I am a huge fan of Philippa Gregory. I am working on reading everyone of her books. So far they have all been pretty good. When I saw this book, I had to get it right away. I am in the middle of another book, but I couldn't wait to start this one. I can't finish it. I just can't.
This book is so haunting and so horrifying that I can't read it. It is giving me nightmares and my heartaches from the utter evil that human beings had to endure through the days of slave trade. I say "human beings" because through out the book the kidnapped Africans are called everything but humans. They call them animals, they call them stupid, they call them property. YES, I have heard all this before, but never have I been taken on the journey from Africa through the voice of one of the humans abducted. Read this if you can stomach the details of children raped, murdered and people beaten to death (let me say again, it is described in detail). Philippa Gregory is a spectacular author, I adore her and I appreciate that she told it like it is. I do find it interesting that she choose to have the setting in England rather than America. I wonder what made her decide to do that. I wonder if she thought it would be less difficult for Americans to handle if they thought it was someone else committing these crimes against humanity?
Maybe I need to continue to read this. Look at how much I have thought about this and what it has sparked in me.
Let me just add, this is required reading at the high school here where I live. I just don't know how I feel about that. I was always totally against censorship and I still am. I just don't know why of all the good pieces of literature out there we need to feed this kind of violence to high school students.
