Ruby (Bond)

Book Reviews
Channeling the lyrical phantasmagoria of early Toni Morrison and the sexual and racial brutality of the 20th century east Texas, Cynthia Bond has created a moving and indelible portrait of a fallen woman.... Bond traffics in extremely difficult subjects with a grace and bigheartedness that makes for an accomplished, enthralling read.
Thomas Chatterton Williams - San Francisco Chronicle


A beautifully wrought ghost story, a love story, a survival story.... [A] wonderful debut.
Angela Flournoy - Los Angeles Review of Books


In Ruby, Bond has created a heroine worthy of the great female protagonists of Toni Morrison…and Zora Neale Hurston…. Bond’s style of writing is as magical as an East Texas sunrise.
Dallas Morning News


Ruby explores the redeeming power of love in the face of horrific trauma…. If the truth shall set us free, Ms. Bond shows us, in her story of grace, that love is truth.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Bond proves to be a powerful literary force, a writer whose unflinching yet lyrical prose is reminiscent of Toni Morrison’s.
Oprah Magazine


Evocative, affective and accomplished…. Bond tells the story of Ruby and Ephram’s lives and their relationship with unflinching honesty and a surreal, haunting quality.
Texas Observer


If you love well-written historical fiction and multifaceted grown-up characters, put Ruby at the top of your beach bag.... Bond delivers multiple goods with this one.
Essence


Cynthia Bond creates a vibrant chorus of voices united by a common struggle…. [T]he prose’s lyricism and Ruby’s interaction with the dead call to mind Beloved…. While Bond’s characters may sense the inevitability of loss and loneliness, they are also driven by something else, a timid hopefulness that they may find serenity and compassion amid the ghosts who haunt them.
Rumpus


Exquisite, juxtaposing horrific imagery with dreamy evocative lyricism.
Lambda Literary


Bond’s debut novel is difficult to read for its graphic and uncomfortable portrayal of racism, sexual violence.... Bond is a gifted storyteller, able to make the reader squirm with anger and unease as she vividly depicts how easily bad things happen to good people.... This is a grim tale, well told, but there’s no comfort in these pages—just tragedy and heartache.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) Ruby's story is truly that of a people and a place, outlined lyrically and honestly, even when the most brutal events unfold. Verdict: Definitely not for the faint of heart or for those who prefer lighter reads, this book exhibits a dark and redemptive beauty. Bond's prose is evocative of...the greats of Southern gothic literature. —Jennifer B. Stidham, Houston Community Coll. Northeast
Library Journal


(Starred review.) [A] powerful, explosive novel. Bond immerses readers in a fully realized world, one scarred by virulent racism and perverted rituals but also redeemed by love.
Booklist


Bond is an accomplished.... Some of the more intense passages of the novel lapse into purple prose, and the...closing redemption feel[s] somewhat pat. But the force of Ruby's character, and Bond's capacity to describe it, is undeniable. A very strong first novel that blends tough realism with the appealing strangeness of a fever dream.
Kirkus Reviews