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The Book of Night Women

Marlon James

4.37 · Rating details · 10,578 ratings · 1,609 reviews

The Book of Night Women is a sweeping, startling novel, a true tour de force of both voice and storytelling. It is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they and she will come to both revere and fear.

The Night Women, as they call ...more

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Paperback, 427 pages

Published February 2nd 2010 by Riverhead Books (first published January 17th 2009)

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Sep 01, 2012 Rowena rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Anyone interested in learning about slavery

Shelves: historical-fiction, to-re-read, caribbean-lit

Updated review (November 8, 2015)

"Every negro walk in a circle. Take that and make of it what you will. A circle like the sun, a circle like the moon, a circle like bad tidings that seem gone but always, always come back.”- Marlon James, The Book of Night Women

When I first read this book in 2012, I didn’t think I would ever read it again. The depictions of violence were really hard to read, mainly because I knew that although they were fictional, they were probably very representative of what ...more

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Jan 02, 2016 Petra-X Off having adventures rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone in the entire world

Shelves: 2016-read, 10-star-books, popculture-anthropology, caribbean, history, reviewed, fiction, 2016-150-reviews

It is a rare author that could make me like and remain interested in, even after I finished the book, a character who killed a lot of people, including burning children alive. It is the first book I've ever read about slaves where I understood slavery from the slaves point of view. I've read many slave memoirs where I have sympathised, been terribly moved and angry at the injustice, but I've never really understood how slaves carved out lives within the tiny sphere of self-determination they wer ...more

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Mar 29, 2009 karen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, distant-lands, pretty-girls-make-graves, girls-gone-wild

this book hurts. in so many ways. initially, it hurts to get acclimated to the narrator's voice. whenever i read books written in dialect it always takes me at least 40 pages to start to get the hang of it (i curse you, irvine welsh!!) and then it hurts because it's such a raw and bloody depiction of the physical and emotional bullshit of slavery. and then after it's all done, it hurts that it's so well written, you just want more of it. so i'm awfully glad i broke my promise about "not buying a ...more

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Mar 16, 2014 Richard rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: globe-trotting, favorites, black-authors, afrocentric, cool-covers, cool-titles, coming-of-age, heroines, great-endings

"We not getting free, we taking free."

OUT. FUCKING. STANDING.

This book floored me. Seriously. I was so stunned by the time I finished that I couldn't sleep for a while, even though I had to be to work on set at 6am the following day! The Book of Night Women is the best coming of age novel I've encountered; it really is unlike anything I've read before. Night Women, Marlon James's second novel, follows a mulatto girl named Lilith, who is born into slavery in late 18th-century Jamaica, and the eventful year after she turns 15 at the Montpelier Estate. Lilith catches the eye of Homer, the strong-willed head house slave, who recruits her to join a quorum of five other women, who are plotting an island-wide slave rebellion.

One of the things that's so impressive about this novel is how fascinating this coming of age concept is, illuminating the horrifying effects of slavery in a unique way that we've never seen before. It's commonly known how difficult it is being a teenage girl, dealing with the growing pains of puberty, sexual awakening, mood swings, self-discovery, and the need to assert independence and be seen as a woman. Now imagine all of this happening while the only world you know is one of complete oppression and total lack of freedom or positive influence. This idea is ripe for exploration and Marlon James leaves no stone unturned. How would a young girl handle being touched with kindness when all she knows is being touched with violence? How do you handle the already confusing matter of being mixed race during a time when skin color defines everything? It's unsettling, frustrating, and ultimately engaging to watch the process of Lilith growing from a girl to a self-aware woman throughout the book. And this concept of coming of age as a slave is something that I feel no one else has ever done ( Someone Knows My Name might be the closest), at least not this powerfully, showing the horrifying effect of slavery in a unique way that we've never seen before.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see how hyper feminist the story is. There are only a couple main male characters and almost no primary male slave characters. It's kind of a breath of fresh air as there are hardly any strong female characters in classic slave narratives and here, the entire revolt plot is planned by strong women all over the colony. They don't involve men because they don't believe that men have enough rational brainpower to really handle this! Here, it's the women that are totally badass, calling the shots, packing muskets and machetes and Obeah spells, and it always feels genuine.

