Review of The Prodigy Slave, Book One: Journey to Winter Garden

[Charity Barnes]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Prodigy Slave, Book One: Journey to Winter Garden" by Londyn Skye.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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In The Prodigy Slave, Book One: Journey to Winter Garden Londyn Skye follows the story of Lily, an African American slave in mid-nineteenth century Virginia as she pursues dreams, friendship, and love through a life wrought with trauma and oppression. The story begins with nine year old Lily being savagely torn from her mother’s arms by her owner (and father) and sold at auction. Lily struggles to find her place in this new household while coping with the loss of her only family. Only two things make her new life bearable: an unlikely friendship with a boy her age, named James, and unearthing her own God-given talent. Fourteen years later, when it seems both of these things have also been ripped away from her, Lily feels herself slipping into despair, but hope comes when she least expects its. Lily will need the help of friends, new and old, to fight for the chance to prove herself to a country that only wants to see the color of her skin.

Londyn Skye does an incredible job of not only bringing her characters to life, but transporting the reader to 1850’s Virginia. The characters were driven by such strong, tangible emotions that I couldn’t help but feel invested from the start. Skye’s use of dialect and historically accurate language (while sometimes uncomfortable to read) makes the story ring true; she even goes so far as to include a prominent figure from history. I’ve always felt that fiction is truly successful when you can fool the reader into believing it’s all real, even if just for a moment, and Londyn Skye certainly did that for me.

One of my only complaints about this story is that the third person omniscient point of view, while giving really great insight to the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters in each scene, made some parts of the story seem very drawn out. Skye also often interrupted scenes with flashbacks, which did give the reader a better understanding of the relationship between the two main characters and fill in things that happened during time gaps, but could also make some chapters drag on.

I gave this book four out of four stars because I found the story compelling, the characters relatable and realistic, and the historic elements accurate. Overall, the book not only lured me in but maintained the illusion of reality which to me really completes the experience of reading fiction. While there were some aspects of the author’s writing style that were not compatible with my reading style, I didn’t feel that was reason enough to deduct stars. I would mention that if you are an impatient reader, like myself, with a short attention span you may sometimes find this book a little slow moving. This book was also very well edited; I didn’t even notice any errors as I was reading.

I would definitely recommend this book to mature audiences who enjoy romance and historical fiction. I would warn that this book does contain profanity and racial slurs and behavior that would be expected of the time period, as well as sexual content, as those may be triggers for some readers. This book is the first in a trilogy and does end in a pretty intense cliffhanger. I definitely plan to read the next two books to find out where Lily’s story takes her.

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The Prodigy Slave, Book One: Journey to Winter Garden
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