Happy Land - Audiobook Review
- missybigskybooks
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Title: Happy Land
Author: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Publisher: Berkley
@berkleypub
Genre: Historical Fiction
{Thank you @prhaudio for the #gifted audiobook! This dual POV/Timeline story has two narrators, Bahni Turpin and Ashley J. Hobbs. Both are brilliantly preformed. They made me be able to easily visualize Nikki, Luella, Mother Rita, and the kingdom ‘Happy Land’.}
First things first: How stunning is this cover!? Wow! I will definitely be buying a copy for my shelf!
“If there was one thing I had learned from slavery, it was hope is a fragile thing.”
Happy Land is inspired by memories of African Kingdoms, a community of formerly enslaved men and women who grasped freedom on mountain land they owned. But freedom doesn’t last forever…
“Maybe I would’ve understood that the possibilities for my future were limitless”
Today, after years of silence, Nikki has been summoned to North Carolina by her estranged grandmother. But instead of learning about why her mother and grandmother no longer speak, Mother Rita wants to tell the story of her great-great-great grandmother, Queen Luella, and the very land they stand on.
“Buy back our own land? We’ve lived on this land for generations. It’s ours!”
As Nikki learns about the Kingdom of Happy Land, she realizes how much of her identity is rooted in this family land and what they stand to lose.
“You can’t do it if you can’t imagine it.”
Happy Land tackles heirs property laws. This is a subject I’ve read a little about (Most recently in Long After We Are Gone by Terah Shelton Harris) but overall don’t know a ton about. Dolen clearly did her homework; don’t miss her author’s note at the end! This story is beautiful and heartbreaking, but redeeming. I felt very satisfied with the ending. I loved all the conversations of flowers and the beautiful land. A must read!
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