The cherry on top is of course the author's skillful writing. He's a natural and the prose is epic, poetic, and probably the most challenging of all his novels. While both John Crow's Devil and even the dense A Brief History of Seven Killings (which I'll be rereading soon) have heavy loads of Jamaican patois, Night Women is COMPLETELY told in patois and I could imagine it no other way. It helps to provide a totally original voice. Although I had no problem with it as I grew up in the Caribbean, I expect many readers to have a difficult time. But, I think the plot and the amazing characters are easier to grasp and more accessible than either of those other books. And for anyone that has a problem with the vernacular, I highly recommend listening to the audiobook as well. I jumped back and forth between the paperback and the audio and Robin Miles's narration is the best audiobook performance I've heard. She's a complete chameleon with accents and really accentuated the drama!

So as you can tell I adored this book and I immediately added it to my list of favorites. It's a total masterpiece from the beginning all the way to it's extraordinary ending that James NAILS like a master conductor! This is a powerful piece of work and I believe (and sincerely hope) that this book will ultimately be considered a literary classic in years to come. Bravo Marlon James! Bravo! A+

Some fire don't go out, they go quiet under the ash, waiting for one little dry stick to feed. So the white man sleep with one eye open, waiting for the fire next time.

That fire coming.

...more

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Feb 08, 2020 Michael rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: recs, 2020

Broad in scope and full of suspense, The Book of Night Women tells the tale of a fictional slave rebellion in 18th-century Jamaica, through the life story of a single enslaved woman. The historical novel follows Lilith, the biracial orphan of a deceased Black woman raped by one of her plantation’s overseers, from youth to adulthood, as she endures countless indignities at the hands of white colonists, struggles to connect with other slaves, and longs for liberation. At the core of the novel is L ...more

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Jul 27, 2017 Hannah Greendale rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, literary-fiction, adult, fiction

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.

...more

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Oct 19, 2015 Petra-X Off having adventures rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, reviewed, dnf-or-never-read, 2015-reviews, books-reviewed-but-not-read

I dnf'd this book because I swapped to audio (proper review there). I wanted to read this book because of this review which made me laugh:

"I have spent the last week or so with words going through my brain that one cannot use in the real world. There was not only the oft-repeated word for a black person that was common in the 18th century, but there was constant use of the c-word and the p-word for female genitalia and the c-word for mail genitalia and the f-word for what the f-word really means ...more

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Sep 24, 2017 Agnieszka rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, ebook, reviewed, own-a-copy

Truly powerful stuff. And harrowing report of human misery. The novel is literally dripping with abuse and violence both verbal and physical. Directed at slaves. But there is a slave and slave. The book of night women is about inhuman, barbarous treatment and punishing system, it’s about cruelty and humiliation delivered not only by masters but also by slaves to themselves, men to women, women to women. The story told here is a spiral of terror and brutality. It’s nothing like saccharine pictur ...more

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Jan 02, 2019 Lisa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, tbr-shelf-2018, 2019-favorites

Have I already read the best book I'll read in 2019? Lilith, a female slave, born in 1795 Jamaica, is one of most complicated, compelling women I have encountered in literature. I was totally immersed in her story even as I gasped in horror. (I recommend listening to the audio which was amazingly narrated by Robin Miles) The violence is unrelenting - as is the pain and torture and hatred. But how else can slavery be understood? It is a heart-shattering novel that I can’t imagine ever forgetting. ...more

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Sep 13, 2012 kisha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: african-american-fiction, favorites, rereads

UPDATE
I just finished rereading this and some of my thoughts have shifted a bit. I had last given this book 5 stars. This time I'm giving it 4 stars. The author has a weird obsession with lady parts. He must have implemented his obsession with lady parts in at least every other page of this novel and almost every time it brought nothing to the plot. I will do a new review later but for now my old one is below.

"Every negro walk in a circle. Take that and make of it what you will."

To call this boo UPDATE
I just finished rereading this and some of my thoughts have shifted a bit. I had last given this book 5 stars. This time I'm giving it 4 stars. The author has a weird obsession with lady parts. He must have implemented his obsession with lady parts in at least every other page of this novel and almost every time it brought nothing to the plot. I will do a new review later but for now my old one is below.

"Every negro walk in a circle. Take that and make of it what you will."

