Review of Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom

Glory over Everything: Across The Kitchen Business firm by Kathleen Grissom

Published past Simon & Schuster on April 5th 2016
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 384
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads

FTC Disclosure: I received a costless re-create of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis from Goodreads: A novel of family and long-buried secrets along the treacherous Underground Railroad. The author of the New York Times bestseller and beloved volume guild favorite The Kitchen House continues the story of Jamie Pyke, son of both a slave and master of Alpine Oaks, whose mortiferous secret compels him to have a treacherous journey through the Underground Railroad.
Published in 2010, The Kitchen Business firm became a grassroots bestseller. Fans connected and then securely to the volume'southward characters that the author, Kathleen Grissom, establish herself being asked over and over "what happens next?" The look is finally over.
This new, stand-alone novel opens in 1830, and Jamie, who fled from the Virginian plantation he one time called home, is passing in Philadelphia gild as a wealthy white silversmith. After many years of striving, Jamie has achieved acclamation and security, only to discover that his aristocratic lover Caroline is pregnant. Before he can reveal his real identity to her, he learns that his beloved servant Pan has been captured and sold into slavery in the South. Pan'south father, to whom Jamie owes a great debt, pleads for Jamie's help, and Jamie agrees, knowing the journey will take him perilously shut to Alpine Oaks and the ruthless slave hunter who is still searching for him. Meanwhile, Caroline's father learns and exposes Jamie's secret, and Jamie loses his home, his business, and finally Caroline. Heartbroken and with nothing to lose, Jamie embarks on a trip to a Northward Carolina plantation where Pan is beingness held with a onetime Tall Oaks slave named Sukey, who is intent on getting Pan to the Underground Railroad. Soon the three of them are running through the Great Dismal Swamp, the notoriously deadly hiding place for escaped slaves. Though they take aid from those in the Underground Railroad, non all of them will make it out alive.

My Review:

With its heartbreaking and brutally honest depiction of how slaves were treated in the American South, Kathleen Grissom's The Kitchen House stands out equally one of the most memorable novels I've read in recent years. Considering it had such a profound outcome on me, I couldn't wait to get my easily on the sequel, Glory over Everything: Across the Kitchen House. Cheers so much to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster, and of course, Kathleen Grissom, for making information technology possible for me to obtain a copy prior to the novel'due south April 5th release date.

And then, how all-time to depict Celebrity over Everything? Think Nella Larsen'due south Passing and Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave, with a smattering of Gone with the Wind thrown in for good mensurate. While The Kitchen House explores the horrors of slavery by showing how hard it is to live as a slave in the South, Glory over Everything tackles the same theme but from a different point of view, that of the free black or mixed race individual who has managed to escape from the Southward. Grissom exposes the ugly truth that until slavery was finally abolished in this country, freedom was just an illusion if you had whatever 'color' in your claret. Information technology could exist stolen from you anywhere at any time, and and so you lived life constantly looking over your shoulder.

The offspring of a white slave main and a slave, our protagonist James Pyke learns this lesson the hard way. When the novel opens, James has already escaped from slavery in one case, traveling via the Underground Railroad to freedom. He is now living in Philadelphia as "James Burton". Because of his pale complexion, he has been able to 'pass' as a white human for a number of years at present and is a respected businessman and artist in his community. Using a serial of flashbacks, the first half of the novel returns the states to when Jamie first arrives in Philadelphia and retraces the path he takes to go James Burton.

Ii events transpire, however, that threaten to destroy this new life he has worked then difficult for: one) his lover Caroline becomes pregnant and 2) James' servant, a young boy named Pan that James loves similar a son, is kidnapped and shipped south to exist sold into slavery. Although he is frightened to return to the Due south considering of his own by, James promises Pan'due south father, Henry, that he volition detect and render Pan dwelling house. Initially James is conflicted between his duty to Caroline and their unborn kid and his adjuration to Henry. Nevertheless, ultimately James is forced to abscond Philadelphia when he is betrayed by someone who knows of his by and uses it against him. With zilch else left to lose at this indicate, James swallows his own fears and heads s to find Pan. The second half of the novel focuses on this potentially dangerous rescue mission.

Highlights:

I loved nearly everything most this novel, simply here are some aspects of it that really stood out for me.

The suspense – While the first half of the novel moves along at a slow and steady pace as it traces James' backstory and focuses on graphic symbol development, the balance of the novel becomes very Mission Impossible. It'due south and then intense that I stayed upwardly well-nigh all night long to finish it because I was and so desperate to know how it ended. Every chapter is suspenseful and filled with potential dangers equally James, first of all, must lie to anybody he encounters on his journey to create a plausible encompass story that allows him to search for Pan. Then, once he locates him, he must come up up with a feasible plan to complimentary Pan and bring him home, all the while without revealing his ain true identity, especially once he hears that his former slave principal is non only all the same live, but is still actively looking for him.

Pan – I know James is the protagonist in this novel and a wonderful character in his ain right, merely I guarantee that you volition fall in love with Pan. Just as Mama Mae was the eye and soul of The Kitchen House, Pan is the middle and soul of this novel. He's a precocious young boy with a heart every bit big as Texas, who instantly enchants anybody he meets. Afterwards Pan was taken, I waited anxiously to hear more than of him and wished I could requite James a boot in the pants to hurry him along on his journeying to rescue him.

Hush-hush Railroad – The chapters that deal with the Underground Railroad stand out as the novel's most memorable moments. On the one manus, what an absolutely terrifying feel to have an escape route that passes through a swamp containing bears, wild cats, poisonous snakes, and who knows what other dangers. But on the other hand, information technology was heartwarming to see and then many people along the way who were helping every bit many as they could escape to liberty.

Ane Pocket-size Complaint

While I can't really say that there's anything I disliked about Glory over Everything: Beyond the Kitchen House, I will say that I would take liked more of an exploration of the character of Caroline. Maybe it was considering the other characters' stories were so much more than compelling, but Caroline just fell a petty apartment for me in comparison. It seemed like her primary purpose was to provide Jamie with a mixed-race kid to add to his worries about his past being exposed.

Would I recommend this book?

Oh aye, without hesitation! I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and a well-crafted, suspenseful, and as well as a potentially heartbreaking read. If you liked The Kitchen Business firm, yous'll honey it. If you haven't read The Kitchen Business firm, I still think you'll love it. Although information technology'south technically a sequel, plenty information is provided in information technology well-nigh relevant events from The Kitchen House that it works well as a stand-alone novel as well.

Easily downwards, this is the best book I've read so far this year and I fully anticipate that like its predecessor, Glory over Everything: Beyond the Kitchen House volition become a book club favorite.

4.five stars

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Source: https://thebookishlibra.com/2016/03/29/book-review-2/

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