Thursday, December 15, 2011

Book Review of The Loom by Shella Gillus

Have you ever read a book and took your time with it? I recently received a book by Shella Gillus called, The Loom. And believe me, take my time is what I did with this. It is a book that deals with some interesting plots and I can't wait to tell you about it. It will change the way you think about some things.

A slave owner’s wife harbors a secret that threatens to unravel her marriage and the lives of those around her. Caroline Whitfield lives in the world she dreamt of as a child. Married to Jackson, a plantation owner, in the quiet hills of 1835 Montgomery County, Maryland, she enjoys a simple life, until new slaves, seven-year-old Sadie and her father, arrive. When Sadie’s daddy is taken from her, the young girl is forced to serve the master and mistress she holds responsible for her loss. With her grandmother, fellow slaves in the “Loom Room,” and a young man bent on obtaining his freedom, Sadie struggles to make sense of God’s will in the midst of pain. But Caroline harbors a secret that could bring her world crashing down, and her love for Sadie, the daughter no one knows she had, threatens to tear it all apart. Meanwhile, Caroline draws closer to an old friend, an empathetic and dependable married man. Now she must douse the raging flames of a jealous husband and fight to keep her perfect world intact. The Loom is a colorful tale of three families linked by a lie and their discovery that the truth is not always black and white.

MY REVIEW-This is a book that is somewhat different. I haven't read many from a black persons point of view. But I found it to be eye opening. It opens with a girl trying to escape to freedom. She makes it a ways away and then gets caught and brought back. This is very sad as it shows her viewpoint of the light of freedom and then being captured. I think some authors use the slavery plight as a guilt trip, but Shella does not do that. She shows the facts as they were, in a blunt but true fashion.

I felt bad for Caroline and I wanted to slap her husband. I know that many times back then, this is how things played out, but it still didn't make it any easier. This book deals with so many aspects and this one is one of the major ones. I know the book doesn't portray it as major but to me, it was a big part of the book. The awful feeling of knowing you no longer have your husbands affection. Then when she blows up at him and everything goes back to normal. How could he?

Sadie is the young girl who tries escaping in the beginning but then she is brought back to the plantation. She gets much wisdom from the older women who work in the Loom Room. These are the women who can't work in the fields anymore or are injured too badly. She and her young man are very sweet together and I had a hard time not crying at different parts. They so badly want freedom and yet it is kept from them.

Overall this is a good book that will make you think. This is not a light romance that you will smile at and be happy when it is done. This will push your thinking towards other things. Excellent plot and well written!

I received a copy of this book for review purposes. I did not receive any monetary compensation. All thoughts are 100% mine.

5 comments:

mamabunny13 said...

I love that it's about 3 families linked by a lie! That makes me excited with anticipation! I'm going to put this on my wish list.
mamabunny13 at gmail dot com

Josiah said...

I like that it has history mixed in with the fiction so I can enjoy a novel and learn something at the same time.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a great book!

littleladyintraining(at)yahoo.com

Kuglerjyfh said...

I like that it has history mixed in with the fiction so I can enjoy a novel and learn something at the same time.

Adams said...

I like that it has history mixed in with the fiction so I can enjoy a novel and learn something at the same time.

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