My first 5-star book of 2022! Home by Toni Morrison seems simple on the surface. It's about a brother and sister who are learning to cope with major changes in their lives. The brother has just come home from the Korean War and is living in a mental hospital. The sister has left her husband and accepted a new job. One day, the brother gets a letter from a stranger that says his sister's life is in danger. She'll die if he doesn't go to Georgia and rescue her. That's where the story begins.

How did I make it through 11 years of college without having this book forced upon me? If you want to learn how to write, you have to read Home. The writing style is poetic. The author is able to accomplish so much with so few words. This is a tiny book that feels huge. Every sentence is necessary. There's no fluff or filler. My copy is only 150 pages, but I feel like I know these characters. I badly wanted them to overcome their problems. I was scared and frustrated by their ignorance. They're so real that you love them and hate them at the same time.

Home doesn't have much of a plot, but the characters and writing style make it worth reading. Parts of it are extremely bleak. It's a book about racism, poverty, war, and mental illness. Not happy subjects. The characters knowingly and unknowingly get themselves into a lot of trouble. If you can handle depressing, character-driven literature, please read it! It's worth your time, especially if you want to be a writer.