To call this book amazing would be an understatement. This is the kind of book that you read and already see the movie and visualize what actor/actress will play what character. This book immediately comes to life from the first sentence. I read the first paragraph on Amazon and knew that I had to read this novel. Marlon James's use of the color red was brilliant, especially in the first paragraph. I believe that the hidden and forbidden truth about slavery was revealed in The Book of Night Women. This story was told like no other slavery story I had ever read or watched. What we got was the harsh truth. I loved the language which is something most people who gave it few stars didn't like. But the Patois dialect is what gave the book a real feel of not only slavery but Jamaica. It wasn't very hard to catch on to even for someone who isn't familiar with Jamaican patois. The many themes of this novel are impressive; slavery, love, hate, slave/master relationship, rape, oppression, independence, strength, womanhood (black and white), sisterhood, survival...I could go on and on. Amazing!

Never have I read a book that brought out so much emotion. One minute I was angry at not only the characters but the author. How dare he write such a dark, sedistic, and cruel book. Then there was the crazy and animalistic life that the slaves were forced to call their own. Then next moment I'd laugh at the sarcasm and pride and personality of these women especially Lilith. But most intriguing, this book was mind-provoking. It will challenge every thought and every lesson you were taught about slave history, Jamaican, and even American history. And some parts in the book you'd find yourself even sympathizing for the villian of the 19th century (white slavers).

Character development was so complete on each and every character. When you finish this novel you feel as though you've known each character personally. That amazes me too because so many authors fail in the development of characters. What I also liked about this book is that in my opinion, none of the characters were very likeable. Not a single one! You have to be a genius of a writer to successfully write a novel taking place in the 19th century filled with all distasteful characters and yet the characters are still relatable. But it was okay because the characters were so well developed that you understood why they were who they were. And most had redeeming qualities.

My warning to anyone reading this and not knowing much about it; this is a very emotional read. It's very raw, indecent at times, vulgar, and descriptive. If you don't like reading swear words or the N word than this book isn't for you because it is a bit overbearing in those areas.

Overall, the (main) message I received from this cruel historical Jamaican slavery reality, is that the world was designed to keep black people oppressed dating all the way back to the 18th century, by doing that in a way to teach self-hatred amongst the individual as well as each other. It makes me think of the stigma of black on black crime that has stuck with our people for so long. How so many young black men don't even know that it all results from slavery and how they are keeping themselves oppressed. Which is why education is so important. Which brings me to the beginning of I believe three of his chapters, "Every negro walk in a circle. Take that and make of it what you will." We are still walking in that circle today. I think it's no suprise there was a message and reason he kept repeating that phrase. They don't understand that knowing your history can make a world of a difference. Education is so important. It's life changing. When you know better, you do better. I think all young adults especially African American's should read this.

James did a wonderful depiction of Jamaican slavery that easily translated to American history. I absolutely loved this book. I wonder if he knew just how powerful this book would be when he wrote it. Now thanks to Marlon James, every book I have tried to pick up has been epic fail because nothing compares. ...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Greg rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, life-is-shit

This song was running through my head for most of the second half of the book.

But no one ever changed the church by pulling down a steeple
And you'll never change the system by bombing number ten
Systems just aren't made of bricks they're mostly made of people
You may send them into hiding, but they'll be back again

Movements are systems and systems kill

(some ramblings about politics has been excised here)

Following the general theories of Marx, and discounting Rousseau's mythology about the noble sa ...more

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Apr 19, 2020 Monica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: aoc-male, kindle_fiction, racial-matters, audio, soc-sci-politics, aoc, historical-fiction, pub_2000s, women-savvy, worldwide

Wow! An intricate, well driven plot with very complex characters. James is a masterful story teller! His novels are character driven and by the time the story ends, you understand the characters and their motivations. Even the most vile characters are given substance. He is an excellent chronicler of the human condition. So interesting and insightful and vibrant. James is a bit of a unicorn in that he understands and can write female characters who come across as authentic. The main character Li ...more

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Aug 07, 2017 Read By RodKelly rated it it was amazing

"Every Negro walk in a circle, take that and make of it what you will"

So goes the powerful refrain that recurs and resonates throughout Marlon James's tale of unimaginable abuse and violent retribution on a magisterial plantation in 18th century Jamaica.

