Dee's Reviews > The Kindest Lie

Phew! I feel as though I have been listening to this book forever. I really have to stop doing fiction audio books because I really just do not enjoy the experience.

This was a WSJ+ giveaway book from when the newspaper was doing that. I still have so many audiobooks and also ebooks on the Glose app from that.

This novel was really more of a 2-1/2 star read but I'm bumping it up. So much of it is repetitive. How often did I have to hear that Ruth regretted her decision? In fact, I didn't really like anyone in this novel. Xavier loses his crap because his wife didn't tell him she gave a baby up for adoption. Seriously? The grandmother does all kinds of stuff never telling the grandkids she's raising. Midnight's family considers "sending him" to Louisiana. On and on and on. No one in this novel ever made a good decision seemingly. And everyone flagellates themselves over everything endlessly.

There are good messages here - about the differences in how Black children, especially boys, grow up. How they have to walk the straight and narrow if they don't want to get caught up with the law and run the risk of being killed. The message is a little overdone, and I didn't like the idea at the end - that Midnight would be "just fine" because he's a white boy. Midnight is not at all in a good situation. Lena is a great grandmother, but how long will she live with her chronic health issues and the way she doesn't take care of herself. His father is racist and out of work and not very interested in improving their situation. And his aunt is barely functional herself. Plus he's got an arm that's of not much use to him. He's got a real chance in getting lost to drugs, crime, or just plain stupidity.

Mainly, I am glad this book is over.