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The Swinging Bridge: A Novel
Mona, a film researcher rooted in Montreal, vividly remembers that night in Trinidad when her father, Da-Da, in a drunken rage, threatened to kill her nine-year-old brother, Kello. Years later, a terminally ill Kello asks Mona to revisit their native island and reclaim the property that their family had left behind. As Mona returns to the Caribbean to confront her family's turbulent past, the reader travels back in timeto nineteenth-century India, to British Trinidad, where her ancestors lived as indentured workers in the cane fields, and finally to urban North America. Steeped in the lyrical rhythms of Caribbean life, this exquisite, richly layered novel explores the immigrant experience with compassion and humour. It is a moving story of race and displacement, of love and betrayal, of endings and beginningsa swinging bridge of the universal search for self. Praise for The Swinging Bridge "Beautiful, luminous and an utter pleasure to read. A writer as necessary as Ramabai Espinet should be treasured by us for her unique voice and the unique world she shares with us."Jamaica Kincaid " The Swinging Bridge is a sweeping story . . . of rich heritagea blend of Indian and Caribbean sounds, scents and celebrations." NOW Magazine "An extraordinary achievement in the exercise of remembering. . . . Highly charged with moral intent."George Lamming
306 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
23 people are currently reading
252 people want to read
About the author
Ramabai Espinet
5 books20 followers Ramabai Espinet was born in the forties in San Fernando, the second largest city in Trinidad and Tobago that is internationally recognized as that country’s industrial capital. Since she originally migrated to Canada in the 1970s, Espinet has divided her time between the Caribbean and Canada.
Espinet took her first degree at Toronto’s York University and subsequently completed her PhD in Post Colonial Literature with the University of the West Indies. Her academic dissertation “Adieu Foulards, Adieu Madras” explored the role of Euro-Creole women writers based on the works of Jean Rhys and Phyllis Shand Allfrey. She is currently Professor of English at Seneca College in Toronto, Ontario and Adjunct Professor at York University and the University of Toronto, Canada.
A review of Espinet's work and themes shows that, over the years, she has built up an extensive body of work that includes poetry, fiction (adult and children’s), plays and essays. She usually explores themes and issues that relate to her Indo-Caribbean heritage. She also writes about the seminal influence of European empire on identity, class, religion and politics in Caribbean communities.
Espinet sees herself as an activist within women and development movements in Canada and the Caribbean as well as a social commentator on issues that affect the communities that she holds dear. Between 1992 and 1996 she wrote a column for the fortnightly community newspaper Indo Caribbean World and she still contributes essays and commentaries.
Espinet published her first novel “The Swinging Bridge” in 2003. George Lamming, the renowned Caribbean writer has said that this novel is “an extraordinary achievement in the exercise of remembering” and that Ramabai Espinet has “ put the art of memory into the service of an Asian Diaspora whose history from India to the Caribbean traces the secrets and calamities of an Indian family who, in their encounter with other ethnicities, offer an authentic profile of one of the major crises of Modernity. The writing is a model of a certain conversational distinction, natural in tone and highly charged with moral intent”.
Espinet’s first four works were all published in Toronto by Sister Vision Press. In 1990 she edited an anthology of Caribbean women’s poetry called “Creation Fire”. In 1991 she published a collection of poetry, under the title Nuclear Seasons, and then two children's books, The Princess Of Spadina in 1992 and Ninja’s Carnival in 1993.
Espinet developed a performance piece called "Indian Robber Talk" that has been staged in several Toronto festivals. Her poem "Shay's Robber Talk" formed the Afterword in Sherene Razack's Looking White People In The Eye, which was published by the University of Toronto Press in 1998.
“The Swinging Bridge” was longlisted for the 2005 Impac Dublin Award, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer' Prize in the category of Best First Book (Caribbean and Canada Region. It was selected for the 2004 Robert Adams Book Review Lecture Series.
Espinet took her first degree at Toronto’s York University and subsequently completed her PhD in Post Colonial Literature with the University of the West Indies. Her academic dissertation “Adieu Foulards, Adieu Madras” explored the role of Euro-Creole women writers based on the works of Jean Rhys and Phyllis Shand Allfrey. She is currently Professor of English at Seneca College in Toronto, Ontario and Adjunct Professor at York University and the University of Toronto, Canada.
