Consider the set-up here - a girl forced to spend the summer at an old plantation with her high-achieving mother who is searching for details about family history. We're going to expect secrets uncovered about the slave-owning history of the town and probably some modern racism along with a confrontation between the girl and her mother. And all of that is present. There's nothing supernatural here, no ghosts haunting the place (though the early chapters certainly would have allowed for it). Ultimately, it's not even about confronting racism, exactly. Instead Williams has used a town's racist past as a method of exploring identity. Noni picks apart the history of the families that lived at Tangleroot, certainly, but she also ends up examining herself. She's asking what motivates her and the kind of person she wants to be. This is less of a thriller, though it has some big reveals and dramatic moments, and more of a piece that asks us to question behavior and attitudes. Not only is this one worth reading, it's probably worthy of a second or third pass to truly explore the ideas at play.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
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