The novel tells the story of Lilith, a mulatto slave caught in the crossroads of history, aching to find an identity of her own in world in which destiny is a pathological cycle of pain and suffering, a winding road leading only to bloodshed and ...more

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Dec 10, 2009 Chris rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
-- African proverb

In 1750 or thereabouts, a British man named Thomas Thistlewood became restless after failing to establish himself as a farmer (would you expect a genius to take to farming?), boarded a ship headed for Jamaica, arrived to find a land quite welcoming to white folks (despite the fact that 95% of the countryside population was black), and settled in for the life he so richly deserved. Thistlewood’s
Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
-- African proverb

In 1750 or thereabouts, a British man named Thomas Thistlewood became restless after failing to establish himself as a farmer (would you expect a genius to take to farming?), boarded a ship headed for Jamaica, arrived to find a land quite welcoming to white folks (despite the fact that 95% of the countryside population was black), and settled in for the life he so richly deserved. Thistlewood’s diary details all of the great fun his thistlewood had upon arrival – 13 women on 59 occasions in his first year on the island; hundreds over the course of his thirty plus years. Did you know that Jamaican women love the white man’s penis? He even took some time away from poking the natives with his thistly prick to invent stuff. Maybe you’ve heard of Derby’s dose? No? It’s an ingenious form of punishment designed to keep the slave population subdued. Here’s what you do: you find a slave who needs to poop (Thistlewood found a slave named Derby who famously loved prunes), you force that slave to poop into the mouth of a slave you want punished, then you wire that slave’s poop-filled mouth shut for a few hours. You don’t want them contemplating an uprising, do you? Of course not. You may also have to chop off a few heads here and there and display them in the slave quarters. Branding their tits, pussies, balls, and cocks and sticking hot pokers up their asses also gets the job done. Nothing’s off limits when it comes to keeping these people in check, folks. Public school teachers should consider similar tactics. The heathens may outnumber you, but they can’t outthink you.
_____

That made me feel dirty.
_____

As I reached the end of Marlon James’ brilliant novel, The Book of Night Women, I found myself thinking that Quentin Tarantino would love this book. The book is so drenched in violence that the reader can do nothing but stomach it if she has any hopes of understanding the story. She can’t skim pages until it’s over because it’s never over. Similarly, if you attempted to cover your eyes and ears during every violent scene in a Tarantino film, you’d miss half the film and most of the point.

Once I had Quentin Tarantino on the brain, I realized that he would also love this book because it is a lot like his latest film, Inglourious Basterds. Without spoiling the movie for those who haven’t seen it or the book for those who haven’t read it, I’ll just say that Tarantino attempts to use the power of cinema to rewrite the past and James uses the power of the novel to take history to task. In his acknowledgments at the end of the book, James gives thanks to the history he learned and the history he had to unlearn. I don’t want to imply that this book completely rewrites the history of Jamaican slavery. I'm confident that it is more historically accurate than Inglourious Basterds, but it’s the idea of turning the tables, of reappropriating the past, that I’m trying to get at.

Don't just listen to me, though. In a brief discussion that can be found here on Goodreads, Marlon James says that he is obsessed with the past, specifically with the stories that haven't been told yet, and that this novel is a reckoning with history. James says that he's interested in the lion's point of view. If James keeps writing books like this one, I do believe the lion would be honored to have him as its historian.
...more

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Apr 28, 2020 7jane rated it really liked it

On a large Jamaican sugar plantation, the Montpelier estate, in 1785, Lilith is born into slavery. Growing up, her character comes to notice of the group of six slave women called the Night Women, who have plotted for years for a slave revolt, and they ask her to join them. Problem is, her loyalties seem to be divided and thus putting the possibility of the revolt in danger…

This is a rough read; those who ask ‘is this novel suitable for my impressionable teenager?’ sometimes don't need replies t ...more

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Oct 21, 2015 Britt rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015

This book was amazing. I often get caught on an idea about what makes a good book and then books like The Book of Night Women comes along and basically says "No, THIS is what makes a good book". I appreciate how deliberate James was with his character development. I was concerned throughout the book that Homer would be some magical Negro that would be there to perform her superhero magic and save the day, but then we get into her flaws and I loved her complexity more and more as the book progres ...more

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Sep 09, 2020 Matt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Stirring and depressing is this Bildungsroman about a girl/woman born as a slave on a sugarcane plantation in Jamaica at the end of the 18th century.

Full of violence is this text – verbal and above all physical – and written in a language, Jamaican Patois, which was not easy to access for this ESL, but which I was able to get used to.

Intense, in every respect.

Whoever is not deterred by all of this will be rewarded with a book that will have a long & lasting effect.

#BlackLivesMatter

This wo ...more

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May 13, 2017 Carol rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: e-audible, literary-fiction, historical-fiction

Truly an astonishing piece of work. Mesmerizing. Horrifying.

Review to follow....

