Kin

I finally finished this today and, frankly, I’m glad to see the back of it and be free to move onto another book. Having loved An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, I had high hopes for this. I’m not sure why, but this didn’t ever click for me. This is not a criticism of the book, as much as the reality of life as a reader is that sometimes the right book finds you at the right time, and sometimes it can be the right book at the wrong time. Of course, sometimes a book just isn’t for you at all.

Regardless, as beautifully written as this undeniably is, I never found any resonance with either of the two women at the heart of the story; I never felt truly invested in their stories, journey, or outcomes.

Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South, the novel follows Vernice and Annie, two motherless girls from rural Louisiana whose lifelong friendship endures as their lives take starkly different paths in adulthood. While Vernice heads to Spelman College and navigates Atlanta's Black elite, Annie sets off on a perilous journey to find the mother who abandoned her.