The House of Eve - Sadeqa Johnson - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Sadeqa Johnson

GENRE: Historical Fiction

RATING: 3.5 Stars.

In a Nutshell: Works in bits and pieces but I wanted far more. Quite predictable. Covers important themes and certain elements of African-American history that I wasn’t aware of.

Story Synopsis:

1948. Philadelphia. Fifteen year old Ruby, the illegitimate child of a self-obsessed single mom and raised by her grandmother, dreams of going to optometry college. However, when she meets a white Jewish boy, her future threatens to spill away from her grasp. Can Ruby take a chance at forbidden love while retaining her ambitions?

1948, Washington. Eleanor has joined Howard University with great dreams. After all, her working class parents have slogged to send their only daughter for further studies. When she meets the rich and handsome William Pride, she falls for him despite the huge difference in their status. But to become the wife of the wealthy Mr. Pride while coming from a poor family isn’t going to be a cakewalk. What will Eleanor need to do to fit in?

How the lives of Ruby and Eleanor are interlinked is for you to find out by reading the book.

The story comes to us in the first person perspective of Ruby and the third person perspective of Eleanor, with the two perspectives presented in alternating chapters.

PSA: The blurb reveals too much. (Yet again!)

Where the book worked for me:

😍 It is quite fast paced. The writing provides all necessarily details without bogging you down with frivolous details.

😍 Ruby’s track is much more interesting and cohesive than Eleanor’s. I loved the author’s choice of ending for Ruby.

😍 The story is divided in multiple sections, with each section dealing with a specific phase and event in the lives of the two girls. I liked this compartmentalisation.

😍 I’ve never read any book that details the lifestyle of the wealthy Blacks of the 1940s. Their classist thinking, their preference for ‘white’ or ‘light’ skinned people from among their own race, and their wannabe-white attitude is interesting to read.

😍 Without going into spoilers, all I can say is that the place where Ruby lands in the third section is a shameful part of American as well as Christian history. While the writing goes down the stereotypical part in its portrayal, milking every negative and ignoring any positive, it is still worth reading.

😍 The author’s note at the end adds the right tone of authenticity to the content.

Where the book could have worked better for me:

😐 Almost every character except for Ruby and Eleanor are clichéd and their behaviour, mostly guessable. 

😐 The link between the two stories can be spotted a mile away, or rather, at least 50% before they actually intertwine.

😐 Eleanor’s story started off well, but her track with William soon becomes irritating, what with her thoughts about him going back and forth between trust and doubt. It becomes too repetitive after a while.

😐 There are no major surprises in the story except at the very end. Every part is predictable.

😐 Surprisingly for such an intense topic, the writing feels almost lightweight. Except in the above-mentioned third section, emotions aren’t explored consistently. The first half feels especially superficial.

😐 Though the writing is quick, the plot development is clunky in the first half. There’s a greater stress to the romantic relationships than to the social struggles.

I haven’t yet read the author’s most popular book ‘Yellow Wife’, so I can’t make a comparison. But based on what I had heard about that novel, I had expected this to create a far greater impact on my mind. I still can’t pinpoint what exactly about the writing left me like a bystander, but I couldn’t find myself gripped by the story or the characters at any point. I liked it enough, but other than Ruby, no one will make a mark.

Recommended to historical fiction lovers who want to read about a not-so-common angle of African-American history with a hefty dollop[ of romance.

My thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the DRC of “The House of Eve”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.