A book club book that I didn't manage to read in time to participate, but wanted to read anyway. This is a novella that felt like it didn't get to the meat of the story until about 2/3rds of the way through it, and then I wanted more at that point. It's a story set in Reconstruction, in a magical realism world, about a young Black woman who accepts the responsibility of planning her aunt's funeral service. She longs to have freedom from her mother and from who her mother would have her marry, and there's a secret at the heart of why her mother and her aunt were estranged, and there's so much of interest here, but the pace of the story just didn't quite work for me - too slow to begin with, and then much too fast, when I would have loved more time. The world was really compelling, though, and the concept of easing a person's passing within the magical systems of this place was beautiful.
Grade: B
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