When the Reckoning Comes

A Novel

De: LaTanya McQueen

Narrado por: Kara Young

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, entertainments include 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.

©2021 LaTanya McQueen (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

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.

Lackluster

When the Reckoning Comes held such promise—its premise rich with tension and history—but as the story unfolded, it never quite delivered the impact I was waiting for. The atmosphere felt right, but the plot moved too cautiously, never building to the climactic reckoning I had hoped for. Instead, it left me feeling underwhelmed, as if all the potential for something powerful fizzled out before it could truly ignite. In the end, it wasn’t a bad read, but it left me searching for something more, something that never fully materialized.

Solid

This was on my tbr for a while and I’m glad I got to it. The plot , imagery & characters were so well developed. The narration was amazing. Reviews getting offended that they are being painted in a wrong way because they are white - missed the point. And comments wondering where the horror was - the horror was the slavery. The brutality and violence of slavery that is hardly talked about. That’s the horror.

I did get confused with the time traveling and Mira shifting ( lack of a better word). Overall worth it.

🤔

The story overall was interesting enough to keep my attention. Maybe it's me but I was expecting something different maybe more.... Jesse had the right idea to leave things as they were. Especially when he got Mira off that plantation. If you're given vision, dreams, or even a gut feeling to leave, then LEAVE. I felt sorry for Celine but she was as gullible as Mira. I don't know who was worse out of the two. This book did a good job with the whole horror/gore genre.

Fun read

Good job, Tanya - looking forward to the next one! Thought the voice actor overdid Celine a bit, but other than that, great presentation throughout.

Great story and narration

Love both the story and how it unfolded along the way by the author, and the narrator's voice telling the story. Great pair