It’s hard to know how to rate this book. Ta-Nehisi Coates is an excellent and important writer. If you haven’t discovered his nonfiction yet, don’t waste another second. Between the World and Me made me uncomfortable, and then it made me better. The Water Dancer is his first novel, and it’s a mystical take on the Underground Railroad. It feels important—especially coming from him, especially given his other writing. It was literary, spooky, gripping to start. I never knew where it was going. I wanted to know what happened.

Yet it took me a bit to get into. It picked up the pace and then slowed down again. It was so slow in the last third, it took me over a month to finish. I didn’t care that much by the end. Everything felt very much at arm’s length. But the thing is, the whole time I kept wondering if it was me? I think it was styled that way on purpose. Coates is an incredibly deliberate and intelligent writer and it makes me think that I just didn’t understand everything in this book, and what it has to say. I want to. I want to attend a class on it, read every article and interview to get my head around it and figure this out!

Have you read this? I’m so curious to hear what other people think.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!