Tayari Jones Departs Atlanta with Two NFL Jerseys and a Ruckus

Amazon Customer: Excellent book. Well written. Jones is a great Author and this is the 3rd book I have read that she has written. I like that this was written from kids point of view. Their thoughts and fears about it it events surrounding them.

United States on Nov 17, 2023

Kindle Customer: The third book I read by Tayari and as usual, she doesn't disappoint.
She knows how to tell a story and make you feel it.

United States on Aug 28, 2023

Ga303: I use five stars very, very sparingly. Four stars is a "good" book for me. Five is a rarity. I did not waffle at all when assigning that number to "Leaving Atlanta," which is one of the best works of historical fiction I have ever read.

I was not previously familiar with Tayari Jones' work. I recently stumbled on an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article recalling the Atlanta Child Murders, and came across "Leaving Atlanta" as a novel associated with this. I devoured the book in less than 48 hours, basically anytime I had an opportunity to read even a few sentences further.

I have lived in Atlanta for more than 25 years as an adult, and as a child, grew up around 40 miles from the city in a small town where Atlanta was the mecca for things like Rich's and the Pink Pig at Christmas, and where Atlanta was the source of our TV news. While I was younger than the child characters depicted here, I recall hearing snippets about these horrific events when the news was on in the evenings -- likely shortly before my parents changed the channel if I was present, because they almost certainly would not have had an answer at the ready should a child as young as I was have questions...

United States on Jun 29, 2023

Erika: I read this book when it was first released years ago. The storyline stayed with me all of these years later. I enjoyed reading it again. It’s still such a wonderfully weaved tale about an unforgettable part of history. I connected with this book based on my memories of visiting Atlanta during this frightening period. It was so interesting to get a feel for what it must’ve been like for the kids living through the nightmare. Jones did an amazing job of creating complex, fully developed characters. I felt so attached to them and their experiences. I love the way she crafts a story. This was absolutely worth a second read.

United States on Mar 16, 2023

DR STEPHANIE WOOD: Very interesting well written book

United Kingdom on Dec 22, 2020

Amazon Customer: For many reasons this novel should be essential reading. It's subject matter is weighty and deserves the full attention of the public in general. It also offers wonderful insights into children's minds, for few adults can recall so much of their thoughts and feelings through years when embarrassment of one form or another loomed so large, let alone write about it with all the grace of a Jane Austen or an Anne Tyler. The sense of Atlanta through those harrowing years is a great contribution to social history. It is certainly no less valuable as a contribution to history than the documentation of the beginnings of social profiling in Mindhunter, the book that gives insights into the FBI's investigation of the Atlanta Child Murders. Ms Jones skillfully sidesteps taking sides in the controversy surrounding the investigation, while at the same time providing insights into the view, deeply held by many in the community of that time, that the murderer '... must be a white man'. Incredible to discover that this is a first novel. It shows all the promise of a major American novelist of the stature of Toni Morris on or Philip Roth. A great cause for celebration.

United Kingdom on Nov 29, 2020

Kindle Customer: Really like Tayari's storytelling. This was such an insight in the life of the 9 year olds and into African American culture and language.

United Kingdom on Jan 23, 2019

KC Girlfriends Book Club: In Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones I did find some of the characters easy to relate to from that particular era because I was around the same age that this story was told. So that wasn't really the issue with me. What didn't work for me was that the book was told in segments that focused on one particular household; their family life; and how the murders affected them. So it was almost like you were reading a series of novella's that required you to start all over with getting the back story about the family and then seeing where it lead to. I think the book would have been better if it were written as a continuous novel where the reader would have learned about each of the families from the beginning to the end where the story could have unfolded better. About half of the dialog really wasn't beneficial to the story line at all for me. If you understood the make up of Black families back then the scenes that were described made sense but you really didn't get a sense of where the story was going with most of the families. The story about Rodney's family is told in second person and it really didn't flow well with the other segments to me. I also didn't feel like I received a full...

United States on Jul 19, 2013