It is seriously killing me to see some people shelving this as historical fiction. Please help I cannot be that old. I chose this book for my February Book of the Month because its premise intrigued me. I'll admit I wanted a bit more of the mystery element of her son and what happened to him than we ended up getting. In fact, the reader learns pretty early on who Ruth's son is while Ruth is left still asking questions for many pages. I'm not really a big fan of reveals before the character learns them, I find them frustrating to read.

This was a slow read. I think because the reader learns about Ruth's son so early on there's not as big of a rush to see what's going to happen next. The only real mystery is when Ruth will eventually stumble across the truth of her son and even when that happens the story drags out their eventual meeting. I did really enjoy Ruth and Midnight as the two narrators of this story. It was interesting to compare their childhoods as they both share a love of science and lived in Ganton with all the disadvantages the town has to offer. I found the small friendship Ruth and Midnight were working up to so sweet. I loved that part of the story where we have a woman deciding if she's ready to be a mother and a child who needs to be nurtured colliding with each other.

Johnson did an excellent job describing Ganton. I could easily see the small town falling to ruin, now that its factory finally closed down. Even the random background characters fit the town so well from the guy working the gas station to the stray dog wandering the streets. The setting for this story was set impeccably well. There were a lot of excellent race discussions in the book. Some that were expected like what it means to be black in America. Even with the recent election of Obama the country as we well know wasn't magically cleansed of racists. There was also some good discussion surrounding Midnight and his imitation of Black kids. Ultimately I wasn't happy with the book's ending, though I'm not quite sure how else it could have ended. There was a lot of neatness, a lot of the character's issues just suddenly gone and wrapped up. I think the book missed the mark in regards to Ruth's son in particular and where he was left at the end of the story.