A review of Espinet's work and themes shows that, over the years, she has built up an extensive body of work that includes poetry, fiction (adult and children’s), plays and essays. She usually explores themes and issues that relate to her Indo-Caribbean heritage. She also writes about the seminal influence of European empire on identity, class, religion and politics in Caribbean communities.
Espinet sees herself as an activist within women and development movements in Canada and the Caribbean as well as a social commentator on issues that affect the communities that she holds dear. Between 1992 and 1996 she wrote a column for the fortnightly community newspaper Indo Caribbean World and she still contributes essays and commentaries.
Espinet published her first novel “The Swinging Bridge” in 2003. George Lamming, the renowned Caribbean writer has said that this novel is “an extraordinary achievement in the exercise of remembering” and that Ramabai Espinet has “ put the art of memory into the service of an Asian Diaspora whose history from India to the Caribbean traces the secrets and calamities of an Indian family who, in their encounter with other ethnicities, offer an authentic profile of one of the major crises of Modernity. The writing is a model of a certain conversational distinction, natural in tone and highly charged with moral intent”.
Espinet’s first four works were all published in Toronto by Sister Vision Press. In 1990 she edited an anthology of Caribbean women’s poetry called “Creation Fire”. In 1991 she published a collection of poetry, under the title Nuclear Seasons, and then two children's books, The Princess Of Spadina in 1992 and Ninja’s Carnival in 1993.
Espinet developed a performance piece called "Indian Robber Talk" that has been staged in several Toronto festivals. Her poem "Shay's Robber Talk" formed the Afterword in Sherene Razack's Looking White People In The Eye, which was published by the University of Toronto Press in 1998.
“The Swinging Bridge” was longlisted for the 2005 Impac Dublin Award, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer' Prize in the category of Best First Book (Caribbean and Canada Region. It was selected for the 2004 Robert Adams Book Review Lecture Series.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
April 30, 2023
It was refreshing to read this book through a woman's perspective and see the change and the fear of change with the different women throughout the book. I almost wish the author wrote 3 narratives and we got to hear Gainder, Grandma Lil's and Mona's stories. Mona was hard to connect to, I didn't understand her feelings at times especially with Roddy and Kello. We got told about her feelings about them rather than shown why. There was a lot of "Kello was my other half/ my soulmate" but more time was spent describing her with her cousin instead. I really liked Bess's narrative and glad we got her backstory...I feel she was another character that was more relatable but still we were told about her more than understanding how she came to be this formidable adult after growing up the way she did. Overall, it was a book I enjoyed reading and am only wanting to know more. That should speak to the author's talent.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 18, 2022
So honored to have this woman as my professor! Didn’t know she was an amazing writer wow
January 29, 2022
actual rating 3.5 - the plot was great and complicated and had so many threads underlying it and weaving together at interesting points in the narrative, but the prose. The prose was boring. It was stilted in some places, unemotional where it really should have been trying to make me cry, and forced when it did try to elicit emotion. There are only so many cliched descriptors I can take, I’m sorry. But this was uni reading so I stuck with it, and I’m glad - the third part of the book was my favourite (and the strongest I’d say, maybe because the threads were coming together?)
Particularly love the matriarchal focus and tracing, but I struggled to get attached to Mona as a character. I liked her, and rooted for her sometimes, but she didn’t feel particularly engaging (again, I blame the prose), and I actually think a third person narrative might have worked better for this (at least, I particularly felt this in chapter 25, it just hit me as soon as I got there). Would recommend though, it explores a hidden, or rather, unexplored, history of indentureship. There were a lot of things I really liked about this book, the prose itself just made it difficult for me to focus on those things.
Particularly love the matriarchal focus and tracing, but I struggled to get attached to Mona as a character. I liked her, and rooted for her sometimes, but she didn’t feel particularly engaging (again, I blame the prose), and I actually think a third person narrative might have worked better for this (at least, I particularly felt this in chapter 25, it just hit me as soon as I got there). Would recommend though, it explores a hidden, or rather, unexplored, history of indentureship. There were a lot of things I really liked about this book, the prose itself just made it difficult for me to focus on those things.
