Soon she'll be clambering through a hole in the attic onto a house swirling on raging waters. Her home in the tattered fictional hamlet of Bois Sauvage, Miss., is about to be smacked by Hurricane Katrina. I highly recommend checking out Jesmyn Ward.Esch is 14, shy, motherless, impoverished, living on the edge in more ways than one, with an alcoholic dad, three intense brothers and a nasty pit bull. Honestly, this might be the reason I’m not giving it 5 stars/books. Even though I’m ethically opposed to dogspotting, I found Ward’s ability to write such calm scenes alongside the bloody ones of the dogfights, and then the destruction of the hurricane, impressive.Ī word of warning: don’t read this if you can’t handle dogfighting, or other bad things happening to dogs, if you know what I mean. This is a fantastic story of family and brotherly sacrifice.ĭespite the fact that China was a fighting dog, I enjoyed reading about the bond between China and Skeetah. Esch’s relationship with her brothers and father shifts as the events of the hurricane play out. You can feel their mother’s love in the family by the way they remember her moving around the house, which they ultimately have to fight to save from the hurricane. Esch’s memories of her dead mother throughout her day to day life make her as present as the other characters, and these descriptions were some of my favorite parts of the book. I also loved the narrator, Esch, and her family, despite their many flaws. I loved Ward’s foreshadowing in China’s motherhood to her puppies, the approach of the storm, and all the water/flood imagery. As the tension builds and builds and the storm approaches, Esch’s pregnancy becomes harder to hide.

The pacing in this is fantastic and mimics the calm before a storm. Ward is hands down one of the most lyrical writers I’ve read, and it’s amazing how she can make something as devastating as the destruction of Hurricane Katrina into something beautiful and even hopeful. Her writing is so atmospheric that you can almost feel the sticky Southern humidity as you read. I loved this book! This is my second Jesmyn Ward book after Sing, Unburied, Sing. But Esch has her own problem-she’s pregnant. The oldest brother Randall is distant but protective, and Junior is always getting into trouble. Her brother Skeetah’s dog, China, gives birth to puppies, who he hopes to sell as prized fighting dogs. Esch’s mother died giving birth to her youngest brother, Junior. In Salvage the Bones, Esch and her three brothers help their alcoholic brothers prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Katrina with their father, who is often drunk.

Salvage the bones review