Is it hard to read?
Somewhat. Lyrical, poetic prose and a braided structure require attention as the narration alternates among Jojo, Leonie and Richie across multiple timelines. The emotional intensity adds to the reading effort.
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Fantasy
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Highly regardedNational Book Award, 2017Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 63 / 100High
- Length
- 320 pagesScribner · 2018
- Reading time
- 6 h 30 minat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Measured
- Emotional intensity
- 5 / 5
About 6 h 30 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 13 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
In rural Mississippi, thirteen-year-old Jojo helps his grandparents raise his little sister Kayla while their mother, Leonie, struggles with drug addiction and their grandmother, Mam, has cancer. When the children's father, Michael, is released from Parchman prison, Leonie takes them north to collect him. The journey brings Jojo into contact with Richie, a boy's ghost whose memories of imprisonment connect the family's troubles to an older history of violence.
Reader notes
Lyrical and often painful, the novel alternates among Jojo, Leonie and Richie, treating encounters with the dead as part of everyday life. Tenderness between generations runs alongside addiction, child abuse and racial violence; the family story requires accepting its supernatural dimension.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Atmospheric · Descriptive · Lyrical · Poetic
- Tone
- Atmospheric · Dark · Intimate · Melancholic
- Structure
- Braided · Multiple timelines
- Driven by
- Atmosphere · Character · Relationships
- Point of view
- Multiple viewpoints
- Setting
- Bois Sauvage, Mississippi (fictional)
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 4 / 5
- Ideas
- 4 / 5
- Structure
- 4 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Coming of age
- Family
- Memory
- Mortality
- Race and racism
- Trauma
Content notes
- Violence
- Strong
- Sexual content
- Mild
- Swearing
- Strong
- Substance use
- Strong
- Abuse
- Strong
- Self-harm or suicide
- None
Standing and awards
Highly regarded
- National Book Award, 2017
- Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist, 2018
- PEN/Faulkner Award shortlist, 2018
- Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction finalist, 2018
- Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, 2018
- National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, 2017
- Kirkus Prize finalist, 2017
- Los Angeles Times Book Prizes finalist, 2017
- NYT 10 Best Books, 2017
Questions readers ask
Are the ghosts central to the story?
Yes. Encounters with the dead are treated as part of everyday life, and Richie's memories of imprisonment connect the family's troubles to an older history of violence. The family story requires accepting its supernatural dimension.
Is it a fast-paced read?
No. The pace is measured, with attention to atmosphere, character and family relationships. Alternating narrators and multiple timelines shape the telling alongside the trip to collect Michael from prison.
What difficult content should I expect?
Strong abuse, substance use and violence include child abuse, Leonie's drug addiction and racial violence. Mam's cancer also brings mortality into the family story, while strong language contributes to its harshness. Tenderness between generations sits alongside these painful subjects.
How long is it?
320 pages in the Scribner 2018 paperback edition.
Which edition is shown here?
Scribner · 2018 · paperback. ISBN 9781501126079.
How long does it take to read Sing, Unburied, Sing?
About 6 hours 30 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 320-page Scribner edition. Dense books can take longer.
About the author
Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward is an American novelist and professor of creative writing at Tulane University whose work is rooted in Mississippi and the Gulf Coast. Her first three novels share the fictional town of Bois Sauvage, a community modeled on her hometown of DeLisle and developed across books through recurring characters and families. This sustained attention to place allows Ward to examine rural Black life at close range, especially the pressures of poverty, racism, family obligation, grief, and historical memory. Her fiction is lyrical and atmospheric but firmly attentive to physical labor, danger, and the practical terms of survival. In Salvage the Bones, the approach centers a family preparing for Hurricane Katrina; in Sing, Unburied, Sing, shifting perspectives and spectral presences connect a contemporary household to the history of Parchman prison. Let Us Descend extends her range into the antebellum South while retaining her concern with endurance and the afterlife of violence. Ward’s distinction lies in treating place not as backdrop but as a living, continuous social world.
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Edition and details
- Publisher
- Scribner
- Publication year
- 2018
- Format
- paperback
- Pages
- 320
- ISBN
- 9781501126079
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 2017
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Fantasy · Gothic Fiction · Literary fiction · Coming of age · Contemporary literary · Magical realism
- Editions
- 12
- Languages
- 2 (English, Unspecified)