The Book of Night Women

Historical fiction written with the highest level of skill. Horrifying? Yes. The characters will never leave you.

Anyone who thinks this degree of inhumanity, sadism, sexual abuse, and torture by whites to blacks was limited to places like Jamaica, Haiti, or Cuba is a fool with their head in the sand. Read this book to get a glimpse of our own despicable history.

Highly recommended.

EVER wonder what you would do if enslaved, are the enslaver? This book travels a new route to the complexity of the self and the conditions that transforms the once "predictiable." Marlon, hears, speaks and visualizes from a depth that must be with the help of the Ancestors. AMAZING!

As a first generation Jamaican-American this book was really important. It shows a side of the country that I never learned about. it is vibrant and interesting and fast paced. The author has a very good grasp of the vernacular and the culture. This book is full of vivid descriptions and I found it to be an incredible page turner.

I usually find slave narratives excessively boring. I call them Toni Morrison's children. I just think it's been done too many times and too often writers of color lean on these stories as the only high literary source of inspiration. This different for me, perhaps because it is set in Jamaica instead and Mr. James has a such deft hand.

The Montpelier estate is a a hot, lustful, horrific hell for slave master and slave alike. There is an emotional and philosophical battle in each of his characters that tumbles inside them as revolt brews. People are complex, except for white people who are often simply evil or leaning towards evil, or leaning toward this idea of whiteness that they are never a part of wholly( the Irish and the Creole ) like Jame's biracial protagonist , Lilith. I have to say though that there were many times that I found the emotional exploration of his female main character to be a bit repetitive, like a stutter. By the end it felt as though some characters I thought I knew , I didn't know at all. It left me confused as to their motivation and stunned like they were actors who suddenly started screaming all their lines in the last two acts, or like a dramatic non sequiter in a soap opera, but I accepted it because the images were so striking. Overall,I think this was a good read that stuck with me and will probably walk with me for a good while.

Very well written. Great prose and story telling. Factual,historical content. Great analysis of same gender love of sorts as well as master slave love relationships. The strengths of these women is remarkable and character development is complete. I felt like I knew all the characters by the end of the book whether or not I found them sympathetic. Also enjoyed James' way of dealing with Mistress desire for Black slave manhood. Very easy read. A true page turner. Kudos to the author Marlon James.

Very interesting story. Not for the faint of heart as it is graphic in description. If you are not familiar with the West Indian culture or Jamaican patois, it may be a challenging read.I thought it to be a clever and unpredictable story line. Thanking my mom for never losing her accent as it certainly assisted me in breezing through this great book.

As far as the "typical" slave narrative goes, this is not it. James is imaginative, blunt and above all sneaky. Usually, I can predict the plot of a novel after the first five pages, with this book I was wrong many, many times. If you are offended by profanity and graphic descriptions of human suffering then this book is not for you. If you enjoy getting lost in a book and having to navigate a myriad of plot twists -- then read this book.

What a remarkable book - written in Jamaican dialect but not too hard to follow. I have read a few books that focus on slavery, but this is by far one of the most well written. I like the author's ability to introduce a hint of romance in the midst of all the brutality that the slaves are subjected to, without taking away from the story. Highly recommended.

I just reread this book along with the members of my book club. Or at least I tried to (I stopped midway). I had originally bought and read this book some years back. I have concluded that I am not the right audience for this book. I found the writer very adept in his creation of a convincing and captivating narrative voice. This (the narrative voice) is what kept me reading initially. It's a pity that, despite a murder or two, hardly anything happens in this book. Nothing drives the plot (or: that sequence of events that is meant to appear as a plot). The characters are vague; they seem to have no life away from the story frame in which they were placed, each of them fulfilling merely a puppet-like duty. That includes the main character, Lilith. I did not mind that she is an unlikable person (as other reviewers have mentioned). What bothered me, was that she lacked substance. What I did appreciate about this book, was the rare glimpse it offered into life on a West Indian slave plantation. I commend the author for his attempt. But while reading I often felt that aspects from history were strategically cherry-picked, only to add some 'historical flavor'. It felt gimmicky. I was disappointed to find that the story was not atmospherically grounded in the past. The plantation, its inhabitants, they never came to life (at least not to me). I think this book may be enjoyable to readers who do not mind a slow pace, and who know absolutely nothing about slavery in Jamaica, but do not want to read a history text book. Those readers who usually prefer a little more depth, both in terms of history and fiction, may still find this book worth their while, but only if they lower their expectations.

This book slips the noose around your pupils in the first chapter and you will not be left hanging. A phenomenal read and phenomenally written. This book is compelling and captivating. Moving and thought-provoking. I'm afraid to say some of the things this book made me feel and say. An absolute must read.

This is a very good book, it is extremely intense though. I wouldn't recommend it to young teens. It is very in depth and crude most of the time, but if you are looking to learn about the life of a slave girl as taken from the journal of a real plantation owner it is a must read.

Compelling and shockingly violent story. It is difficult to read at first, because it is written in the dialect of a Jamaican slave. However, once the reader becomes acclimated to the rhythm and diction, reading it becomes much easier.

I noticed this author from his previous book ( John Crow Devil..) and decided to try another book. I read it in a few days as I was hooked to the detailed description of the setting and the characters.. I felt as if I was in the book alongside the characters. Hurry and write another Mr. James!

This was a difficult read for me. Not because the language, but because the content was hard to read. This book is a book about the times of slavery and what it was like to be a slave. It is not a book for the faint of heart - violence, rape and murder are a few of the things it touches on, but it also touches on the hope held in the human spirit, how that hope can stay alive despite all attempts to break it, and how when unified people have the capacity to accomplish things they never thought possible. This book stuck with me after reading it. It was one of those ones that my mind would come back to again and again and turn over the stories and the meanings behind them.

This is more of a reality book for African People than a fictional historical novel. The brutality of Whites, which is expected in a book about a slave plantation, but it shows a side of White Female brutality that is often hidden and down played when there is any dicussion about White Violence on Black People. The degraded sexuality of Black People is also brought out in this book, but not only Whites against Blacks, but how Blacks dealth with their own sexuality on slave plantations. But, perhaps the most insightful thing that this books highlights is the schism of the mind that Black Women go through when engaging in sexual activity with Whites, which shows that these types of relationships can only be tacky, trifling and terroristic. Beware!

I just now started reading books about slavery in the carribean... And I must say I enjoy this book. Lilith was a force to be reckon with as the main character. She's brave smart stubborn and haunting all at the same time.

Hold onto your seat! This book reveals the treachery and savage treatment of slaves in 18th century Jamaica. It will boil your blood and make you want to jump through the pages to intervene. From a white person's perspective it is horrifying. From a slave's perspective it is terrifying. This book will keep you up at night.