Thank you Simon & Schuster Audio for the ALC and @BookClubFavorites & Simon & Schuster #partner, for the advanced copy of The House of Eve in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster / Simon & Schuster ALC
Published: February 7, 2023
Summary:
From the award-winning author of Yellow Wife, a daring and redemptive novel set in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, DC, that explores what it means to be a woman and a mother, and how much one is willing to sacrifice to achieve her greatest goal.
1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college, in spite of having a mother more interested in keeping a man than raising a daughter. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright.
Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his parents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby—and fitting in—is easier said than done.
With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.
My thoughts:
I absolutely loved Sadeqa Johnson’s debut novel, Yellow Wife, so of course I knew I would be reading whatever she wrote next and this one was just as powerful a read as the previous one. I loved it and am so glad it was picked as a Reese’s Book Club pick this year.
This is such a powerful and moving read, and I think knowing that it is based on real experiences makes it all the more so. It will pull at your heartstrings for sure. This is such a profound and important story that needs to be told and I’m so glad that Sadeqa wrote it. I was instantly pulled into this one and have not stopped thinking about both Ruby and Eleanor since I finished reading this one – in fact, I loved this one so much I’ve been struggling to find the right words to effectively express just how much I loved this one.
This book made me think and that is what I love about reading historical fiction. It’s such a well-written, well-researched book and a very emotionally driven story, too. I learned so much from this one, feeling all the emotions on top of it. I was so invested in both Ruby and Eleanor’s stories, right from the start, rooting for them, crying for them, cheering for them.
Besides the great story, I loved how the book gets into so many timely topics – topics that were important back in the 1950s and unfortunately are still relevant today: class, racism, education, religion, motherhood, women’s reproductive rights and sexuality. It really is amazing just how far we have come and yet not.
I cannot recommend this one enough.
Audio thoughts:
This was an incredible book to listen to and I think the two narrators, Ariel Blake and Nicole Lewis, did a fantastic job bringing this story to life. I was totally captivated by their narration and was so engrossed in the story that I ended up finishing this in one sitting.
