When the Reckoning Comes

A Novel

De: LaTanya McQueen

Narrado por: Kara Young

""LaTanya McQueen's When The Reckoning Comes is so deliciously uncomfortable there were moments where I had to put the book down, take a deep breath, and like Mira, its protagonist, urge myself to go further. This is a novel, like Octavia Butler's Kindred, that reminds its readers that as long as people don't acknowledge how much of the past still shapes the present, it will bring its whips, its hatchets, and fists to make us learn."" — Megan Giddings, author of Lakewood

A haunting novel about a black woman who returns to her hometown for a plantation wedding and the horror that ensues as she reconnects with the blood-soaked history of the land and the best friends she left behind.

More than a decade ago, Mira fled her small, segregated hometown in the south to forget. With every mile she traveled, she distanced herself from her past: from her best friend Celine, mocked by their town as the only white girl with black friends; from her old neighborhood; from the eerie Woodsman plantation rumored to be haunted by the spirits of slaves; from the terrifying memory of a ghost she saw that terrible day when a dare-gone-wrong almost got Jesse—the boy she secretly loved—arrested for murder.

But now Mira is back in Kipsen to attend Celine’s wedding at the plantation, which has been transformed into a lush vacation resort. Mira hopes to reconnect with her friends, and especially, Jesse, to finally tell him the truth about her feelings and the events of that devastating long-ago day.

But for all its fancy renovations, the Woodsman remains a monument to its oppressive racist history. The bar serves antebellum drinks, entertainment includes horrifying reenactments, and the service staff is nearly all black. Yet the darkest elements of the plantation’s past have been carefully erased—rumors that slaves were tortured mercilessly and that ghosts roam the lands, seeking vengeance on the descendants of those who tormented them, which includes most of the wedding guests.

As the weekend unfolds, Mira, Jesse, and Celine are forced to acknowledge their history together, and to save themselves from what is to come.

Never knew how Heinous they were!

I knew slavery was horrible.... but settling pieces of slaves...., wearing our skin as face masks or shoes! Really loving the texture of the whipped skin! Some even grinding down the bones and eating the powder. Whoa! And Still no reperations! Jesus!

Captivating and excellent story telling

The narrator had such a great delivery. Her voice was soothing and I think she did a great job bringing life to each character. The story itself was entertaining and heart wrenching. To know that it went even farther than the slavery and oppression, it’s believable that their ghosts would want vengeance. Excellent.

Yes! Read !

This story depicts the black experience based on a variety of perspectives on how to make things better for them in the eyes of their white counterparts….nothing helps!

Great story. Will read again

Highly Enjoyed

It’s not very often that a story hooks me from the very beginning but this one did just that. The back story was intriguing and kept me wanting to know more and the narrator was amazing! I could listen to her all day.

Hard subject but beautiful book

Writing from my perspective as a middle class white woman from up North…. I love books that shine perspective on a life experience that is vastly different from my own. This book gave me a gut sense of the echoes of slavery in our current times in a way that nothing else has. Some of the scenes were painful to listen to but not so gruesome as to make me fast forward, and it felt necessary to hear them out. Beautiful narration, excellent writing, ghost story/love story blending in with the serious subject matter. Definitely in my top 5 audiobooks, & one I will listen to again.