Descend- First Steps

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I only read this book because it was written by Michael Crichton under a n0m de plume but I am glad I did. I have to put a massive disclaimer this book is OLD it was set in the early 70s. So if you read it and apply your SJW sensitivities to it you will not be happy. But if you lived through the 70's you can probably handle it. Annis is enslaved, living in the South before the Civil War. It was an awful time, and awful things happen to her. This isn't a story for the faint of heart, and my own heart bled with hers. The human capacity for cruelty shames me. 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.

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. As readers might expect, Let Us Descend is powerful. Truth-telling. Courageous. Bold. So bold, in fact, that it will likely be banned in Florida and Texas, but isn’t that the point? To proclaim, loudly and clearly, that slavery was and remains the original sin and we should never, ever forget what humans did to fellow humans – with cruelty and with impunity?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 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. As Annis learns in this novel, if you call on spirit they will come. Annis is very much in tune with spirit and that sustains her in this harrowing tale of the grind of enslavement and the toll it takes on the mind body and soul of those who experienced that particular horror. The story is generally handled gently and the brutalities are kept to a minimum. 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."

The Descendants Novels are a series of books based on the Descendants franchise, written by Melissa de la Cruz. The first book, The Isle of the Lost, was released on May 5, 2015, which served as a prequel to the first Descendants movie. Since 2015, there have been four novels, including Escape from the Isle of the Lost, which is set for release on June 4, 2019. How did she sink? Why do none of the survivors tell the same story? And what was the cargo inside her hull? To answer these questions, McGregor will have to contend with the deadliest sharks around—both underwater and on land. 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 This is my first taste of Jesmyn Ward's writing, even though her books have been on my radar for years. I was incredibly impressed by her descriptive writing skills. The main character Annis is the daughter of a slave and her master. She and her lover Safi are sent from North Carolina to New Orleans to be sold off and the reader makes that long brutal march along with the line of slaves chained together. Once sold, the new living conditions are even worse--the slaves are starved and subjected to horrifying punishments, such as spending days in a spiked hold underground.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.

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.In September 2020, as COVID-19 swept across the country, Jesmyn Ward wrote an essay for Vanity Fair entitled, “On Witness and Respair: A Personal Tragedy Followed by Pandemic” after the death of her 33-year-old husband just months before the murder of George Floyd. The essay gutted me; I have rarely read anything so powerful. Within the essay, she writes this: “Even in a pandemic, even in grief, I found myself commanded to amplify the voices of the dead that sing to me, from their boat to my boat, on the sea of time.” Gorgeous, gorgeous writing which serves to draw even more attention to the unconscionable brutality and ravaging of slavery. Was Ward thinking definitively of Dante's Divine Comedy? Certainly I was as this moves through circles of hell ('let us descend') and we also follow the moral degradation of everyone involved in chattel slavery from the slave ships to the slave markets and auctions to the plantations themselves.