Divya Manian commented on Freedom Ship by Marcus Rediker
"Sir – I have left you, not to return…No longer yours, John S. Jacob" a letter from an enslaved person to the person tormenting him.
Reviews and Comments
I love murder mysteries & history. Preferably in the same book.
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Divya Manian commented on Freedom Ship by Marcus Rediker
The thing that strikes me the MOST on reading some of the earlier chapters is that WHITE PEOPLE WERE HELPING with abolition for a long time! The author describes the dangerous escape of one of the enslaved people who was met by 2 white people in a boat in NYC and who protected him when the people from his ship tried to take him back.
A white sailor was fined a year's salary + jail because he was distributing one of the banned books that extols the enslaved to revolt.
Divya Manian started reading Freedom Ship by Marcus Rediker
So excited to read this from Marcus Rediker! I read his book about pirates and it was EYE OPENING. Closer to piracy depicted in Our Flag Means Death (RIP), than other description of pirates.
Divya Manian finished reading Boom Town by Nic Stone
Absolutely loved this thriller. There is not a lot of mystery here but really great atmosphere of the people who do dancing & sex work in Atlanta. There is also a sexual assault scene that kinda comes out of nowhere. It's 2025, publishes should be putting content warning in front.
Divya Manian commented on City Of Dragons by Kelli Stanley
February, 1940. In San Francisco's Chinatown, fireworks explode as the city celebrates Chinese New Year …
First time hearing about Rice bowl parties to raise money to aid the Chinese suffering under the Japanese conquest in WW 2.
Divya Manian reviewed The Door on the sea by Caskey Russell (The Raven and Eagle series, #1)
When Elān trapped a salmon-stealing raven in his cupboard, he never expected it would hold …
Epic fantasy better than LOTR
5 stars
I couldn't put it down.
Divya Manian finished reading The Door on the sea by Caskey Russell (The Raven and Eagle series, #1)
When Elān trapped a salmon-stealing raven in his cupboard, he never expected it would hold …
Absolutely STUNNING epic about a young boy who accidentally becomes responsible for the fate of his tribe. You can read this as an allegory to the white invasion of the Turtle island AND as a better epic than Lord of the Rings. The only frustration I have is, for these matrilineal tribes there are so few women characters in this story. Go READ!
Divya Manian reviewed Dead Girls Walking by Sami Ellis
Temple Baker knows that evil runs in her blood. Her father is the North Point …
Go read this immediately
5 stars
Divya Manian reviewed Dead Girls Walking by Sami Ellis
Temple Baker knows that evil runs in her blood. Her father is the North Point …
Go read this immediately
5 stars
Divya Manian finished reading Dead Girls Walking by Sami Ellis
Temple Baker knows that evil runs in her blood. Her father is the North Point …
Absolutely thrilling slasher. Do not read in the dark!! The daughter of a serial-killer revisits her home while being a student counselor to this horror camp for Black queer teens to figure out if her mother was really killed by her father. I LOVE how uplifting this book is which is a weird thing to say about a slasher. But it truly is.
Also, the content alert says there is description of transphobia but I didn't notice any. Entirely possible it escaped me, but I also thought how cool it is that this book normalizes being queer & not having to deal with the usual fears of racism & queer-phobia.
I also loved how kick-ass cool the protagonist is and the other main characters. Finally, give me a protagonist who doesn't do silly & wild things again and again to move the plot forward. This protagonist has Plan A, Plan …
Absolutely thrilling slasher. Do not read in the dark!! The daughter of a serial-killer revisits her home while being a student counselor to this horror camp for Black queer teens to figure out if her mother was really killed by her father. I LOVE how uplifting this book is which is a weird thing to say about a slasher. But it truly is.
Also, the content alert says there is description of transphobia but I didn't notice any. Entirely possible it escaped me, but I also thought how cool it is that this book normalizes being queer & not having to deal with the usual fears of racism & queer-phobia.
I also loved how kick-ass cool the protagonist is and the other main characters. Finally, give me a protagonist who doesn't do silly & wild things again and again to move the plot forward. This protagonist has Plan A, Plan B AND Plan C figured out. YES.
If you lock me in a room and tell me I have to criticize something about this book, then I will tell you, I wish we had more of a backstory to the main villain. I guess the lack of backstory helps with the surprise but I wish we had more of a story there.
Run to buy this book or place a hold in your library systems if you like slasher horror!!
Divya Manian rated Jackal: 5 stars
Jackal by Erin E. Adams
It’s watching.
Liz Rocher is coming home . . . reluctantly. As a Black woman, Liz doesn’t exactly have fond …
Divya Manian rated This Cursed House: 5 stars
This Cursed House by Del Sandeen
In the fall of 1962, twenty-seven-year-old Jemma Barker is desperate to escape her life in Chicago—and the spirits she has …
Divya Manian rated When the Reckoning Comes: 5 stars
Divya Manian finished reading When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen
Absolutely STUNNING horror set in a plantation. It is hard to read because of all the description of abuse that the Enslaved people had endured and description of how current Plantations pretend the Enslaved people had a "good time". But the ending is satisfying, the way the protagonist understands viscerally at the end how the white successors of slave owners are continuing to be complicit. It would be a DAMNED good Jordan Peele movie, but I fear the racists would use it as a documentary for what they want to do instead.
Divya Manian finished reading Jackal by Erin E. Adams
It’s watching.
Liz Rocher is coming home . . . reluctantly. As a Black woman, …
I have a type of book I like, historical horror / sci-fi / murder mystery. This book fits the bill. I kinda did not like the protagonist but the flawed protagonist worked really well in this book. Quite gripping & vivid. The protagonist returns to the town she was born where 2,000 Black people were disappeared overnight (a true fact: newpittsburghcourier.com/2023/10/19/100-years-ago-blacks-had-24-hours-to-leave-johnstown-pa-one-of-the-most-horrific-racial-injustices-in-western-pennsylvania/). The book imagines a horror background for that with a quite fulfilling end.