Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward Review

Hey ForeverBookers,

How are you all today? I hope you’re well!

I’ve just finished reading “Sing, Unburied, Sing” by Jesmyn Ward and I thought it was quite meh, to be honest. It tells the story of a family and how they cope through the hardest of times. The story is told through three perspectives, Jojo, a young, thirteen year old boy and his mother Leonie, and a mystery perspective that I don’t want to spoil. I enjoyed reading from Jojo’s perspective the most, I think because he had the most pull on the story. We also hear from selfish Leonie’s perspective, who’s far more concerned about herself and her happiness than either of her children. I also loved reading about Kayla, Jojo’s little sister. She’s an innocent little baby in the book, who loves her brother more than anyone else. She added some much needed comedy/humour to an otherwise quite dull and boring story. 

The story is about Jojo and his mother - Leonie, sister - Michaela or Kayla, as she’s also known, and Leonie’s friend - Misty going to get his father -  Michael from Parchmen jail. Michael is white and Leonie is black skinned so we have the parallel of white/black skinned people as well. Michael’s white parents are very racist towards Leonie. In the novel White is written with a capital W. This I think is to show how white’s think their better than black’s which I don’t think is true, at least where I’m from.

2.5 Stars!

Reading Rivalry - I finished “Sing, Unburied, Sing” in October so it doesn’t count but it would have worked for the prompt of “find Yourself” because I feel Jojo discovers who he is throughout the novel. I buddyread “Sing, Unburied, Sing,” for Reading Rivalry.

I read this for a PopSugar Reading Challenge 2022 prompt - “Sing, Unburied, Sing” was the winner of the Anisfield-Wolf award in 2018. At the end of the year I’ll make a post just for Popsugar to show what prompts all the books I read go towards.

Becca’s Bookoplothon - I read most of “Sing, Unburied, Sing” in September so for me it counts for this. I read it for the prompt of First Person, as it’s told from three perspectives, Jojo’s, Leonie’s - his mother, and a mysterious character.

There’s a theme of racism throughout “Sing, Unburied, Sing,” as well as an animal torture scene right at the beginning. There’s also a lot of talk about drugs and addiction, and one of the characters hides drugs from the police through swallowing them.

Spoilers below…

“Big Joseph is my White grandpa, Pop my Black one. I’ve lived with Pop since I was born; I’ve seen my white grandpa twice. Big Joseph is round and tall and looks nothing like Pop. He doesn’t even look like Michael, my father, who is lean and smudged with tattoos. He picked them up like souvenirs from wannabe artists in Bois, and out on the water when he worked offshore and in prison.”

The difference between white and black skin is brought up right at the beginning of and throughout “Sing, Unburied, Sing.” Jojo, who I’d say is the main character of the novel has one black grandfather and one white grandfather. His white grandfather, Big Joseph is a racist too. Jojo lives in Bois, which is a part of America in the novel.

Most of “Sing, Unburied, Sing” takes part in the car on the to collect Michael, Jojo and Kayla’s father from jail. I was actually a little put off right at the beginning where there was a rather unpleasant torture scene of a goat. I don’t know why it had to be described in such detail. I thought the writing of the novel was well done for the most part apart from the torture scene, so that’s where most of my praise goes for “Sing, Unburied, Sing.” I unfortunately wasn’t overly bothered about the main plot. 

“Leonie’s looking at the empty chair across from her, so she misses when I walk in the room, Kayla in my arms. Her head on my shoulder. Normally she’d be asking for a dog (she likes hot dogs for breakfast…But I woke to her touching my cheek right underneath my eye, looking very serious, not smiling. Her little hand like a stick burned with fire and now throwing off heat, red and black. As I walk into the kitchen, Kayla breathes little huffs into my neck. I rub her back, and Leonie finally notices us.” 

The children, Jojo and Kayla aren’t cared for at all by Leonie. She lets Jojo care for Kayla, who is quite poorly throughout the entire book. This actually made me really angry. If you’re a mother, you should WANT to care for your children in my opinion. Leonie didn’t. She was far more concerned about Michael throughout. The author definitely succeeded in showing the struggle and power/limitations of family bonds, as the blurb says. Other than that though, the novel really didn’t offer anything of interest to me. If read by a black person, or an American, they might find more from the novel, but I’m a white non-American so I didn’t feel touched by it at all, really. I read it more to fulfil a PopSugar prompt than anything else.

Another part to the story is the fact that Jojo’s Mam or his grandmother is dying. This was the best part of “Sing, Unburied, Sing” for me. It was a realistic portrayal of what it is to lose someone close. This wasn’t the main story, though. That was collecting Michael from jail, which as I said was quite boring.

Will they be a happy family at the end of the book? You’ll need to read to find out…