Ward used magical realism to heighten the mythical and fabulist framework of the book. I commend her for stretching the story to boundless limits, for using motifs of Dante’s poem and inserting her own magical elements. I admit to a gulf between me and the otherworldly mystique of these characters and events, perhaps the same way that the bible can distance me with hyperbole. However, I feel blessed to get my hands on anything that Jesmyn Ward writes. ATMOSPHERE - 3: Obviously, Crichton knows enough about ocean diving and private yachts to spin this tale. He knows enough about international mobs and "how the very rich" live to convince us of this okay tale. John D. MacDonald tells this type of story often: Travis McGhee goes searching for someone's lost treasure, and in general MacDonald does it better than early Crichton. Annis is strong, though, and draws strength from her mother and stories of her grandmother. They are warriors, whose hands are weapons. And they support and love each other, finding ways to help and show gentleness even in the the worst situations. Annis never gives up, determined to find her freedom.

There are lots of spirits in the book, looking for love and worship, taking and giving and transforming. It's where the story lost me a bit, and the only reason this isn't a five star book for me. There were times I didn't quite understand the role the spirits took, and times that it felt unnecessary to the story. But it could also make a great discussion topic. 4.5 stars But Annis finds a new love in Safi, another slave girl. The answer to the master's wrath upon the discovery is to sell Annis and Safi which is where the real story begins. Annis is marched away by the same Georgia Man who took her mother. The march is long and deadly and at the end is another plantation and more misery. Through Annis we see what price is paid when a slave is sold South. With men chained together and women roped together, these people who are property are herded hundreds of miles from the Carolinas to the New Orleans slave markets to learn a new type of servitude on a sugar plantation. During that long, harrowing ordeal, Annis begins to experience the natural world in a new, sometimes frightening, sometimes familiar, way. Here is where the magical realism enters her life and world. For me, this felt like a link in some ways to the magical ending of Sing, Unburied, Sing, although the voices are different here. This worked very well for me as I read. It became a part of Annis’s daily existence, dealing with non-human, natural entities as well as the people around her.

The protagonist of the novel is James McGregor, a diver working out of Jamaica who is used to exploring sunken ships. One night, he is called by an insurance adjuster named Arthur Wayne to dive to a sunken yacht named the Grave Descend to see if it can be raised and salvaged. The yacht mysteriously sunk after an explosion off the Jamaican coast. But is this what really happened? After talking to Wayne, the ship's captain, and a beautiful survivor, McGregor feels that there is more to the story based on some conflicting statements by the witnesses. He gets drawn into the mystery which is really not what was originally reported. Descendants 3: Good to Be Bad • Queen of Mean • Do What You Gotta Do • Night Falls • One Kiss • My Once Upon a Time • Break This Down • Dig a Little Deeper Before long, Annis herself gets sold...and so begins a long trek that will take her from the Carolinas to New Orleans to end in Louisiana. With her friend Safi no longer by her side and her mother and grandmother so far out of reach, Annis begins to despair... until she hears voices in the trees and whispers in the water. She comes to learn this is the spirit of her warrior grandmother Mama Aza incarnate, urging her both to continue and at times of her greatest adversity to give in and "descend", in the words of Dante Allegheri. Can Annis discover the deep and dark secrets the earth and its spirits hold...or like her grandmother, will her indomitable spirit be forced to fade in the shadow of unspeakable cruelty around her?

But just as important as fighting was the storytelling. When her mother told her these stories, Annis felt their narrative power. “This our secret. Mine and your’n. Can’t nobody steal this from us.” No matter what happens to her body, Annis has the stories to hold on to, fables that rise to rectitude. Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? 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.Descendants Novels: The Isle of the Lost • Return to the Isle of the Lost • Rise of the Isle of the Lost • Escape from the Isle of the Lost The writing is raw and visceral, with not a word wasted. The sentences are short, but the imagery and language made me feel like I was there. Bees provide guides and respite, and references to Dante's Inferno draws us all deeper down. 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. The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are vulnerable, scarred, and strong. And the plot is an exceptionally enthralling tale about life, loss, strength, bravery, hope, survival, violence, injustice, racism, slavery, and death, all interwoven with a thread of the supernatural. 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.