Review: Burn Down Master's House

Burn Down Master's House by Clay Cane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the introduction the author states this book will make you uncomfortable and he definitely achieved that. We have four stories that could be four individual short stories. However, they build on each other. The main character in each story changes, but in the last they all come together more fully. The book takes place in the time of slavery in the South in United States with the main characters being enslaved, with a couple of exceptions.

The first story introduces us to Magnolia Row, the plantation, one of the cruelest in the area. After the events in this story the slaves scatter. The characters in all of the stories are all related in some way to Magnolia Row. In the last story the civil war has begun.

Each character finds a way to fight for their freedom, often in brutal way, paying retribution on their masters. But not always. In one story we have Charity Butler who is gains her freedom (for a time) by the laws in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This story in particular is based on true events.
Several other aspects of these stories are historically accurate. It does take some of the more brutal parts of history, but also shows how people persevered and reclaimed their lives. The book overall feels one sided, with very minimal white people being decent. The characters are not very nuanced. However, it does have one black man being just as cruel when becoming a slaveowner himself.

I listened to the audio which is narrated by the author, but did not really enjoy the narration style. It made a difficult book even more difficult to get through. The words were enunciated very deliberately and slowly, with a pause after every word. I had to speed up the narration more than I typically would to find a better reading pace, which helped. If there is any interest in reading this book my suggestion is to avoid the audiobook.


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