4.0
The Book of Night Women
ByPublisher Description
From the author of the National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf and the WINNER of the 2015 Man Booker Prize for A Brief History of Seven Killings
"An undeniable success.” — The New York Times Book Review
A true triumph of voice and storytelling, The Book of Night Women rings with both profound authenticity and a distinctly contemporary energy. It is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they- and she-will come to both revere and fear. The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age they see her as the key to their plans. But when she begins to understand her own feelings, desires, and identity, Lilith starts to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman, and risks becoming the conspiracy's weak link. But the real revelation of the book-the secret to the stirring imagery and insistent prose-is Marlon James himself, a young writer at once breathtakingly daring and wholly in command of his craft.
"An undeniable success.” — The New York Times Book Review
A true triumph of voice and storytelling, The Book of Night Women rings with both profound authenticity and a distinctly contemporary energy. It is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they- and she-will come to both revere and fear. The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age they see her as the key to their plans. But when she begins to understand her own feelings, desires, and identity, Lilith starts to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman, and risks becoming the conspiracy's weak link. But the real revelation of the book-the secret to the stirring imagery and insistent prose-is Marlon James himself, a young writer at once breathtakingly daring and wholly in command of his craft.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Book of Night Women Reviews
4.0
“Marlon James has been a author, I have been wanting to read for quite sometime, It was extremely hard for me to put this book down!
The language used is vulgar and sometimes in your face, but this is only a fictional story, Just imagine what black woman had to endure during slavery in real life in the west indies.”
“I have all the conflicting thoughts and mixed emotions about this book. It is dark, devastating, heavy, important, and horrifying. It took me a long time to read, since the dialect and writing style, especially the way dialogue was written, was challenging for me. The characters were all so complicated and often unlikable, although sympathetic. The story itself will leave you even more disgusted with the history of slavery than you already are. I will absolutely not read this again, however I will recommend it to anyone who wants to read something truly impactful. This story will haunt me for many years.”
“What an extraordinary, gut-wrenching novel. The use of Patois gave the story an unfiltered authenticity, and the second-person narration pulled me straight into it — not just observing history, but feeling implicated in it. It’s immersive in a way that’s both powerful and unsettling.
The brutality is relentless, and rightly so. Reading it stirred a deep, visceral anger at the horrors enslaved people endured. There’s no softening of the violence, no romanticising — just the raw, devastating truth of it.
Lilith is such a compelling figure: naïve and hopeful at times, fierce and conflicted at others. Through her, you see the impossible tightrope the enslaved walked — survival, resistance, hope, despair — all intertwined. She carries the weight of collective struggle in such a human way.
A masterful, unflinching, and deeply thoughtful work.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️”
BelievableChange and growDiverse representationMemorableMultilayeredOriginalStrong relationshipsAction-packedClever plottingEpic scopeGripping/excitingNonlinear narrativeSteady pacingSuspensefulTwistyEvocative imageryHistoricalImmersive world-buildingRealisticSetting fits the storyVivid descriptionsBeautifully-writtenFlowery/lushTakes getting used toChild abuseDeathDomestic violenceGriefMurderRacismSexual assault
““For somebody must give account of the night women of Montpelier. Of slavery, the black woman misery and black man too.”
“This is why we dark, cause in the night we disappear and become spirit. Skin gone and we become whatever we wish. We become who we be. In the dark with no skin I can write. And what write in darkness is free as free can be, even if it never come to light and go free for real.”
This wasn’t what I expected it to be, but it still was a beautifully written story. It is completely written in Jamaican Pat Twois and the setting is the late 1700s in Jamaica. Our FMC is named Lilith while everyone else aside from the white people are named after prominent Greek philosophers or mythological Gods and Goddesses, which I’m sure added another layer to the story that I chose not to explore too much but I think is so cool.
What’s didn’t expect was this…. Romantic relationship if can be called that, the complex feelings Lilith begins having early on for her white Master then the relations she has later on was a mind bender but again this book helped bring perspective to a real life situation none of us could relate too.
This story is about so much my goodness, black womens’ identity, sexuality, place in the world, and also of the magic possessed both light and dark.
This book I feel like is a conversation to those in the diaspora, and explores and helps us to think about the complex relations of that time period. I got so much from this story, and look forward to reading more from this author.”
About Marlon James
Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970. His most recent novel is A Brief History of Seven Killings, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. He is also the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction and an NAACP Image Award. His first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and was a New York Times Editors’ Choice. James lives in Minneapolis.
Other books by Marlon James
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