What do you think?
Rate this book
368 pages, ebook
First published April 29, 2014
Then Ruby searched the dark of her own body and found a hiding place thick in the branches of the china berry. It held her safe, the leaves full, always green, the sky all stars and crickets…she saw her hand turned to bark; broken mahogany ridges. her fingers tiny living twigs, with golden beads dangling from them. Her torso melted into the trunk and her toes lay safe underground. They sky shook over her head, but Ruby was now the tree. She stood there safe and waited for the storm to pass.
She made it in that pocket of time before dawn, when the aging night gathered its dark skirts and paused in the stillness. She made it with twelve eggs, still warm and flecked with feathers. She washed them and cracked them, one at a time, holding each golden yolk in her palm as the whites slid and dropped through her open fingers.At other times, though, her plot gets crushed under the weight of over-description.
While filled with numerous "ghostly" flashbacks and dark topics including child rape, baby brutality, racism and animal cruelty, its saving grace was Ephram who shows his deeply rooted love and perseveres through beatings and ridicule during Ruby's fight
I, unfortunately, did not particularly enjoy this novel and found the writing style somewhat confusing overall, but there are many raving reviews out there (from GR friends I respect) so do not let my rating dissuade you from reading this debut by Cynthia Bond.