Book Reviews
Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
Year of release: 1977
Genre: Historical drama, magical realism, coming of age
Date finished: May 27, 2026
Star rating: ✮✮✮✮✩
Favorite quote: "You got a life? Live it! Live the motherfuckin life! Live it!"
Favorite scene: The men in the barbershop discuss the murder of Emmett Till.
Favorite characters: Guitar, Pilate
Review: Toni Morrison's prose is unlike any other, equal parts stunning and visceral. It will dazzle you so that you are helpless when it buries its teeth in your throat; one would be a perfect fool to see Morrison's abiding love for all of humanity and take it for naivety. While Song of Solomon gets off to a slow start, do not for a moment let its quotidian beginnings fool you into believing this novel is one in which nothing much happens. This is a book which will make you laugh, make you gasp, and give you chills. Morrison's slow, cinematic, evocative passages gradually gain momentum until halfway through, at which point Song of Solomon becomes a thrilling family mystery. Morrison weaves a story about generational trauma, horror, reconciliation, and responsibility that fell into my lap just when I needed it most.
Feast of Souls - C.S. Friedman
Year of release: 2007
Genre: Dark fantasy, political fantasy
Date finished: TBA
Star rating: TBA
Favorite quote: "And forgive the gods, who have decreed that all birth must be agony."
Favorite scene: A young boy realizes with horror that his entire town is dead.
Favorite characters: Kamala, Colivar, Gwynofar, Siderea
Review: Friedman crafts an intriguing and layered tale of magical vampirism, political intrigue, and the weight of a human life—but the book through which she delivers that tale is in serious need of a proofreader. Though lush and beautiful, with a special aptitude for the grotesque, Friedman's prose is littered with elementary-level grammar and spelling mistakes, as well as the occasional tense mixup. One of this novel's greatest strengths is its presentation as a series of vignettes, all of which are connected, some of them in surprisingly linear fashion. Through this style, Friedman gives us the opportunity to explore multiple facets of a world that feels colorful and lived-in, and she manages to evoke our sympathy even for snakes, scoundrels, and parasites.
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