Charles Alverson

This book was a Goodreads Giveaway.

Mr. Alverson took on a new genre with his first historical fiction endeavor, and while the result for me was lackluster, I expect others may find this more enjoyable.

A young back man is sold into slavery in the south just as the rumblings of the Civil War begin to spread across the nation. This man, trained and educated as a free black in Boston, finds himself out of place in this new life and determined to win his freedom. The story grows with his relationship to his slave-master, and eventually turns into something of a military fiction.

The story arcs and plot points are strong, and the characterization is clear. The book ran aground for me on several points, though, which kept my enjoyment level low and required extraordinarily steadfast commitment to finish. The first big challenge for me was the narrative distance. For much of the early part of the book, the story progresses swiftly and in passing. Only in the rarest of occasions do we draw in close enough to experience a scene fully first-hand. This gave the overwhelming sensation of "telling, not showing". It became easy for me to be distant from the characters and not invest in their well-being.

The second issue was pacing. Mr. Alverson took a circuitous route to his final scene and filled the intervening pages with an assortment of plot points which often assembled themselves disjointedly. Major aspects of the story took place without a struggle or any real sense of tension, while others that held me in suspension were quite meaningless. If there were more opportunities taken to raise the stakes, I might call it a rollercoaster. As it was, the book felt like a car stuttering its way across a desert.

Finally, I have to say something about the character of Caleb himself. It is perhaps a statement about myself that I cannot abide a perfect character. I've called out this trait in many authors in the young-adult fiction genre as well. When an author falls in love with his or her character, the book becomes scene upon scene of excuses to show them doing the amazing, the impossible, or the unexpected. Without opportunity to struggle or fail, to overcome and grow, the character they want so much to stand tall is left lying flat. Caleb, unfortunately, falls firmly into this group. I should feel much more for a man in his situations than I did. I should cry for him and plead his case in my head as the pages turn. Instead, he never connected, either with me as a reader, or even with the other slaves suffering on his plantation. This is probably the biggest failure of the story overall.

As I said before, others may find more value and enjoyment here than I did. I marked this review as 2-stars, what Goodreads calls: "okay". I hope that with these criticisms in mind, others may read it more prepared and find it worth more stars.… (mere)