Typed a whole review and it disappeared on me….

This was an intricate and interesting novel that explored and informed on a tremendous variety of topics, including race, slavery, French Creole, Louisiana plantations, romance, army, and antebellum Louisiana. There are overlapping character arcs, relationships, and family trees, blending and blurring the lines between the enslavers and the enslaved, though with the caveat that Madame Sylvia was committed to her French roots and “society.” 

Lucien, Sylvia’s son, runs the plantation, which is quickly going into debt, and seeks out any opportunity to irritate his mother. He has two children who feature prominently in the story. His son, Byron, was probably my favorite character. A student at West Point who is home for leave to officially propose to his betrothed, Byron is actually gay and has brought his lover home from school with him, passing him off as a good friend. His half-sister, Rosalie, is the product of lust and power, a forced intercourse between Lucien and her mother, an enslaved woman. Rosalie is fair-skinned and beautiful, a blight on the family from her grandmother’s perspective and the crux of Lucien’s plan to restore the family name while making his mother crazy, seeking to arrange a marriage between Rosalie and a wealthy free black man in the town. 

The overlapping storylines are well-crafted with occasional flashbacks in time. I certainly could have benefitted from a physical copy of a family tree to reference, but overall, I am incredibly satisfied with the narration of the audiobook and the character voices she used (with the exception of Jane, the family friend who sounded like a robot or a sociopath). 

If you liked…
Conjure Women - antebellum South, multiple perspectives and timelines, focused on women and atypical voices 
The Great Believers - family saga, time jumps, diverse perspectives, homosexuality
Commonwealth - intergenerational family saga with sibling drama and tension