Let Us Descend – the title, from Dante’s Inferno, reflects the hell its characters experience – doesn’t break new ground in fiction about slavery (unlike Morrison’s Beloved, Butler’s Kindred or Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad). But it’s the internal journey of Annis that makes it in the end worthwhile, as she matures, from suffering the weapon of her mother’s hand to developing her own resourcefulness and strength. “I am the weapon.” 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 Beautifully written with vivid descriptions and imagery. I enjoyed the magical realism and the way Annis, and the spirits interacted. I enjoyed learning about the strong women in Annis's family tree. Their inner strength and determination were inspiring. This book was one big journey in a young woman's life. It is not always easy reading as the slaves suffer through starvation, mistreatment, rape, being separated from loved ones, worked hard, bought and sold, and beaten to name a few. Annis experienced so many things in her young life and showed strength, compassion, courage, fear, heartbreak, and love throughout it all. Among them are books published for the first time such as Joyland and The Colorado Kid by Stephen King.

Because I don't want to tire you out anymore and give you acute Crichtoniasis, I'll talk briefly about this one. Annis used to hear the white children being taught the epic Italian poem, The Divine Comedy, especially the first part, Dante’s Inferno. The first line of the Inferno is: “Let us descend, and enter this blind world.” 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. Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. Prior to her forced exit, Annis met another enslaved girl, Safi, and the two had become deeply bonded. For Annis, without her mother or Safi, she is caught in a blind and bleak world of the damned. The landscape of her life is often infernal, forlorn.

Her voice, memories, grief, loneliness, struggle, hope, connection to the spirits and teachings from Mama and Grandmother, the heartbreaking despair, her yearning, fight, personality, strength, so deeply—deeply touches our hearts. HOOK - 1 stars: >>>"Starting in the early dawn light, he had driven up into the mountains...then don through lush valleys...damp in the misty morning wetness...up once more to the cold air of the peaks..."<<< opens this novel.

Because beyond the interest of reading early works of your favourite author, reading what he wrote and seeing his writing slowly evolving, they are not masterpieces and you cannot dedicate more than five lines for their sake. It's like Schwarzenegger movies. You are having a good time and that's it. And I also didn't want to confuse you every second day with a new book by Crichton. 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? the beautiful jamaican locale is a real part of the atmosphere here, along with whip smart local characters who leave a charismatic impression on you.CAST - 3: MacGregor as the narrator/diver is an ex-Marine and good with spears to fend away hammerhead sharks. Standard villains...but most really aren't who you think they are: Crichton does a nice job with a "whose good/whose bad" element. And the best cast member of all is the eerily named yacht, "Grave Descend," which has surprises of its own. Along the journey, a weather spirit carrying the name of Annis’s grandmother appears to her. At times rejecting the spirit’s guidance and at other times seeking her protection, Annis begins to learn, through a careful piecing together of memory, how to create her own version of freedom. The only real gripe I have with GRAVE DESCEND is the open ended conclusion - all the puzzle pieces don’t quite fit into place. I’m not sure if there are more books featuring McGregor, but GRAVE DESCEND certainly left the impression that this protagonist was designed to be a series character.

You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. 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. Midway through this book, I thought I would give it four stars. The first act is top-notch. A professional diver named McGregor is hired to investigate a recently sunken ship, the Grave Descend, but the more McGregor learns, the clearer it becomes that he is being manipulated in some kind of convoluted scam.

Let Us Descend is an atmospheric, moving tale that sweeps you away to North Carolina during the mid-1800s and into the life of Annis, a young woman of mixed race trained by her mother in more than just servitude who, after being sold one year after her beloved Mama, is forced in chains on a gruelling march from the rice fields she’s only ever known to the sugar plantations of New Orleans where with a little help from the spirit world beyond she endures extreme hardships and brutal savagery until she can find an opportunity to finally slip free. GRAVE DESCEND is a solid, ever-twisting detective tale reminiscent of the dime-store pulps. The plot is engaging and accommodates the ever changing face of evil perfectly. With McGregor knowing full well the dive may be his last, the battle for survival is rife with bloodshed, double crosses and hidden agendas.