Sing, Unburied, Sing - Jesmyn Ward

"Jojo is thirteen years old and trying to understand what it means to be a man. He doesn’t lack in fathers to study, chief among them his Black grandfather, Pop. But there are other men who complicate his understanding: his absent White father, Michael, who is being released from prison; his absent White grandfather, Big Joseph, who won’t acknowledge his existence; and the memories of his dead uncle, Given, who died as a teenager."
Sing, Unburied, Sing is a character study of a contemporary African-American family in Mississippi, but it is also a darkly beautiful story about ghosts. In the literal and figurative sense.

Ward creates a really strong sense of place. I could easily picture this rural poor Southern setting with its history of racial tensions that have never quite gone away. From the beginning, I knew this was going to be something special. The writing pulls you into this world, into the minds and lives of the vivid characters.

Into this setting, the author introduces the perspectives of Leonie, a drug addict increasingly haunted by the ghost of her brother, Given, who was shot by a white football player. The other main perspective is Leonie's teen son, Jojo, who is more of a parent to his young sister than Leonie has ever been. They live with Leonie's parents - known throughout as Mam and Pop - the former ravaged by chemo, and the latter haunted by the ghosts of his own dark past.

Many stories from the past emerge through Mam and Pop, including the story of young Richie, a prisoner from Pop's tales of his time in jail. Richie also occasionally takes the narrative in between Pop's revelations about the horrors inside Mississippi State Penitentiary, and the gradually-uncovered truth of Richie's fate.
There was more of a supernatural/ voodoo element then I first suspected but I really enjoyed it and it was a nice twist from the ordinary.

While a good book, I must say unfortunately that I found it slow going for most of the read.

Age Rating 14+. Drugs, swearing, lynching and a graphic goat butchering scene.(Also a lot of vomiting during a car ride.)