The American Daughters
A Novel
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The American Daughters
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Narrated by:
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Lynnette R. Freeman
About this listen
“An enthralling tale of a secret resistance movement run by Black women in pre-Civil War New Orleans.”—Time
“Stirring . . . In telling this important, neglected history with imagination-fueled research, The American Daughters offers an inspiring story of people who show a way forward with their perseverance, bravery and love.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)
AN ELECTRIC LIT AND KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Ady, a curious, sharp-witted girl, and her fierce mother, Sanite, are inseparable. Enslaved to a businessman in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the pair spend their days reminiscing about their family’s rebellious and storied history and dreaming of a loving future. When mother and daughter are separated, Ady is left hopeless and directionless until she stumbles into the Mockingbird Inn and meets Lenore, a free Black woman with whom she becomes fast friends. Lenore invites Ady to join a clandestine society of spies called the Daughters. With the courage instilled in her by Sanite—and with help from these strong women—Ady learns how to put herself first. So begins her journey toward liberation and imagining a new future.
The American Daughters is a novel of hope and triumph that reminds us what is possible when a community bands together to fight for their freedom.
©2024 Maurice Carlos Ruffin (P)2024 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Bold and ambitious . . . Ruffin urges us to lay claim to an odds-defying legacy of determination and willful optimism.”—Los Angeles Times
“A riveting coming-of-age story . . . captivating and vividly rendered.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Vividly told in the here and now.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Philadelphia, 1837. After Charlotte escaped from the crumbling White Oaks plantation down South, she’d expected freedom to feel different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. After all, Philadelphia is supposed to be the birthplace of American liberty. Instead, she’s locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, as they both attempt to hide their identities from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives.
-
5 out of 5 stars
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Great historical fiction
- By Heidi M on 02-12-25
By: Ashton Lattimore
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The Mayor of Maxwell Street
- By: Avery Cunningham
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 178
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 166
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Story4 out of 5 stars 166
The year is 1921, and America is burning. A fire of vice and virtue rages on every shore, and Chicago is its beating heart. Nelly Sawyer is the daughter of the “wealthiest Negro in America”, whose affluence catapulted his family to the heights of Black society. After the unexpected death of her only brother, Nelly becomes the premier debutante overnight. But Nelly has aspirations beyond society influence and marriage.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Better Ending next time!
- By Matt & Lindsy on 02-11-24
By: Avery Cunningham
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If Cotton Could Talk
- A Blackwashed 19th Century Pre-Civil War Fictional Story That Depicts The People, Tone And Events Of The Era.
- By: Alvin M. Hayes
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 2 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
If Cotton Could Talk," is a civil war era historical fiction novel about 19th-century slave life in the South. You will be introduced to a cast of characters; Black mothers and fathers who are fearless, smart, and devoted to family and justice. Heroes and heroines whose leadership gave enslaved people hope. But before freedom comes, they must survive other slaves who prove to be untrustworthy. At the same time ruthless, hostile, hateful men are determined to keep the status quo. Pre-Civil War, 1850, enslaved people could sense that their lives were going to change. Slaves reasoned that they...
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3 out of 5 stars
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Needs an actual narrator
- By Rainy Butts on 06-03-25
By: Alvin M. Hayes
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Home and Away
- By: Rochelle Alers
- Narrated by: Patricia R. Floyd
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 13
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 13
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Story5 out of 5 stars 13
Harper Fleming is done with being passed over. As a journalist for a Chicago newspaper, she’s been refused a shot at the sportswriter position she longs for. And her on again/off again relationship is going nowhere. Leaving both behind, she heads to Nashville, Tennessee, where she plans to interview her widowed grandfather, Bernard Fleming, for a book about his father Kelton Fleming’s time in the Negro Baseball Leagues. When Bernard reveals health issues within days of her arrival, Harper assumes responsibility for taking care of him.
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5 out of 5 stars
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What a great story
- By KAS II on 04-17-25
By: Rochelle Alers
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The Unsettled
- A Novel
- By: Ayana Mathis
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4 out of 5 stars 47
From the moment Ava Carson and her ten-year-old son, Toussaint, arrive at the Glenn Avenue family shelter in Philadelphia 1985, Ava is already plotting a way out. She is repulsed by the shelter's squalid conditions: their cockroach-infested room, the barely edible food, and the shifty night security guard. She is determined to rescue her son from the perils and indignities of that place, and to save herself from the complicated past that led them there.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Well that was depressing
- By Holly on 12-05-23
By: Ayana Mathis
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Junie
- A Novel
- By: Erin Crosby Eckstine
- Narrated by: Angel Pean
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 180
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 173
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Story5 out of 5 stars 173
Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie. When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A brilliant masterpiece
- By Kindle Customer on 06-23-25
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Death of the Author
- A Novel
- By: Nnedi Okorafor
- Narrated by: Liz Femi, Anthony Oseyemi, Jason Culp, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 295
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 279
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 279
In this exhilarating tale by New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor, a disabled Nigerian American woman pens a wildly successful Sci-Fi novel, but as her fame rises, she loses control of the narrative—a surprisingly cutting, yet heartfelt drama about art and love, identity and connection, and, ultimately, what makes us human. This is a story unlike anything you’ve seen before.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Her best yet?