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May 25, 2016 Perry rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Night Women Awaken Jamaican Slave Revolt
4.5 stars

Set against the backdrop of a lush Jamaican sugar plantation in the early 19th Century, the novel follows the life of Lilith born to a slave mother, sired by a white master, who seems to have powers of darkness. After fending off a rape, she is sent from her adoptive slave mother in the fields to slave in the plantation house. Despite being warned by the mother-figure slave in the house not to try to ingratiate herself to the new master newly arri Night Women Awaken Jamaican Slave Revolt
4.5 stars

Set against the backdrop of a lush Jamaican sugar plantation in the early 19th Century, the novel follows the life of Lilith born to a slave mother, sired by a white master, who seems to have powers of darkness. After fending off a rape, she is sent from her adoptive slave mother in the fields to slave in the plantation house. Despite being warned by the mother-figure slave in the house not to try to ingratiate herself to the new master newly arrived from England, she does so and after making a mistake in accidentally spilling hot liquid on the master's Creole lady friend at a social event, she is whipped mercilessly at the same time every day for weeks.

Eventually she is taken in by the master's best friend, an Irishman named Quinn, to serve at his home on the plantation. Around the same time, the mother-figure slave and several of her half-sisters (all sired by the former master) begin meeting in the early, early morning hours, the Night Women, to plan a slave revolt on the plantation as retribution and retaliation for the atrocities brought upon them.

Lilith is conflicted because Quinn begins to treat her like a lady and protects her from harm. Lilith is falling in love with Quinn as the slave revolt quickly approaches, but trying to maintain her animosity for how she has been treated. This is "the human heart in conflict with itself" that Faulkner described as the stuff about which great novels are written. Any further description of the story would be considered a spoiler.

The book is written in the Jamaican slave dialect, which is not that hard to follow once the reader gets accustomed to it.

The Book of Night Women is an intense, unsettling tale full of detail on the vicious, relentless torture and torment which the master and his henchmen inflicted upon the slaves. At points throughout, I could feel my blood begin to boil from some of the resentment the slaves must have felt for their pain and loss and the unmitigated inhumanity to which they were subjected.

The novel strikes sparks of vengeance in the soul.

...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Chrissie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Chrissie by: Gaeta1

Shelves: hf, race, downpour, 2013-read, jamaica

The Jamaican patois, narrated by Robin Miles, is remarkable. I was able to find this audiobook at Downpour!

If you choose to read this book, you simply must read this version narrated by Robin Miles, but you must pay close attention. The Jamaican patois isn't the easiest to follow, but it is worth the effort. The narration adds to the value of the book. You are a slave and you HATE the English estate owners, particularly Miss Isabelle. I do at least. I want to slap her and ..... The different cha ...more

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Oct 02, 2020 fourtriplezed rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: my-fiction

This novel by noted Jamaican author Marlon James, The Book of Night Women, was going to be a hard act to follow for me considering that I thought that his next, A Brief History of Seven Killings, was a modern classic. Yes I have read these out of publishing order but it has made no difference. This too can be considered the same, a modern classic.

The Book of Night Women is gripping! It is written in patois/slave dialect and that may take some getting used to by causal readers but for those that ...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Kima Jones rated it did not like it · review of another edition

This is the worst book I've ever read in my life.I cannot discuss it without giving "spoilers," but I will say this: slave narratives are not the place to be fucking around.

James' language is crude, vile and lends nothing to the narrative. The narrative is hinged on over romanticized relationships between slaves and slave masters. In a very trite attempt to trouble the discourse or spark a nuanced discussion, Marlon James has successfully belittled the politics of enslaved black women of this ti ...more

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Dec 11, 2013 Aubrey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: person-of-everything, antidote-think-twice-all, r-2015, antidote-think-twice-read, r-goodreads, reviewed, 4-star, disturbation

4.5/5

Who is there when we recall great womens? My name write in blood and me don't answer to it much.

1785 was the year of the birth of Grimm and De Quincey and a character named Lilith, apparently. Some of that can be taught in grade school and some of it cannot, although that barrier evaporates soon enough judging by the conniptions people are throwing over the concept of trigger warnings. Rape. Murder. Systematic savagery. The stuff of modern day dystopias and zombie adventures except it already happened, white people. Your whiteness attests to that. Skin your body and call yourself European all you like, the wheels turned with every iteration of this Jamaican plantation long enough for consumers of the 21st to long for the 17th and the 18th, and the turning's winning for you still. What? Aren't you pleased? Everyone loves to be on top.