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October 10, 2025so flipping long ugh
September 11, 2007
The book opens with a young woman in Canada dealing with a family crisis which leads her to reflect on her past and her heritage. The family is of East Indian decent but they lived and grew up in Trinidad. A very interesting exploration of being a minority in a Caribbean culture. Also the main character expresses her anger at the racism the family finds when the move to Canada (a bit of a shock to a Canadian like me but a good wake up call!).
February 2, 2025
I know a book is excellent when I dream I am there. This doesn't happen often, though it did happen to me for A Fine Balance, when I found myself with Ishvar and Omprakash, casually choosing chilis in the market. I still see it vividly.
I just finished this novel tonight, but three nights ago, as I was falling asleep, suddenly I was in a warm tropical jungle, standing just outside a "bamboo wedding". I was there to secretly watch and listen in on a wedding of the ancestors of an old friend, now passed away. Although she had Jamaican roots, it never occurred to me that she could also have an Indian set of ancestors. When I woke up, I could still feel myself there, as if I had been. I could even hear it.
I knew there were Indian people who were mostly indentured laborers in the Caribbean, and even some who were tricked into a "little look and see" tour of a ship, only to be locked under deck, and taken to the Caribbean to be enslaved.
But this novel, which reads more like a memoir, illuminates fascinating details of how all that came about, information that my brain struggled to believe, though I do believe her.
The idea of Indian people speaking a Creole dialect was so foreign to me that I had to keep reminding myself the characters are not Black, but Indian. The dialogue is dazzling. At one point Mona "swizzles" the cocoa she is making. What onomatopoeia! Then I remembered the term used for fancy fancy plastic spears that were once used in cocktail parlors, the swizzle sticks. How could that word drop out of our consciousness? Other phrases were equally vivid, at one point Mona doesn't just feel mad, or vexed, but "madvex"! I will confess I had to google many, many terms, and even then I remained baffled. Mona does discover that not only are many of the words Hindi in origin but over the years, become mispronounced and misspelled, so many are understandable only in very specific locals and unknown everywhere else. Consequently, I didn't always understand what the characters say. Even so, I found the characters and their dialogue compelling.
I also had difficulty sorting out which generation certain ancestors live in. Of course I have that same issue with my own ancestors, so that's on me, not the author.
This novel shows how Presbyterian missionaries provided formal and free education to children with Indian ancestry, provided the parents abandon their homeland religion in favor of becoming Presbyterians, or prissiness, as various characters angrily refer to it. Not only did conversion mean a formal education, but it also helped financially. The people who didn't convert remained poor, and were considered backward, even into the present moments described in this story.
This novel goes back to the first of Mona's ancestors who arrive in Trinidad, a young widow with no possibility of a safe or comfortable life after she chose to run away from the man her brother had forced her to marry. Just twelve years old, she joined widows, but their livelihood was dependent on begging, sex work, or they were just not protected from nightly rape. When a scout for indentured servants came along, the future at least contained hope. She was Mona's great grandmother, though her story had been kept secret for decades. As an unmarried, single woman arriving on her own, she was considered a "rand" which meant either widow or sex worker, take your pick. She didn't have the respectability that Mona's ancestors wanted, especially as she had never converted.
Just before Trinidad became independent, there was much talk of diversity, multi-culturalism, and the wonders of a cosmopolitan society. But once independence was achieved, the people whose ancestors had come from India felt betrayed. Their people were not as valued as the African Black people, yet they also held themselves above those people. It's definitely the same old story of ethnocentricity ruining relationships and lives.
I do apologize for all my tense shifts in here. Much of this book is told in the past tense, as it's about digging into well hidden old journals and stories, the characters living even in the present still feeling shame over events they should have been proud of.
I do love a book that immerses me in the greenest tropics, fragrances of ylang-ylang floating past, bhajans or Calypso resounding, the aromas of curries and freshly cut mangoes ... I reluctantly finished reading this, only to return to the madvex snowflakes hurtling themselves at my fifth floor windows in a downtown tower. I felt quite sorry for poor Uncle Tristy, who emigrated to the plains of Saskatchewan, not that far from where I am now.
