by Tiya Miles
A rerelease of a previously published book following a substantial revision, The Cherokee Rose is a work of fiction written by a historian at the top of her field. Miles is a professor at Harvard University and the Radcliffe Institute for Advance Study, and if you haven’t read her fantastic works of non-fiction (especially Ashley’s Sack), you’ve been missing out. The Cherokee Rose presents the reader with three women drawn to a former plantation house owned by a chief of the Cherokee Nation in what is now Georgia. Jinx is a Cherokee tribal historian and grad school dropout living in Oklahoma; Ruth is a magazine writer in Minnesota with a troubled past; and Cheyenne is the well-to-do daughter of a prominent Black family in Atlanta who’s hoping to uncover her family’s rumored Cherokee roots.
Likes: This is history that has little coverage in fiction, and the Cherokee Rose beautifully unpicks the complex relationships between white, Black, Cherokee, and mixed-race people both during the 19th century and the ramifications these have for the present day. There are diary entries from a fictional 19th century character (based on a real person) that convincingly replicate the writing style of the period. The diary has an immediacy and an emotional impact that pulled me in and kept me turning pages, frantic to find out what happened to the 19th century women whose lives it describes. And the introduction and author’s note do a fantastic job of detailing where fact became fiction and providing sources.
Dislikes: While I loved Jinx and Ruth’s characters, I felt Ruth’s backstory veered into melodrama. Cheyenne at times almost felt like a caricature of a spoiled little rich girl. And occasionally, some factual historical information intruded on the story in a way that felt like an info dump. However, I wouldn’t let these critiques prevent me from recommending this book to fans of historical fiction.
FYI: murder, rape, abusive relationships, misogyny, racism, slavery, difficult childbirth.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Random House, for my advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.
Liz Helfrich 