- By Emily on 01-22-25
By: Nnedi Okorafor
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The Undertaker’s Assistant
- By: Amanda Skenandore
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 432
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 384
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 381
"The dead can't hurt you. Only the living can." Effie Jones, a former slave who escaped to the Union side as a child, knows the truth of her words. Taken in by an army surgeon and his wife during the War, she learned to read and write, to tolerate the sight of blood and broken bodies - and to forget what is too painful to bear. Now a young freedwoman, she has returned south to New Orleans and earns her living as an embalmer, her steady hand and skillful incisions compensating for her white employer's shortcomings.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A riveting story that will keep your interest.
- By Patricia on 08-02-19
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Happy Land
- By: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Ashley J. Hobbs
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 117
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 114
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Story5 out of 5 stars 114
Nikki hasn’t seen her grandmother in years. So when the elder calls out of the blue with an urgent request for Nikki to visit her in the hills of western North Carolina, Nikki hesitates only for a moment. After years of silence in her family, due to a mysterious estrangement between her mother and grandmother, she’s determined to learn the truth while she still can. But instead of answers about the recent past, Mother Rita tells Nikki an incredible story of a kingdom on this very mountain, and of her great-great-great grandmother, Luella, who would become its queen.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Relatable
- By kathy w. on 05-24-25
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The American Queen
- By: Vanessa Miller
- Narrated by: Angel Pean
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 240
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 223
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 223
Transformative and breathtakingly honest, The American Queen is based on actual events that occurred between 1865 - 1889 and shares the unsung history of a Black woman who built a kingdom in Appalachia as a refuge for the courageous people who dared to dream of a different way of life. Over the twenty-four years she was enslaved on the Montgomery Plantation, Louella learned to feel one thing: hate. Hate for the man who sold her mother. Hate for the overseer who left her daddy to hang from a noose. Hate so powerful there's no room in her heart for love.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The life of the Queen
- By R. Dameron on 03-26-24
By: Vanessa Miller
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Mrs. Wiggins
- By: Mary Monroe
- Narrated by: Shari Peele
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,683
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,360
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,347
The daughter of a prostitute mother and an alcoholic father, Maggie Franklin knew her only way out was to marry someone upstanding and church-going. Someone like Hubert Wiggins, the most eligible man in Lexington, Alabama - and the son of its most revered preacher. Proper and prosperous, Hubert is glad to finally have a wife, even one with Maggie's background. For Hubert has a secret he desperately needs to stay hidden. And Maggie's unexpected charm, elegance, and religious devotion makes her the perfect partner in lies....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Really enjoyed
- By avidreader on 04-07-21
By: Mary Monroe
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Empty Vows
- By: Mary Monroe
- Narrated by: Ruffin Prentiss, Tracey Conyer Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 907
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 839
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Story4 out of 5 stars 837
Forty-something widow Jessie Tucker is beloved throughout Lexington, Alabama, for her kind heart and endless generosity. But she feels it's past time she rewarded herself—especially when upstanding Hubert Wiggins tragically loses his wife and son. Making herself indispensable, yet discouraged by Hubert’s lack of romantic interest, Jessie cooks up a deception she knows will make pious Hubert do right by her....
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1 out of 5 stars
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POOR NARRATION
- By Raven B. on 06-18-22
By: Mary Monroe
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Take My Hand
- By: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- Narrated by: Lauren J. Daggett
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 4,022
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,624
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Story5 out of 5 stars 3,612
Montgomery, Alabama, 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend intends to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she hopes to help women shape their destinies, to make their own choices for their lives and bodies.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Page Turner Based off True Events
- By LATOYA LEWIS on 06-10-22
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Good Dirt
- A Novel
- By: Charmaine Wilkerson
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 442
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 428
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 428
When ten-year-old Ebby Freeman heard the gunshot, time stopped. And when she saw her brother, Baz, lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered pieces of a centuries-old jar, life as Ebby knew it shattered as well. The crime was never solved—and because the Freemans were one of the only Black families in a particularly well-to-do enclave of New England—the case has had an enduring, voyeuristic pull for the public. The last thing the Freemans want is another media frenzy splashing their family across the papers, but when Ebby's high profile romance falls apart, that's exactly what they get.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Moments of brilliance
- By MyLastRomanceNovel on 03-01-25
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Harlem Rhapsody
- By: Victoria Christopher Murray
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 337
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 331
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 331
In 1919, a high school teacher from Washington, D.C arrives in Harlem excited to realize her lifelong dream. Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness. But she holds a secret that jeopardizes it all. W. E. B. Du Bois, the founder of The Crisis, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Horrible Representation
- By Kwana Nicholas on 04-05-25
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Sky Full of Elephants
- By: Cebo Campbell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon, Erin Ruth Walker, Janina Edwards
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 659
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 634
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 634
One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charlie Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old left behind by her white mother and step-family.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Ever wish that some folks would just disappear?
- By Alioop on 12-11-24
By: Cebo Campbell
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Time of the Child
- By: Niall Williams
- Narrated by: Dermot Crowley
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 389
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 368
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Story5 out of 5 stars 368
Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father’s shadow, and remains there, having missed one chance at love – and passed up another offer of marriage from an unsuitable man. But in the Advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy’s lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The very top of my Audio listens.
- By Whipsnead on 12-24-24
By: Niall Williams
Beautiful fictional tale based on lived experiences
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Great Characters
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Love love love!
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Engaging story that made rethink how I reflect on history
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RECOMMENDATION: SKIP IT
Redundent
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