I just finished this novel tonight, but three nights ago, as I was falling asleep, suddenly I was in a warm tropical jungle, standing just outside a "bamboo wedding". I was there to secretly watch and listen in on a wedding of the ancestors of an old friend, now passed away. Although she had Jamaican roots, it never occurred to me that she could also have an Indian set of ancestors. When I woke up, I could still feel myself there, as if I had been. I could even hear it.
I knew there were Indian people who were mostly indentured laborers in the Caribbean, and even some who were tricked into a "little look and see" tour of a ship, only to be locked under deck, and taken to the Caribbean to be enslaved.
But this novel, which reads more like a memoir, illuminates fascinating details of how all that came about, information that my brain struggled to believe, though I do believe her.
The idea of Indian people speaking a Creole dialect was so foreign to me that I had to keep reminding myself the characters are not Black, but Indian. The dialogue is dazzling. At one point Mona "swizzles" the cocoa she is making. What onomatopoeia! Then I remembered the term used for fancy fancy plastic spears that were once used in cocktail parlors, the swizzle sticks. How could that word drop out of our consciousness? Other phrases were equally vivid, at one point Mona doesn't just feel mad, or vexed, but "madvex"! I will confess I had to google many, many terms, and even then I remained baffled. Mona does discover that not only are many of the words Hindi in origin but over the years, become mispronounced and misspelled, so many are understandable only in very specific locals and unknown everywhere else. Consequently, I didn't always understand what the characters say. Even so, I found the characters and their dialogue compelling.
I also had difficulty sorting out which generation certain ancestors live in. Of course I have that same issue with my own ancestors, so that's on me, not the author.
This novel shows how Presbyterian missionaries provided formal and free education to children with Indian ancestry, provided the parents abandon their homeland religion in favor of becoming Presbyterians, or prissiness, as various characters angrily refer to it. Not only did conversion mean a formal education, but it also helped financially. The people who didn't convert remained poor, and were considered backward, even into the present moments described in this story.
This novel goes back to the first of Mona's ancestors who arrive in Trinidad, a young widow with no possibility of a safe or comfortable life after she chose to run away from the man her brother had forced her to marry. Just twelve years old, she joined widows, but their livelihood was dependent on begging, sex work, or they were just not protected from nightly rape. When a scout for indentured servants came along, the future at least contained hope. She was Mona's great grandmother, though her story had been kept secret for decades. As an unmarried, single woman arriving on her own, she was considered a "rand" which meant either widow or sex worker, take your pick. She didn't have the respectability that Mona's ancestors wanted, especially as she had never converted.
Just before Trinidad became independent, there was much talk of diversity, multi-culturalism, and the wonders of a cosmopolitan society. But once independence was achieved, the people whose ancestors had come from India felt betrayed. Their people were not as valued as the African Black people, yet they also held themselves above those people. It's definitely the same old story of ethnocentricity ruining relationships and lives.
I do apologize for all my tense shifts in here. Much of this book is told in the past tense, as it's about digging into well hidden old journals and stories, the characters living even in the present still feeling shame over events they should have been proud of.
I do love a book that immerses me in the greenest tropics, fragrances of ylang-ylang floating past, bhajans or Calypso resounding, the aromas of curries and freshly cut mangoes ... I reluctantly finished reading this, only to return to the madvex snowflakes hurtling themselves at my fifth floor windows in a downtown tower. I felt quite sorry for poor Uncle Tristy, who emigrated to the plains of Saskatchewan, not that far from where I am now.
August 5, 2020
After spending decades living in Canada, Mona’s brother Kello still can’t forget the family land in Trinidad and the legacy they left behind. When he asks Mona to go back home and reclaim the home of their youth, she begins to unearth long buried family secrets and confront her own turbulent history on the island.
I’ll preface everything by saying that this book is extraordinary. I found myself slowing down while reading it to make sure I took in all the details because there is so much history and social commentary woven into this novel. Espinet is masterful at integrating the stories of Trinidad throughout the ages, from Indentureship to the post-colonial period to modern times through the lens of the Indo-Trinidadian experience.
A lot of issues prevalent to the Caribbean were discussed in great detail; racism, classism, education, poverty, alcoholism, abuse, family dynamics and religion among them.
