War is always a bloody and destructive thing and in House of Crimson Roses by Chad Lester we see first-hand how it affects people. The book opens on the eve of the American Civil War with the attack on Harper’s Ferry. It soon transitions to one particular family, the Beaumonts, and the slaves that they own. Emma has just been sold to the Beaumonts and has to adjust to being on a big plantation where the slaves are not treated nearly as nice. Isaiah is a young slave working on the Beaumont plantation where he deals with adjusting to being a field slave after having grown up in the big house as the unacknowledged child of Miles Beaumont, the head of the Beaumont family. Noah is the young son of Miles Beaumont who has to deal with adjusting to the horrors of war after his father pushes for him to join the Confederate Army. Elmira is Miles’s wife who struggles to keep the family together as she deals with her son leaving and the lack of affection from Miles. Each of their stories intertwine over the course of the war to form a picture of what war and slavery actually looked like.
This was an interesting book in that it didn’t shy away from the reality of what life during that time period was probably like. It didn’t try to downplay the horrors of slavery or the horrors of war but in doing so it did create a certain intensity to what it was portraying. This intensity did make it difficult at times to read. What was interesting is how the story depicted these events from the perspective of four different but related individuals. Most stories like this one typically only use one or maybe two perspectives or end up using a half a dozen or more perspectives. This was just enough to help add extra layers but not enough to confuse the reader which was a good balance. The plot did a pretty good job of following the events of the war while also allowing the different character’s individual storylines to develop. Not every book is able to balance these kinds of things but this book did. I actually found myself more drawn in by these individual storylines than I did by the war storyline. Specifically, how well the characters were portrayed and developed over time. There was enormous character growth over the course of the book, more so for some characters than others. Isaiah really grabbed my attention as he starts out as this perpetually angry and hate-filled young man who wants to destroy everything related to the Beaumonts the first chance that he gets. This changes over time but only because he is slowly introduced to other emotional concepts as he slowly develops a relationship with Emma as they fall in love. The way he is at the end of the story is rather drastically different in many ways than the way he is at the beginning of the story. Emma in contrast manages to gain a rather large amount of independence and personal strength due to what she faces during the same time so she also exhibits similar character growth. The buildup of these characters as they face these rather extreme circumstances was great and really enjoyable to watch. A great book and one that gets four out of five stars from me.
This book is a great piece of historical fiction that does a pretty good job of dealing with some pretty gruesome topics, namely slavery and the American Civil War. If you happen to enjoy reading about that time period or enjoy reading historical fiction in general than you should probably consider reading this book as it is pretty good. However, it is also quite graphic at times and does deal with a lot of mature or semi-mature topics in addition to the obvious themes of violence and war. As such, I am not sure how well it would be suitable for younger readers. If they are older teens or young adults than they might be fine but probably nobody younger than that due to the content. As always feel free to share your thoughts in the comments if you do decide to try it out. This book was acquired with the help of LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program.