Descend- First Steps

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There are lots of spirits in the book, looking for love and worship, taking and giving and transforming. It's where the story lost me a bit, and the only reason this isn't a five star book for me. There were times I didn't quite understand the role the spirits took, and times that it felt unnecessary to the story. But it could also make a great discussion topic. 4.5 stars The only real gripe I have with GRAVE DESCEND is the open ended conclusion - all the puzzle pieces don’t quite fit into place. I’m not sure if there are more books featuring McGregor, but GRAVE DESCEND certainly left the impression that this protagonist was designed to be a series character. HOOK - 1 stars: >>>"Starting in the early dawn light, he had driven up into the mountains...then don through lush valleys...damp in the misty morning wetness...up once more to the cold air of the peaks..."<<< opens this novel. Whew. The writing is superb. I believe I have exhausted all the adjectives that describe prose, and so I’ve coined a new term that kind of encapsulates all the great things we say about prose. And that term is prosey. Yes, when you want to say the prose is fabulous, fantastic, poetic, lyrical, otherworldly, now I’ll just simply say the prose was prosey!!! And in the case of Jesmyn Ward and this book, she is at the tippy top when it comes to prose.

Through Annis we see what price is paid when a slave is sold South. With men chained together and women roped together, these people who are property are herded hundreds of miles from the Carolinas to the New Orleans slave markets to learn a new type of servitude on a sugar plantation. During that long, harrowing ordeal, Annis begins to experience the natural world in a new, sometimes frightening, sometimes familiar, way. Here is where the magical realism enters her life and world. For me, this felt like a link in some ways to the magical ending of Sing, Unburied, Sing, although the voices are different here. This worked very well for me as I read. It became a part of Annis’s daily existence, dealing with non-human, natural entities as well as the people around her. Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Midway through this book, I thought I would give it four stars. The first act is top-notch. A professional diver named McGregor is hired to investigate a recently sunken ship, the Grave Descend, but the more McGregor learns, the clearer it becomes that he is being manipulated in some kind of convoluted scam. Descendants: Mal • Jay • Evie • Carlos De Vil • Ben • Audrey • Lonnie • Jane • Chad Charming • Doug • Belle • Beast • Fairy Godmother • Snow White • Queen Leah • Maleficent • Jafar • The Evil Queen • Cruella De Vil • Coach Jenkins • Mr. Deley • Dude Every generation, there comes along a storyteller who doesn’t just tell the story of America, but who sings it. Jesmyn Ward is one such griot. She spins sentences made of silk that land solid as stone. In this story about the love of women—a mother’s love, a mother’s mother’s love, and a daughter’s trust—readers are gathered together in the name of hope. James McGregor is a professional diver hired to recover some important items aboard a sunken yacht off the coast of Kingston by the wealthy and secretive Arthur Wayne. The job looks to be an easy pay off until McGregor discovers the yacht he’s to investigate hasn’t sunk yet. Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial?

In November 2008, unfortunately, Crichton passed away, so in 2013 the remaining 6 books were released. Join Book Club: Delivered to your inbox every Friday, a selection of publishing news, literary observations, poetry recommendations and more from Book World writer Ron Charles. Sign up for the newsletter.Descendants 3: Good to Be Bad • Queen of Mean • Do What You Gotta Do • Night Falls • One Kiss • My Once Upon a Time • Break This Down • Dig a Little Deeper Season Two: " Slumber Party" • " Odd Mal Out" • " Pair of Sneakers" • " Wild Rehearsal" • " Chemical Reaction" • " Talking Heads" • " Steal Away" • " Evil Among Us" • " Options Are Shrinking" • " Party Crashers" • " Mal-lone" • " Trapped" • " Face to Face" • " United We Stand" • " Celebration" Annis is the daughter of a slave owner and her enslaved mother. After working in their master's home, her mother takes Annis into the trees and teaches the lessons her own mother once taught her. Annis suffers heartbreak and tremendous loss after her mother is sold and is eventfully sold herself. She and other slaves set out on a gruesome and unforgiving walk from the Carolinas to New Orleans. They will suffer greatly both mentally and physically along the way. Annis is bought and taken to a Louisiana sugar plantation where her life will change once again.

As Uma readies for the high seas alongside Harry, son of Captain Hook, Gil, son of Gaston, and the toughest rogues on the Isle of the Lost, the reformed villains of Auradon devise their own master plan, and with King Ben away on royal business, they won't have to play by all the rules. Using bad for good can't be totally evil, right? Overall, Let Us Descend is an enchanting blend of historical facts, powerful fiction, and heart-wrenching emotion that does a wonderful job of reminding us that even under the most cruel and barbaric conditions, humanity can be incredibly resilient, compassionate, and kind. Descendants 3: Dr. Facilier • Celia Facilier • Squeaky & Squirmy Smee • Hades • Lady Tremaine • Mr. Smee Beautifully written with vivid descriptions and imagery. I enjoyed the magical realism and the way Annis, and the spirits interacted. I enjoyed learning about the strong women in Annis's family tree. Their inner strength and determination were inspiring. This book was one big journey in a young woman's life. It is not always easy reading as the slaves suffer through starvation, mistreatment, rape, being separated from loved ones, worked hard, bought and sold, and beaten to name a few. Annis experienced so many things in her young life and showed strength, compassion, courage, fear, heartbreak, and love throughout it all.

Despite this dip in the third act and an ending that felt slightly less satisfying than I had hoped, Annis' journey is one worth taking. As Ward herself states on the cover of my advanced copy by way of introduction, "It is difficult to walk south with Annis. Her narrative descends from one hellscape to another, but I promise that if you come with me, you will rise. It will be worth the walk, worth the walking." But the simple truth is that the book made me weep for the utter horror of those lives that Jesmyn Ward brings to life. Annis is the daughter of a slave who has been raped by her master. In turn the master casts his eye on Annis but her mother stands in the way. The answer - to sell her mother and leave Annis without protection. Ward used magical realism to heighten the mythical and fabulist framework of the book. I commend her for stretching the story to boundless limits, for using motifs of Dante’s poem and inserting her own magical elements. I admit to a gulf between me and the otherworldly mystique of these characters and events, perhaps the same way that the bible can distance me with hyperbole. However, I feel blessed to get my hands on anything that Jesmyn Ward writes. I won’t say more about the plot. This is a story you should experience for yourself. I loved Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing and loved the ghost there , but there was a little too much magical realism here for me. I can’t quite give it 5 stars, but overall this is a stunning read that will shake you to your core .

Ward’s novel is a mythic tale about Annis’ hunger to resist and rise, to put into practice her warrior legacy. To thrive, and emerge from this inferno intact and victorious. Annis’ sense of hope springs from her imagination and belief in her own strength, to be regarded, and to regard. “She taught me that the ancestors come if you call them.” And when it comes to Let Us Descend, I can confirm that it is worth the walk, worth the walking, and worth the WAIT, indeed.But Annis finds a new love in Safi, another slave girl. The answer to the master's wrath upon the discovery is to sell Annis and Safi which is where the real story begins. Annis is marched away by the same Georgia Man who took her mother. The march is long and deadly and at the end is another plantation and more misery. the beautiful jamaican locale is a real part of the atmosphere here, along with whip smart local characters who leave a charismatic impression on you. Pretty soon, though, her mother is sold, Annis is alone, and then she herself is chained to her fellow enslaved people and taken on a long trek to Louisiana. The world is rendered in a careful lyrical style – the march is “this wide, cry-choked hell”; Annis’s light complexion is “the middle mud of my skin” – but this is where the trouble for the reader begins. There is a genuinely exciting escalation of action and struggle toward the end