But one of the things that stood out to me was the recurrent theme of erasure, among them a priestess during the Haitian Revolution whose name is excluded even in a film about Haitian women, made by Caribbean women; Gainder who is erased from the family history because she was a common laborer; Kello who feels that he must hide who he is, even from those he loves most.
This is definitely one of my favorite Caribbean reads, and although the underlying themes are heavy it’s buoyed by the rich prose and colorful descriptions of Trinidad and its people.
I’ll preface everything by saying that this book is extraordinary. I found myself slowing down while reading it to make sure I took in all the details because there is so much history and social commentary woven into this novel. Espinet is masterful at integrating the stories of Trinidad throughout the ages, from Indentureship to the post-colonial period to modern times through the lens of the Indo-Trinidadian experience.
A lot of issues prevalent to the Caribbean were discussed in great detail; racism, classism, education, poverty, alcoholism, abuse, family dynamics and religion among them.
But one of the things that stood out to me was the recurrent theme of erasure, among them a priestess during the Haitian Revolution whose name is excluded even in a film about Haitian women, made by Caribbean women; Gainder who is erased from the family history because she was a common laborer; Kello who feels that he must hide who he is, even from those he loves most.
This is definitely one of my favorite Caribbean reads, and although the underlying themes are heavy it’s buoyed by the rich prose and colorful descriptions of Trinidad and its people.
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February 18, 2020"If you happen to be born into an Indian family, an Indian family from the Caribbean, migratory, never certain of the terrain, that’s how life falls down around you. It’s close and thick and sheltering, its ugly and violent secrets locked inside the family walls. The outside encroaches, but the ramparts are strong, and once you leave it you have no shelter and no ready skills for finding a different one. I found that out after years of trying.”
In The Swinging Bridge (2003) by Trinidadian-Canadian author Ramabai Espinet, the main protagonist, Mona, must leave Canada to buy back the family land in Trinidad. Although reluctant at first, she uses this opportunity to discover her family's roots and skeletons in the closet on the island. This novel was also shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the Caribbean and Canada region in 2004.
In The Swinging Bridge (2003) by Trinidadian-Canadian author Ramabai Espinet, the main protagonist, Mona, must leave Canada to buy back the family land in Trinidad. Although reluctant at first, she uses this opportunity to discover her family's roots and skeletons in the closet on the island. This novel was also shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the Caribbean and Canada region in 2004.
August 9, 2019
I was made to read this book last semester at university, and for once, I actually read a book I was assigned. This book pulls you in and takes you on a whirlwind, the view of a Caribbean woman - particularly an Indo-Caribbean one. It is frank on race, culture, immigration and sexual abuse in the Caribbean sphere. Mona is an amazing character, my hat is tipped to Espinet for this classic she has created.
September 9, 2018
A great read! Didn’t even know that Indians travelled to Trinidad to work the sugar plantations and became creolized and such
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 5, 2018
It was interesting but not great.
Well written about someone who seems like a nice person.
Well written about someone who seems like a nice person.
March 17, 2025
“We built our lives not out of nothing, but out of the back-breaking work of reinvention”
September 25, 2020
Mona's exploration of her family past alongside her ancestral history was so fascinating. Her reflections on her childhood and teenage years in Trinidad held a lot of commentary on Indo-Caribbean culture and attitudes towards girls and women as well. There are a lot of layers to this story and loved the different themes explored.
April 18, 2021
This isn't a book I'd have picked by myself. I'm not a big fan of contemporary literature, especially when it deals with terminally ill brothers, strained family relationships, the protagonist's unsatisfying love life, etc. But I had to read this for school, and in the end, even though I didn't love it, I found The Swinging Bridge a great book.
I couldn't get interested in the present timeline of the story, but Mona's recollection of her childhood and her search to learn more about her family history grabbed my attention. Mona is especially trying to unearth the story of the women who came before her, since about a century before when her great-grandmother left India, because their stories are ignored in her family's accounts of the past. And the more I saw of Mona's and her ancestors' lives, the more I got this sense that everything in the book intertwined, which felt amazing! Mona's life mirrored those women's and brought the past and the present together to form a single intricate intergenerational story, combining themes of cultural identity with discussions about misogyny, gender roles, and racism.