Canon, right? The heritage Europe owes to Ancient Greece? What's in a name when Homer's a slave and Gorgon's a slave and Atlas and Pallas and Circe are gods and monsters and sorcerers and slaves, slaves, slaves. Slaves to the whip and slaves to the derby-dose and slaves to whatever the whites can conjure up in matters of piercing and flaying and burning. What do you get when the power of imagination corrupts its fountain of youth and whatever crimes that long ago Hellenistic Age was guilty of are revitalized, reborn, reincarnated onto a larger spread of geography and a more thorough wing of Thanatos. Demeter lived six months in Hades, but she still lived. Andromeda was chained to a rock, but she was saved. Iphigenia was sacrificed in some and rescued by divine intervention in others, but we still remember her name.

Story arc? Character development? Will that prevent the likes of this narrative from ever happening again? It's been two centuries. What is it about truth that scares you so fucking much.

In 1801, I have Belinda. Others may have Lyrical Ballads, or Atala, or even The Magus. If any of these works contain a mention of the likes of Lilith that fuels them, rest assured academia will have obfuscated the evidence to a tolerable level. Holism does not get a paper published. Politics do not put food on a table. If you're inherently political for belonging to a demographic with a heritage of being said food on the table, well. If you belong to more than one, there's very little you owe anyone. White male philosophers cry out the death of the world and the novel and whatnot entire at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st. Some would prefer to kill it all rather than watch their socially indoctrinated narcissism choke on its own blood.

I didn't give this five stars cause I read underrepresented demographics to give myself a larger field of evaluation, not to praise a single work to the hills and assume that meant I didn't need to read Beloved and God's Bits of Wood and I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem and Omeros and forever more. I would've probably been rattled more into the full five territory had I not already read those four, but so it goes. If you haven't read any of those or this or perhaps another work that speaks of bildungsromans the Powers That Be would do anything to bury that you've been too uncomfortable to crack open as of yet, I'd advise you get on that. Don't you want to know what your civil conduct is made of?

No woman can afford to feel anything for a man in 1801.

White man sleep with one eye open, but black man can never sleep.

Rumour start to spread that it is woman who plan the whole thing, which make white man and niggerman, slave man and free man perplex, cause such devious and nefarious thinking was beyond the capabilities of the fairer sex, much less a bunch of goat-rutting savage womens.

In 1819, we had the publications of Shelley and Keats and Byron. None of them tell us much about how they came out on top, or what the bottom was made of. ...more

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Jun 21, 2016 Laila (BigReadingLife) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: authors-of-color, owned, historical-fiction, page-turner, read-in-2016, sad-but-worth-it, difficult-reading-experience, jamaica

This book was amazing.

Utterly devastating, but amazing.

Now I need to read and own everything else Marlon James has written or will ever write.

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Dec 10, 2018 Jan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I read this when it first came out and it has stayed with me. Marlon James is a writing god and this book is powerful beyond words.

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Feb 03, 2021 nastyako rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: best-of-2021, historical-fiction, poc

Wow. I loved this so much. This is a story of slavery and of incredible hate, abuse and violence. It's Marlon James after all, the violence can be sometimes gratuitous. But he is such an incredible storyteller. I couldn't stop reading, the story had such a pull and I was really in another world of Jamaican plantation. This is my second book of his after Black leopard red wolf and he is becoming my favourite author. I am definitely reading everything he'll publish. ...more

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Feb 17, 2009 Christina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: book_club

Jesus, what a book. This book is absolutely unflinching in its portrayal of slavery in 18th century Jamaica. Vicious prose, and in-your-face, no-holds-barred detail. It's also completely dedicated to voice and perspective, and the choices James made here are exquisitely laudable. It also weaves a beautiful story amid tragic characters, with enough sensory language to make you cringe. This is, absolutely, a book about what it means to make choices.

There are three things I'll say about this book:
1 ...more

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Sep 06, 2020 Tamara Agha-Jaffar rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-reading-challenge, favorites, books-i-ve-reviewed, fiction, historical-fiction

The Book of Night Women by Marlon James is a sweeping masterpiece set in a late eighteenth century Jamaican sugar plantation. The central character is a slave named Lilith.

