Review: Glory Over Everything
Glory Over Everything
Kathleen Grissom
Synopsis: In 1830, James Pyke is living life as a wealthy white man. But he has a dangerous secret that he must keep hidden. When his young servant, Pan, is kidnapped and sold as a slave in the south, James’s world starts to unravel. Now James must travel to North Carolina to save Pan, and bring him home on the underground railroad, with ruthless slave hunters close on their heels.
Glory Over Everything is the sequel to a book I read last year called The Kitchen House. I absolutely LOVED The Kitchen House and I was very excited to get my hands on its companion. It did not disappoint! Glory Over Everything was every bit as captivating as The Kitchen House was.
The story is fast paced and keeps you on edge. But not only that, Grissom writes like she witnessed first hand the horrors of slavery. She writes with such clear vision that at times it was almost hard to bear. Though, I appreciate her ability let you know what’s happening while sparing you the graphic details. I also admire the way her characters grow throughout the story. Each character in the book has their own story, they have depth, and dimension. I almost feel at a loss for how to describe it! I am a BIG fan of Grissom’s writing.
There are a couple of minor things I struggled with. First, if you are going to read Glory Over Everything, be sure to read it close to having read The Kitchen House, and don’t try to read Glory Over Everything without having read The Kitchen House. There is a lot that is intertwined between the two books. Even getting started reading Glory Over Everything, I had to pull out my copy of The Kitchen House to remind myself of certain details. Second, I found the first couple of chapters slightly discombobulating. It doesn’t start off exactly where The Kitchen House left off. It flashes forward to when James is a grown man. The first couple of chapters are about his life now, before flashing back to where the first book left off, and then catching you up. While I was intrigued by the story, I was left feeling like I had missed something. However, once it flashed back to where we left off at the end of the first book, it all came together and I was completely hooked. But those are really my only criticisms.
If you haven’t read The Kitchen House yet, go right now and get both that one and Glory Over Everything. Then read them both closely together. If you enjoy slavery era historical fiction, these two books are must reads for you!