The past sections of The Swinging Bridge get heavy sometimes. Domestic violence and sexual harrassment (including implied and off-screen rape) are a recurrent thing in the book, because it's exploring female trauma going down generations. As I was reading the book, it became very clear that Mona is so intent on recovering her family's history also as a way to heal from her past and find a place for herself in the world.
If you like these themes, this is an amazing book. It also has many daily-life descriptions of Trinidad and Indian culture in Trinidad, which I loved, since it's a place I'd never read about before!
I couldn't get interested in the present timeline of the story, but Mona's recollection of her childhood and her search to learn more about her family history grabbed my attention. Mona is especially trying to unearth the story of the women who came before her, since about a century before when her great-grandmother left India, because their stories are ignored in her family's accounts of the past. And the more I saw of Mona's and her ancestors' lives, the more I got this sense that everything in the book intertwined, which felt amazing! Mona's life mirrored those women's and brought the past and the present together to form a single intricate intergenerational story, combining themes of cultural identity with discussions about misogyny, gender roles, and racism.
The past sections of The Swinging Bridge get heavy sometimes. Domestic violence and sexual harrassment (including implied and off-screen rape) are a recurrent thing in the book, because it's exploring female trauma going down generations. As I was reading the book, it became very clear that Mona is so intent on recovering her family's history also as a way to heal from her past and find a place for herself in the world.
If you like these themes, this is an amazing book. It also has many daily-life descriptions of Trinidad and Indian culture in Trinidad, which I loved, since it's a place I'd never read about before!
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October 11, 2009I enjoyed reading about a different family, and their unique culture. I'm sure I knew before that there were Indian descendants living in the Carribbean, but had not really learned much about their history. This book opened up their world to me, and the unique challenges they face.
November 6, 2015
The weaving together of Trinidadian culture and the life of a Trini-Canadian immigrant living in Montreal is skilful and evocative. This is a moving glimpse into the heart of the reluctant expatriate.
July 28, 2008
This is a very good book and the story is really great. You have to read it.
February 18, 2010
This book is an interesting document of Indian-Trinidadian culture. Espinet's writing is crystalline. I never really got hooked by the story or by Mona, though.
February 6, 2011
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this wonderful book. The fusion of worlds and cultures are thoughtfully crafted and explored. Immensely moving story. A must read.
May 18, 2013
Was a good book..enjoyed it..but wasn't amazing or unforgettable..
January 9, 2014
I just couldn't get into this book.....I have decided to start a shelf for these books, just in case, a different time and place may change my opinion......it has happened before in the past......
June 3, 2007
I really liked this book about the history of East Indians in Trinidad. Very well written.
March 28, 2017
First things first , I didn't know about Indo-Trinidadian diaspora. Secondly , this book talks about migration and a lot of emphasis is given on a women's journey in migration. It became a very depressing story at some point of time. I cannot fathom that these incidents did happen in the past . I loved this book as it's a very informative one .
April 27, 2017
The novel covered many aspects of the Indo-Trinidadian's life. It did focus heavily on Indo-Trinidadian women in particular. I see the significance of the novel and what it represented for Indo-Trinidadian women.
My favourite part of this novel was Part 3: Caroni Dub. I actually felt a connection with this part and it held my attention, unlike parts 1 and 2. I really enjoyed finding out more about Gainder and Grandma Lily. I enjoyed reading about the past much more than the present but I liked how it was tied into the lives of Bess and Mona. The appreciation of these forgotten women, especially Gainder, was really powerful.
However, most of the novel, that is part 1 and 2 was very boring in my opinion. I saw the significance of it but did not enjoy reading it.
My favourite part of this novel was Part 3: Caroni Dub. I actually felt a connection with this part and it held my attention, unlike parts 1 and 2. I really enjoyed finding out more about Gainder and Grandma Lily. I enjoyed reading about the past much more than the present but I liked how it was tied into the lives of Bess and Mona. The appreciation of these forgotten women, especially Gainder, was really powerful.
However, most of the novel, that is part 1 and 2 was very boring in my opinion. I saw the significance of it but did not enjoy reading it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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May 4, 2018Fiction E775s 2007
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