The Revisioners

A Novel

By: Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor, Adenrele Ojo

Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's Summary

Following her National Book Award-nominated debut novel, A Kind of Freedom, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton returns with this equally elegant and historically inspired story of survivors and healers, of black women and their black sons, set in the American South.

In 1925, Josephine is the proud owner of a thriving farm. As a child, she channeled otherworldly power to free herself from slavery. Now, her new neighbor, a white woman named Charlotte, seeks her company, and an uneasy friendship grows between them. But Charlotte has also sought solace in the Ku Klux Klan, a relationship that jeopardizes Josephine's family.

Nearly 100 years later, Josephine's descendant, Ava, is a single mother who has just lost her job. She moves in with her white grandmother, Martha, a wealthy but lonely woman who pays her grandchild to be her companion. But Martha's behavior soon becomes erratic, then even threatening, and Ava must escape before her story and Josephine's converge.

The Revisioners explores the depths of women's relationships: powerful women and marginalized women, healers and survivors. It is a novel about the bonds between a mother and a child, and the dangers that upend those bonds. At its core, The Revisioners ponders generational legacies, the endurance of hope, and the undying promise of freedom.

©2019 Margaret Wilkerson Sexton (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing

Ending was odd

Spoiler. This story had so much more room and the abrupt ending was very disappointing. I w joy the plot and the characters but I’m left with so many questions.

Great story

This novel is a complex intriguing story that offers a message of the strength and courage of African Americans passed from one generation to the next. Really moves away from the mentality of African Americans as simply victims, victimized but not victim mentality.

Great Story. One of the Narrator's was annoying

I really enjoyed this book. It was a great story going between three different times and tying it all together. The narrator for Josephine was AMAZING. She did an excellent job capturing the personality of the charters she read for and was the only reason I was able to keep listening. While I definitely appreciate having two narrators to help keep things straight the second narrator was very annoying, her intonations didn't really match the characters being presented by author. Her reading breathy, and too over dramatic for what was being read.

Abrupt ending

I enjoyed the story but would have like a bit more context between the old lady, her family, and the plantation Wildwood. She references it but the thread is dropped. The ending was sudden and abrupt. It didn’t feel fully formed.

Just OK

This story was just OK. It ended rather abruptly and I thought there would be more to the story. Disappointed.

The book was good

The ending was too open for me. I liked Josephine's character, story and narrator while the other character was bland and the narrator's voice for that character was one that I didn't enjoy listening to. The book was good but so much was left open, I didn't enjoy leaving Josephine for the young lady at all.

I couldn't get into the story - bad narration

The narration was so off I couldn't get into the story or follow it. I wanted to love this book but I just couldn't.

Felt Unfinished

This book ended unfinished to me. There could have easily been 2 more chapters to wrap up the storylines.

The stories were eye opening.

This book made you understand African American life during periods in the United States.

loved the reader and the story

possibly the best read I have heard yet. and an excellent story. important story that connect today's lives to the trauma endured over years of slavery, connects women to their mothers.