Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

“Guess that's where the tears came from, knowing that there's so much in this great big world that you don't have a single ounce of control over. Guess the sooner you learn that, the sooner you'll have one less heartbreak in your life.”

It is now the week of Thanksgiving and I knew that I wanted to review a book about family for this holiday week. Holidays normally remind me of family and what family means. We all have different families, different feelings about our families, and different experiences with our families. I know that even the best of families can have complicated past, which sometimes younger members don't find out till later in life. I thought a lot about what kind of book I wanted to read for this week. I heard rave reviews about Red at the Bone and it had been on my to read list for a while. I didn't have any hopes for this book and I went in pretty blind. I was pleasantly surprised by how beautifully written this book was. I was surprised by a lot in this book.

We open in 2001, on the eve of sixteen year old Melody's coming of age party in her grandparents' Brooklyn home. Watched by all her loving friends and family, she wears a custom made dress. But that dress was made sixteen years earlier for her mother's coming of age party that never happened. In a timeline that moves between past and present, we hear from Melody's parents and grandparents. We hear of how they fell in love, how the past affected them in ways they never could've imagine, and how Iris's unplanned pregnancy changed everything. Everything is explored from success to failures. How trauma affects every generation after. And how young people are forced to make decisions that will affect their lives long before they have the chance to figure out who they truly are.

This book is only about 200 pages which is pretty short. But this small novel packs a extremely big punch to the gut. Every single prose and sentence means so much. You hear from Melody, her parents, and her grandparents in their own words about their lives. Their past, their feelings, and how love shapes each and every one of us. I found myself starting to tear up as Melody's grandmother, Sabe, spoke of her mother's memories of the Tulsa massacre. How her mother described the hate, the death, the devastation of how her family's life was torn apart after that massacre. How that shaped Sabe's upbringing and how it affects how she lives her life. Hearing Iris, Melody's mother, speak of how being pregnant at 16 affected her life and how unprepared she was for motherhood broke my heart. You feel how naive she was and how having Melody changed her life in ways she never expected. My favorite narrator was Melody's grandfather, Sammy Po'boy. The love he has for his family shines through every single line he narrates. Sabe and Sammy have such a loving and sweet marriage, which made my heart just swell reading it.

Red at the Bone tackles so many different complex matters. From racism, hunger, poverty, family traditions, depression, teen pregnancy, and more. It starts with Melody's coming out party at sixteen and works it way back to the past. I felt so many emotions reading about Iris realizing she was pregnant at sixteen and what that meant for the rest of her life. This book had all the makings of a story that would confuse me. Multiple plot lines, different narrators, and moving form different periods in line. But it all works together beautifully. Every single chapter was extremely well written and moving. By the end, my heart was full and warmed.

This book is so poignant, well written, and moving. While I knew I wanted to review a book about a family, I really knew I wanted to read about a family that looked like my own. With my blog I have always wanted to showcase books by authors of color with protagonist of color. Red at the Bone is such a strong book about a Black family and their past. And no matter what the past or present may hold, how their love stays strong. This was exactly the book I needed to read and I encourage all of you to read this phenomenal book.