Book Review: Black Angels by Linda Beatrice Brown

*ARC provided by publisher*

Black Angels is the story of three orphan kids caught up in the conflict near the end of the Civil War.  Eleven-year-old Luke is a runaway slave, hoping to find the Union army and join up.  Nine-year-old Daylily is a freed slave, forced from home and left alone after a tragic encounter with some soldiers.  Seven-year-old Caswell is the son of a plantation owner, lost after his home is burned.  The three meet up by chance and soon learn to rely on each other in order to survive. 

Things I Liked: 
The stories of these three children learning from one another are simply gorgeous.  The interactions and the characters' reliance on one other, together with their growing relationships really brought the story to life.  The characters will tug at your heartstrings and force you to care about them and worry what will happen to them when they grow up. 

Things I Didn't Like:
The narrative seemed a little choppy and disjointed at times, possibly something that was fixed in the final version of the book.  

Read-alikes:
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume 1 and Volume 2 by M.T. Anderson
Also reminded me of Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !
not swearing so much as racial slurs

mrg-factor: none

v-factor: ->->
quite a bit of violence, sometimes descriptive

Overall rating: ****

Do stories about kids being hurt or in trouble always make you feel a bit weepy?

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