The world Catherine Adel West built with her words was a world I wanted to jump back into as soon as possible. The Two Lives of Sara helped me do just that.
In my review of Saving Ruby King, I talked about how I got a little turned around when I realized all the main character's grandparents were friends. But as soon as I started reading Sara's story, I realized we finally had a prequel. We had answers to all the secrets that had been hidden for decades.
Sara's story is a sad one.
But it's also a hopeful one.
While Ruby's story takes place in Chicago churches, Sara's story takes place in a Memphis boarding house. When Sara turns up at The Scarlet Poplar, unwed and pregnant, Mama Sugar doesn't ask any questions. She welcomes Sara and puts her right to work. At The Scarlet, they take care of each other and always look out for their own. For Sara, that meant letting them help her sort out her feelings about motherhood on her own terms. There was always someone there to hand Lebanon off too, and she did without a second thought. That is, until she met Jonas.
Jonas lit up her world and somehow broke through her icy exterior. They had big plans for their future, but it all came crashing down. Sara had finally opened her heart and everything fell apart.
As we know from Saving Ruby King, Lebanon goes on to have a child of his own....Ruby. While both Ruby and Sara's stories delves into topics like racism, gun violence, domestic violence, and suicide; Sara's story has more hope, more growth, more resilience. But I think the cities and era's fit both narratives. Sara was in Memphis in the 1960s, the civil rights movement was in full swing and everyone had hope for a better life. But then Ruby was in the midst of 1990's Chicago, a time when violent crime was on the rise and not looking to back down. Racial profiling, police brutality, and riots were the norm. Both of these stories fit in beautifully with the drastically different worlds they were set in.
Looking for the rest of the series?
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