I’ve had Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me on my reading pile for an embarrassingly long time. I was incredibly intimidated by it because I already had an inkling of the pain that is inherent in a Black man’s existence, and I didn’t know if I could handle reading a whole book about it. It’s still sitting on my pile, waiting for that time.

Then, I discovered Coates had just come out with a work of fiction. I felt like that was a format I could handle.

I binge listened to the book, which takes place in Virginia during the time of slavery, several days at a time, then would have to take a break for a few more days before coming back to it when things got too intense. The pain of slavery is something we allow ourselves to forget about. It will tear you to pieces.

This is yet another audiobook with a fantastic narrator. He not only handles multiple voices and accents, but also has a great singing voice.

The story is a work of historical fiction, with an appearance by a well-loved, real life historical figure. Yet Hiram, the protagonist, remains in the forefront of the story, telling his tale. The way it is braided together kept my interest throughout. I truly didn’t know where the story was going, nor did I feel like I was being played with, and the way things wrapped up at the end was a surprise in spite of foreshadowing.

The book made me cry, and I was talking back to it, too. It was just a good story. Like the best stories, it ended in just the right place.

When I was a kid, we had a rule that we had to read the book before watching the movie. The rule has stayed with me to adulthood. The first time I remember breaking that rule was Gone With The Wind as a teenager, and I did it again with the Harry Potter movies in college (but read all the books later, twice, and liked them way better). I could see The Water Dancer being made into a good movie, with the right people behind it. You should definitely read the book so you’ll be ready when that happens.

After I wrote this, I did a quick search to fact check and quickly hit an article saying that in this debut novel, Coates is not an amazing novelist. Yet.

Some of the criticism, like the fact that the story contains a lot of monologues, is true. And some first books are just not good. I didn’t feel like that was the case for The Water Dancer. Sure, there is potential for Coates to get better, but he told an interesting, emotional story pretty well his first time out of the gate, and I’ll be interested to see what else he comes up with if he continues to write fiction.