Expected On Sale Date: April 2016
Pages: 384
Genre: Historical Fiction
1830: Jamie Pyke is a half white. half black boy who is a son of a slave and her white slave master. He gets the chance to become an apprentice at the story and workshop of a local silversmith, where he is taken in by the owners as their own son. He slowly works his way up in the Philadelphia society, and becomes loved and well known for his craftmanship. No one knows Jamie's (who know is called James) secret of being a mulatto, which was unheard of during the time the story is set in.
In this circle he meets Caroline, the daughter of a wealthy socialite lady. But when Caroline gets pregnant and Jamies secret leaks, he is chased away by Caroline's father. At the same time he learns that hhis beloved servant Pan has been captured and sold into slavery in the South. Pan's father, who once helped Jamie and to who he owes a dept, pleads for Jamie's help to find Pan back and to free him.
James sets off a trip to North Caroline where Pan is hold with a former slave of Tall Oakes, Sukey, who can't talk because her tonque is cut off by a slave master.oon the three of them are running through the Great Dismal Swamp, the notoriously deadly hiding place for escaped slaves. Though they have help from those in the Underground Railroad, not all of them will make it out alive...
I am so thrilled about this amazing and brilliant book! Recently I read about Kathleen Grissom's first book The Kitchen House and was thinking of getting a copy of it. But then I saw the e-galley of Glory Over Everything on Netgalley and decided to give this one a try first to see if I liked it, so I could later decide about buying The Kitchen House. And I know what to do now, get myself a copy, because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the story of Glory Over Everything and Kathleen's style of writing. I find it hard though to start this review, as this book has so much depth, characters, events, historical reference, plot twists and much more and I don't want to forget anything, just to underline how good it is.
The plot was in one word outstandingly brilliant. It is seldom that I read a book written like this with so many plot twists. (and if you read my blog often you know that i LOVE that!) The story is set in 1930 amidst the period that sadly slavery was quite ''normal'' in the United States. It was sometimes chilling and horryfying to read what slaves had to endure, like Sukey, who stood up to her slave master and got her tongue cut of, or just the sheer sadness and tragedy of families, sometimes only existing of mother and a little daugher who where torn apart and sold. Luckily the story includes quite some white people who where brave enough during that time period to stood up to it and help slaves, like the kind Quaker family who helps James, Pan and Sukey when they are chased and hide them under their floor.
The story is told from in alternating pov of James, Pan, Sukey and Caroline, both in the past and present time. This totally worked for this book, as the author let them tell all their backstories, whic was very interesting and entertaining to read. All the characters where brilliantly created by the author, also the side characters like James help Robert, who never leaves his side and just shows his great loyalty to James in the end of the book.
Without any further ado or more spoilers, I just want to highly recommend this book, it reads like you are watching a great movie, which I think this book is very suitable for.
The story is told from in alternating pov of James, Pan, Sukey and Caroline, both in the past and present time. This totally worked for this book, as the author let them tell all their backstories, whic was very interesting and entertaining to read. All the characters where brilliantly created by the author, also the side characters like James help Robert, who never leaves his side and just shows his great loyalty to James in the end of the book.
Without any further ado or more spoilers, I just want to highly recommend this book, it reads like you are watching a great movie, which I think this book is very suitable for.
