It takes a skillful writer to step into the roles of another person's skin and culture. Haley Whitehall has done it well. She enters the antebellum life of a black slave and the society of the Cherokee Indians. What is refreshing about this is that Whitehall's story is free of stereotypes. Each character is an individual, unique in his or her own way. The humanity, and sometimes inhumanity, of her characters shines through.
Living Half Free is the tense and thoroughly engrossing story of Zacharia, a slave who passes for white and marries a Cherokee woman Lillian. But his slavery past haunts him, even in his marriage, influencing his every decision. But his top priority is to be free. Zacharia is a humble man who wants to do the right thing in a world where wrong often prevails over right. After adjusting to the complicated and bewildering white man's world, adjusting to the Cherokee world brings new challenges to his sense of dignity and self-worth. This struggle is complicated by his love for his wife (his future) and his love for his mother and sister (his past) and these two aspects of his life converge and clash, leading to a bittersweet ending.
Living Half Free is available through Amazon.com, as well as other sources. You can visit Haley's Whitehall's website at haleywhitehall.com.
12 comments:
I love it when an author can get past gender and race and make their characters human.
Also, I finished your book Battles a few nights ago and LOVED it! Can't wait to read Only the Lonely and do a review on both.
It takes a very skilled writer to write outside their comfort zone!
I like the concept of this. Indians and slaves, two socially abused groups. This would make for an interesting read. Thanks for the recommendation.
This story has conflict written all over it and sounds like a very interesting character-driven novel. Thanks for the review.
Sounds like an amazing story! Thanks for the rec!
Sounds like a fantastic read! Thanks for the review, Richard.
Exactly the book I was looking for to deepen my research on my new one! Yay!
Sounds intriguing. I'll check it out.
........dhole
Sounds like a great book. Will check it out. The title has me intrigued.
Perhaps one day I'll garner the courage to step outside of my comfort zone. Of course, I need to find my comfort zone first!
I tagged you for an award at my Strands of Pattern blog.
Thank you so much for following my www.islandbuzzy.com blog. I hope you don't mind my raw writing style!
I have been reading through some of your posts, I'm glad I found your blog! Aloha, Connie
Richard, thank you for the very thoughtful review. I'm glad you enjoyed reading Living Half Free. I hope some of these other commenters do too.
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