I really wanted to like this book. Reading comes easy for me, but man did I struggle with this book. The writing style is choppy and all over the place. That being said, I stuck it out. I became more engaged in the story at the 2/3 mark, but by the end grew bored and frustrated. The introduction of new characters and the random lore dropping was annoying. The message in this book is great, I just wish I could have it without all the filler crap.

I’m struggling to get through this book. I grabbed it at my local Goodwill because it said it was on Oprah’s book list. It is slow and difficult to follow. It doesn’t tell you what year it takes place. The characters aren’t very interesting. There’s no real direction. I’m halfway through the book and don’t understand what the plot of the story is?

I have never been disappointed by books from Oprah's Book Club books. Just finished reading MOTHER OF PEARL and I just can't get over the beauty of Melinda Haynes' writing, the complex characters and the lives of these people. I cried, laughed out loud, giggled, and sobbed and sometimes all this in one chapter. I felt love, sadness, hope, and anger, equally toward all of the characters and I want to know them all. This book makes me want to go and find these people, because I know they exist. Fantastic book all around! I will read more of Melinda's books for sure!

I wanted to love this book because I am from Hattiesburg, but my god the stupidity on paper. I mean REALLY??!! Gotta add some incest in a book about Mississippi don't we? Contrary to uneducated belief, we do not all like to have sex with out cousins, brothers, etc. This book was trash. I didn't even finish it, and I won't pass it on because I don't want to subject anyone else to the lack of a decent plot and a poorly written piece of literature.

It takes awhile to get into this, but once I did, I enjoyed it. However, the description on the jacket is very misleading. Yes, there is a black man in his twenties, and yes, there is a white teenage girl, and yes, together they find the family they always dreamed of, but not as a couple. This was both sad and triumphant. A great first novel.
2021 colour reading challenge-white (pearl)

It makes me sad that this is the only book in probably the last 20+ years that I just put down and never finished. I just absolutely could not get into it. Boring!

I laughed out loud when I read some of the reviews because they were clearly asking the question that I asked myself when I finished the book: why did the author write the book? She took us through a lot of traumatic events with multiple characters but seemingly with no conclusion. I ended up asking myself why I had to go through all that sadness for nothing? 3 stars for good writing and making culture in the deep south come alive , but it lacked an equally strong plot and faded at the end.

This is one of those peculiar tales where I need to squeeze my brain a little bit to make sense of it. From all the books that I’ve read, this book read closest to The Lonely Hearts Hotel in both it’s historical setting and bizarre adventure. While I may loved The Lonely Hearts Hotel, I don’t think I love Mother of Pearl as much. Yes it was very lyrical and beautiful and atmospheric and a very unique tale of fate and love, and even though I finally able to grasp everything at the very end after reading the book very slowly, I still think that I didn’t get answers for most of my questions, and I think that most parts of the book still felt a bit meaningless and were there only for the arts or whatnot. Still a very interesting and thought-provoking read, recommended if you want a little challenge in reading your book. 3 stars!✨

Yikes I hate quitting a book but this novel forced me to develop a cut off point. The characters are nuanced and interesting enough but the book has no plot. I got to 150 pages (33%) and still there was no story. There were funny moments along the way but certainly not enough to overlook the lack of a storyline. I shouldn’t have to wait until a half way mark or later for a book to become engaging.

At first I was going to give it an average rating (3/5), but the story has grown on me since I left it.

The first half of the book is absolutely beautiful in its dialect, it’s story, and it’s voice. However the last third, after the flood, seemed like a labor for the author (almost like the editors told her to make it longer). Hated the outcomes of the characters. I was let down by the quiet life of Joleb after he migrated through the asylum. The last third felt almost formulaic.

As it does fall under the “southern gothic” and “grit lit” descriptors, it does follow the usual tropes of incest, mysticism, and race relations. I wanted it to take me elsewhere, though, and not to the same place I’m accustomed to going with this sub genre.

However, it’s so well written, that even now, four novels read since, I still look back with a sense of desire and aching hollowness the book left me with, I’m haunted by it, and that is much more than I can say about the majority of novels I’ve read. Reluctantly 4/5.

It was a slow start for me. It wasn't always clear where and whom the characters were. In saying that, as I read, I fell in love with the writing. It was a perfect balance of poetry, humour and colour. Haynes is the master of analogy, and made each sentence spring to life in front of me, and in time I grew to love the characters for their unique voices and flaws. So incredibly human. I will happily read more from Haynes.

Audiobook- I feel like there is something special to this book but the way it was written would have thrown me off if I had read it myself I think. Story of love and secrets and dealing with race in 1950s Mississippi