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Content snapshot
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Violence
Very heavy
Beatings, torture and the machinery of slavery are shown directly; one sequence has a master beating and raping an enslaved woman
Language
Some
Period dialect with racial slurs used in historical context; profanity itself is light
Sexual Content
Very heavy
Coerced sex is the novel's subject
Substance Use
Some
Resort drinking among the slaveholders
Emotional Intensity
Ms
What this book is about
Tawawa House in the 1850s is a real place where Southern slaveholders vacationed with enslaved mistresses — in a free state, within walking distance of escape. Perkins-Valdez follows Lizzie, Reenie, Sweet and Mawu through the summers there, and through the arithmetic of whether to run when your children are still property back home.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Rape and coerced sexual relationships under slavery
Child sexual abuse (protagonist is thirteen)
Torture and beatings
Forced separation of mothers and children
Reader Verification
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