Ours by Phillip B. Williams
Poet Phillip B. Williams has returned along with his debut novel, a hefty tome coming in round 600 pages, proving himself a grasp in each poetry and prose. Ours begins within the 1830s, when a mysterious girl named Saint strikes throughout Arkansas, releasing enslaved individuals from their “so-called masters.” Saint leads the newly freed individuals to a city referred to as Ours, the place they’ll stay a free and peaceable life. Ours is protected against the skin world, and solely those that already realize it exists can return to it. Or so that they suppose.
As the years go by, mysterious issues start to occur, and the townspeople start to suspect that Saint is perhaps the trigger. As Saint grows extra suspicious and controlling, the neighborhood of free Black individuals begins to marvel what they’re paying for Saint’s model of “freedom.”
Williams possesses an excellent creativeness and understanding of storytelling. From the primary pages, the place we observe Saint releasing enslaved individuals throughout the South, we, the readers, are sucked into the narrative. During the prolonged excursions into the backstories of aspect characters, we’re nonetheless flying by the pages, simply ready to know what occurs subsequent.
Williams makes use of his poet’s ear in crafting his prose, and the phrases shine on each web page. Joneice Abbott-Pratt performs the audiobook, creating this transcendent listening expertise. She easily voices the big solid of characters, performing all of their accents and bringing out their personalities. Sure, the audiobook is round 20 hours lengthy, however I might have saved listening for hours extra. There’s simply one thing particular about Abbott-Pratt’s performances that makes me assured that I’d get pleasure from something she reads, and Ours isn’t any completely different.
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