The Book Of Negroes-Lawrence Hill

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️\5

P.s-I know this is from the series, don't kill me but I can't find any good book representations...

“Let me begin with a caveat to any and all who find these pages. Do not trust large bodies of water, and do not cross them. If you, dear reader, have an African hue and find yourself led toward water with vanishing shores, seize your freedom by any means necessary. And cultivate distrust of the colour pink. Pink is taken as the colour of innocence, the colour of childhood, but as it spills across the water in the light of the dying sun, do not fall into its pretty path. There, right underneath, lies a bottomless graveyard of children, mothers and men. I shudder to imagine all the Africans rocking in the deep. Every time I have sailed the seas, I have had the sense of gliding over the unburied. Some people call the sunset a creation of extraordinary beauty, and proof of God's existence. But what benevolent force would bewitch the human spirit by choosing pink to light the path of a slave vessel? Do not be fooled by the pretty colour, and do not submit to its beckoning.”

This was a book I read in high school (2017). This is the book that got me into reading. I remember skipping all my classes and staying in the library and reading it all night at home. The next day our teacher asked how we liked our books so far, only I had to inform her I finished it the same night because I LOVED it.

I also wrote a stellar book review/report on it for my english class, got a super high mark and it only helped fuel this little passion for writing reviews and reading.

This novel is based on a true story, it follows a girl named Aminata whose story spans over six decades and three continents. This book has you on an emotional rollercoaster and raises awareness of what exactly slaves went through in the 1800's and possibly even to this day. it takes place in the narrative of an old woman, Aminata Diallo who writes about a life story for the Abolitionists in London.

Abducted from her village in West Africa at a young age and marched for three months with other slaves they had stolen from villages back to a ship by the coast, where it takes her to America. Aminata witnesses many horrifying things while being sold to an indigo plantain owner. She describes herself as lucky, because compared to the tragic circumstances and end of so many other black slaves, Aminata manages to survive using her wits, her skills as a midwife, her ability to pick up new skills quickly, and her strength of character. Through it all, she does not succumb to her anger from everything she goes through and witnesses on the plantain she only wants a simple happy life of living with her husband and her children.

When an opportunity to see her village again arises, despite having to make a deal with the devil to have it happen, will she take it?

Like I said, this is one of my all time favourite books, it always will be and will never fail to read it again (when I obtain a copy of it again). This book will always be known as the book that got me into reading, and kickstarted this addiction off.

A little fact about me, I don't watch many movies or shows, I have a few that I will repeatedly binge watch over and over but I don't watch many new or old films and I always thought that was weird, but I could never focus, or I would get bored and start skipping to find out what happens. Many would say thats just being impatient, but i would rather not.

But when I read this book, the novel played out in front of me, it was like magic, I saw everything as I would a movie, and I didn't get bored or skim through, I read every word.

I knew from that moment on that there had to be better books out there, and I discovered Goodreads from a friend at the time, where I found many, many books from then on and have only continued to fuel this amazingly beautiful hobby and possible addiction hehe.

Hope you enjoyed learning a little more about me, and convinced you to read the amazing Lawrence Hill's masterpiece and beautiful writing.