Book Review: Copper Sun by Sharon Draper

This was an amazing novel! I don’t normally read historical fiction, but when I got this for my class, I was very intrigued by it. I will try to keep this review as spoiler free as possible.

Likes:

One thing that I really liked about this story was how realistic it seemed. We follow the tale of a slave girl from beginning to end and experience first hand the horrors and joys that she had during her life. Nothing that I could tell, was sugar-coated whatsoever. In fact, some of the scenes in this book push the comfort levels of the reader, so yes, there are some triggering scenes.

I also enjoyed the POV switching between the two characters. Readers are provided with unique perspectives not only from Amari, but also from poor servant girl Polly. Having the POV alternate between the two of them allowed the readers a more indepth perspective of these historical events.

Given the cruel reality of the situation that Amari found herself in, she still managed to have hope that her life will be better. It is a small, starving little ember of hope, but it is enough to push her forward in the story and keep her going when everyone else seems to have given up. Even though it might “take away” from the historical accuracy of the piece, I think that having it there really gave me a reason to read until the end rather than dnf it.

Spoiler Alert!!!!!!! Another, not so historically accurate, thing that I enjoyed was the ending. I loved how the hope grew into something better for [insert character’s name] and her friends. It made her a more mature person and allowed her a more realistic chance of starting over again. Even though it probably didn’t happen a lot in history, I think having it in this book, again, made it so a reader like me could finish it.

Dislikes:

The two things that I really did care for in the book are more personal preference than really anything wrong with the writing. These things were necessary to demonstrate to readers just how horrible and disturbing life was for slaves during that time period. I don’t think that they should be omitted, but read with caution if you’re someone who might be offended by these things.

I found that the amount of rape in this book to be very triggering. The scenes didn’t go into explicit detail but they were heavily implied throughout the book and made me cringe everytime I read about them.

Another big trigger in this book was the gore that was in it, especially spoiler alert!!!!!!!!! The scene where the baby gets shot right after birth. To be honest, I almost put the book down right then and there, but by then I was so invested that I had to figure out what happened at the end.

Overall, the biggest question that I was left with when I finished this book was this: Just how historically accurate is it? This book is historical fiction so really anything that you read in this, you should take with a grain of salt. Still, it would be pretty interesting to see if the author did her homework. Perhaps she might need to include some sources at the end for her information? If I were writing a historical fiction piece, I would definitely want to include my sources as well as something that states which scenes were based on true accounts and which ones were made up.