Book review - For Lamb

 

Title: For Lamb

Author: Lesa Cline-Ransome

Genre: historical fiction

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Rating:

 

solid characters

Summary (provided by publisher): For Lamb follows a family striving to better their lives in the late 1930s Jackson, Mississippi. Lamb’s mother is a hard-working, creative seamstress who cannot reveal she is a lesbian. Lamb’s brother has a brilliant mind and has even earned a college scholarship for a black college up north-- if only he could curb his impulsiveness and rebellious nature.
Lamb herself is a quiet and studious girl. She is also naive.  As she tentatively accepts the friendly overtures of a white girl who loans her a book she loves, she sets a off a calamitous series of events that pulls in her mother, charming hustler uncle, estranged father, and brother, and ends in a lynching.

My opinion: There is no question from the beginning how this book is going to end. So this is not a book driven by action. It is reflective. We cycle through characters in turn, learning about their pasts and their motivations. We come to understand why they interact with others the way that they do, why they can be harsh, cruel, selfish, or spineless. As we come to understand them more we also come to understand why the ending is inevitable. We can see it on the horizon a couple of chapters ahead and yet the character development is interesting enough to keep us engaged. It's an upsetting read but one worth making your way through.

More information: For Lamb releases January 10.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley