Review: Ginny Gall by Charlie Smith

Ginny Gall

by Charlie Smith

Publisher: Harper

Pages: 464

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Delvin Walker is just a boy when his mother flees their home in the Red Row section of Chattanooga, accused of killing a white man. Taken in by Cornelius Oliver, proprietor of the town’s leading Negro funeral home, he discovers the art of caring for the aggrieved, the promise of transcendence in the written word, and a rare peace in a hostile world. Yet tragedy visits them near-daily, and after a series of devastating events—a lynching, a church burning—Delvin fears being accused of murdering a local white boy and leaves town.

Haunted by his mother’s disappearance, Delvin rides the rails, meets fellow travelers, falls in love, and sees an America sliding into the Great Depression. But before his hopes for life and love can be realized, he and a group of other young men are falsely charged with the rape of two white women, and shackled to a system of enslavement masquerading as justice. As he is pushed deeper into the darkness of imprisonment, his resolve to escape burns only more brightly, until in a last spasm of flight, in a white heat of terror, he is called to choose his fate.

Kritters Thoughts:  Delvin Walker is our main character and he starts the book as a very young man, maybe even child abandoned by his mother as she has killed a man and as a black woman will face the harshest of punishments for her crime.  Devlin and his siblings are taken to an orphanage of sorts and from there Delvin's life is a whirlwind.

To describe this book in one word, which I rarely do, I immediately thought of adventure.  If you are a reader who loves books that are just one big grand adventure, then pick this book up.  From here to there to everywhere, Delvin lives everywhere and does almost everything.  

But with all of this, the author definitely uses a ton of words which at times made the book feel heftier than I wanted it to.  I would read a chapter or two and then go to a "faster" read book and then come back to this one to slow down.  I do this rarely as I am a one book at a time girl, but I wanted to keep a slow pace on this one, so I read this one this way.

This book is absolutely set in a certain time of place, so beware the language and feel are very particular.  I felt at times that something may have gone over my head and it could vary well have, but I still felt like I got most of this book and it still felt like a full read.

Very out of my comfort zone, but sometimes that is a good thing!


Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.