Let Us Descend (2023) -Jesmyn Ward
This story is beautiful and lyrical but feels like a long read
Content Warnings: Slavery, racism, rape, incest, death
Fav Quote: “I want to tell Camille that spirits are here, even in this sulfurous place, rooting through sunlight and shadows. They here, I could tell her, but they want too much.”
Let Us Descend is a poetic and solemn historical fiction novel that follows an enslaved girl named Annis throughout the events that lead her to be sold from the land she was raised on. She brings with her, however, the skills and stories instilled in her by her mother, including the ability to fight and knowledge of her warrior ancestry. This ancestry guides and tethers her to her loved ones even as she is physically separated from them.
Annis loves deeply but grows to be less trusting as her situation grows more difficult and unstable. When a spirit offers her guidance, Annis is inclined to trust her word that she has aided her family for generations, but questions what good this help has done for them. Afterall, the women of her family have remained in servitude since her grandma was brought to America and this spirit did not prevent Annis and her mother from being separated. Annis’s choices must be her own and not the blind following of even a seemingly benevolent spirit.
By nature of the novel’s subject matter, the tone remains reverent throughout. This makes for a beautiful telling of a compelling story but leaves the relationships throughout the novel consistently feeling heavy. Though the paternal, platonic, and romantic dynamics established throughout the novel are well developed, they have an utter lack of any lightness interspersed in the high intensity.
For fans of historical fiction, this book could easily be rated higher, though readers must get through prolonged sections of mundane descriptions that serve the narrative well but don’t make for a gripping reading experience. There were also minor aspects of the story that don’t end up coming to fruition. This should not discourage curious readers, however. The novel as a whole is well worth the read.