, Ariadne and Phaedra, the author illuminates sibling love and rivalry in a beautiful way. The sisters, each strong-willed in her unique manner, chart their passages through a world controlled by men, with unpredictable machinations of the gods as a bonus. The story is filled with love and hate, vengeance and revenge, drama and tragedy, as we can only wish from the Greeks. Not a gentle tale, in the end, but one which reinvigorates their mythology. Recommended.

Dark, and hardly comic, not hilarious. Not one single sympathetic character in the whole book. I kept reading, hoping to find a good reason for this story to exist. A tragic tale of teen angst, betrayal, and ignominy. This was a difficult read.

This is a fascinating story – mystery, romance, history – engrossing on many levels. At times, the story is difficult to follow, due to various first-person voices which have no identification. The author presents here a depiction of one of humanity's major flaws, mistreatment of “the other,” which is Native Americans in this instance. Lynching of a group of Indian men for the deaths of a white settler family is the starting point. The sequelae are woven into the novel in a masterful fashion, with surprises to the very end. Not exactly a page-turner, but gripping in its own way. I would read it again. Recommended.

Unnerving, frightening. At times, very moving. Deep injury and sadness, yielding to awakening, and, finally, a rather depressing peace.