GOOD DIRT
Charmaine Wilkerson
Random House/Ballantine
January 28, 2025
368 pages
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This is a complex story, with many intricate layers.
The above line is how I started off my review of this author’s previous book, Black Cake. Charmaine Wilkerson has definitely established her writing style. That first line applies to this story too.
Sadly, this book does not appeal to me as much as Black Cake. The present-day story is about Ebby who as a young child witnessed her brother being killed and a historical family treasure destroyed at the same time. This still causes Ebby trauma in her adult life.
The back story is about the historic treasure and its origins. It is about how the treasure came into the family. It gets very slow and detailed. I felt bogged down, reading it.
The back story is very well researched by the author. Kudos for that. But the detail and the many characters over a long period of time started to feel tedious. I would have preferred more focus on Ebby in the present day.
I know there will be an audience for this book, based on the reviews already posted. But, it was not a hit for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers copy.
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