Born into slavery, Lilith is singled out because of her green eyes. She is fortunate in that she is not required to perform the back-breaking task of working in the fields. As soon as she is old enough, Lilith becomes a house slave at the Montpelier Estate. There she interacts with other house slaves and is taken under the wi The Book of Night Women by Marlon James is a sweeping masterpiece set in a late eighteenth century Jamaican sugar plantation. The central character is a slave named Lilith.

Born into slavery, Lilith is singled out because of her green eyes. She is fortunate in that she is not required to perform the back-breaking task of working in the fields. As soon as she is old enough, Lilith becomes a house slave at the Montpelier Estate. There she interacts with other house slaves and is taken under the wing by Homer, the female head house slave. She experiences close-up the inhuman and demeaning treatment of slaves by slave-owners and overseers. She recognizes the hierarchy among slaves and sees how they are pitted against each other. Eventually, she becomes embroiled in a slave plot to rebel against the slaveowners.

In addition to describing the horrific conditions of slavery, this coming of age story shows Lilith struggling to understand herself and her identity as a woman and a slave. She feels torn between two cultures, aspiring to be recognized and treated as a desirable young woman but constantly being reminded of how she is perceived as nothing more than chattel. Her back is riddled with scars as a result of the frequent lashings she receives. She witnesses the unimaginable brutality perpetrated on slaves. She gravitates between hatred for slaveowners and a strong desire for acceptance, recognition, and love. Her feelings become increasingly conflicted when she finds herself developing a push and pull attachment to the Irish overseer who shows her tenderness and consideration.

The novel bristles with detailed and graphic description of unimaginable acts of physical and sexual violence. Frequent references to human body parts, especially female body parts, punctuate the narrative. Limbs are cut, torsos are lashed, flesh is burned, eyes are gouged, heads are severed, and every orifice of the human body is raped, tortured, or both. Marlon James does not sugar-coat the violence. His explicit descriptions are not for the faint-hearted.

What makes this novel an astounding achievement is the narrative voice, the identity of which remains a mystery until the end. The narrative unfolds in the rhythm, dialect, and syntax of Jamaican English. The dialogue is rendered realistically. James captures the ebb and flow of the vernacular so adroitly that one gets the sense of overhearing an actual conversation.

A narrative voice that is spell-binding; a cast of well-developed, strong, and highly complex female characters; description that immerses the reader in time and place; and an intricate plot that captivates from beginning to end—these are just some of the factors that make this a remarkable achievement.

Very highly recommended.

My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com ...more

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Mar 15, 2009 Kathy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book was AMAZING!!!! It was one of the few books I never wanted to put down and I even finished it in my designated book loan time period.

Warning this book is very graphic, language and imagery. What was the most powerful part of the book and of James' narrative was he described perfectly a system of oppression that you still see in today's society. The destruction of communities, pitting one person against another, the internalized oppression, you still see that today.

I also really liked ...more

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Dec 16, 2014 BookOfCinz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: caribbean-books, absolute-favorite, believe-the-hype, cant-shut-up-about-this, tt-library-reads, edge-of-your-pages, re-reads, loved, all-the-feels, books-i-want-to-own-phyiscally

June 20, 2018
Bad feeling is a country no woman want to visit. So they take good feeling any which way it come. Some time that good feeling come by taking on a different kinda bad feeling.

I first read "The Book of Night Women" by Marlon James three years ago and decided to give it a re-read because I remember enjoying the book a lot.

The Book of Night Women is set on plantation in Jamaica back in the 18th century. It follows the lives of the plantation owners and the some Night Women as they pl ...more

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About Marlon James

Marlon James

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Marlon James is a Jamaican-born writer. He has published three novels: John Crow's Devil (2005), The Book of Night Women (2009) and A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014), winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize. Now living in Minneapolis, James teaches literature at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

James was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to parents who were both in the Jamaican police: his mo ...more

Books by Marlon James

Marlon James Collection 3 Books (A Brief History of Seven Killings: WINNER of the Man Booker Prize 2015, The Book of Night Women, John Crow's Devil) Boundle

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“She not black, she mulatto. Mulatto, mulatto, mulatto. Maybe she be family to both and to hurt white man just as bad as hurting black man…..Maybe if she start to think that she not black or white, then she won’t have to care about neither man’s affairs. Maybe if she don’t care what other people think she be and start think about what she think she be, maybe she can rise over backra and nigger business, since neither ever mean her any good. Since the blood that run through her both black and white, maybe she be her own thing. But what thing she be?” — 17 likes

“Hate and love be closer cousin than like and dislike.” — 15 likes

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