Rather than considering this a story of pre-civil war south, or a coming of age story, I would place it more as chapters in a life. The idea of personal freedom is explored throughout the telling. There are many ways we are kept from our personal freedoms, and to achieve those freedoms is not always a simple as claiming them. It is difficult to read this book without thinking of how men still have social advantages over women in our modern US culture, and how economically oppressed so many people in our country of prvilege still are. The book as fiction was good. The characters were towards the ended wooden and very predictable. The ending of the story was highly predictable, when I read where Lisbeth was going I knew whom she would find. The book was a simplistic telling of African-American and white relations. The closet example would be the novel The Help. However, it is to simplistic and lack luster. It is a more fair tale telling of the period. As a southern, who has read and taught on the horrors of slavery, I was disappointed in the plot. The books is geared more towards younger ladies and I feel the author could have done a better of job of showing the horrors of slavery. The way it is written, is like a big adventure for Lisbeth. The difficult of slave life, and the instinct to run away is there, it was glossed over. It was a very glossy take on the period. Being set in the era of slavery, it seem a bit far fetched the access that Lisbeth had to the Quater. The way in which society was presented was not entirely correct either. Lisbeth, is the central plot of the story and her life is one that could have been lived by a young lady. However, it is not very believable and I know it is fiction, but it glossed over many issues. The book was interesting to read, however, it was not true to the period should be added to the canon of literature that renders the antebellum south in a glossy light, and is afraid to shine light into the corner where the horror lives.
What do You think about Yellow Crocus (2010)?
Very well wriiten and heart felf. Love Mattie and Lisabeth's relationahip.
—brandy
Very moving book about the relationship between a slave and her charge.
—HappySkull
Loved reading and becoming totally absorbed in the story.
—Nikita
