Another goodreads bookmark challenge complete.. actually, this book completed two. So good job me. I am obsessed with this beautiful cover. It gives the story hope that her world will be beautiful once she leaves her situation.
This book follows a enslaved girl in the 1860's. She is 16 years old and she works in the main house on a cotton plantation in Alabama. She is branded carefree by her family because she goes into the woods and she loves to read and write poetry and she uses "fancy" words that she was taught by Violet, who is her "owner".
Violet is the daughter of the plantation owner who is always absent and drunk. So the only two white people are the Mistress and Violet. Violet is no interested in learning about the business and she is more interested in books and speaking french.
Junie and Violet are close and they rely on each other. Junie has also experienced loss with the death of her sister, who was the best at keeping her head down and following the rules. One day, the McQueens learn that they are to recieve visitors from New Orleans.
The Taylors arrive and Junie befriends the man's slave Caleb. They grow close in friendship and during the time that the Taylors are there, she teaches Caleb to read. Junie also does something naughty because she learns that Mr. Taylor may propose to Violet. If that happens, she would move to New Orleans and Junie would have to go with her. Junie decides to change her fate and she goes to her sisters grave and steals her necklace from the jar.
Minnie's ghost comes and grabs Junie and marks her with three tally marks. Junie must complete three tasks set by Minnie so Minnie's soul can finally rest. Junie learns Minnie's parentage and who did what and why Minnie is so adament that Junie get the hell out of dodge.
I ended up giving this book a 4 star because most of the scenes were repetitive which was day to day back then. The ending was a page turner of course and it was sad when Bess was sent away with Miss. Taylor. I loved the LGBT plot and it did give me Gone With The Wind vibes.
I did not like the open ended ending. That is my least favorite thing about a book because it makes me think that the author didn't know how to end their character story lines, so she will just let the readers make their own assumptions. Alot of runaway slave made it and alot were captured and killed. I just want her to tell me what happened to Junie and if Caleb lived.
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