Thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for this ARC!

This book was very well written, making for a great reading experience. I thoroughly enjoyed how the story focused predominantly on the women and their varied experiences. It was also very evocative of a time and place, both brutal and spiritual. A very special book that I would recommend to many.

This book follows enslaved women on a plantation. It is very emotional and hard hitting. The characters are so well developed. The ending was unexpected

A beautiful novel. The author really goes deep into the reality of slavery and what it looked like on a group of women that make the story way more personal and intimate.

The writing wasn't fully working for me- I found it a bit detached at points however overall this was a beautiful book- the author manages to show the brutalities of slavery while also putting the focus on the relationships between the women characters. Overall a good read

Published in April this year, Night Wherever We Go is a debut novel about a group of enslaved women on a small cotton farm in Texas in the 1850s. It is a story of quiet resistance, survival and sisterhood in the face of a meagre, dehumanised existence brought about by the terrorism of slavery and of white supremacy.

The cotton farm where the women are enslaved is struggling. In order to boost its finances, its owners The Lucys (so named by the women, from the spawn of Lucifer) employ a "stockman" to impregnate the women with a view to multiplying the number of slaves available to work. One of the women, Nan, is familar with the medicinal properties of plants and enlists the women in a pact to avoid pregnancy by chewing on the roots of the cotton plant. The pact is fraught with danger, however, as if the Lucys find out, they will double down on their plans.

I read an interview with the author where she explains that she drew inspiration for the book from an anecdote in another book (Paula Giddings’ When and Where I Enter) about a small group of enslaved women that controlled the birth rate on their farm for over two decades using herbal abortives. The case was documented in a Tennessee medical journal as a warning to doctors and slaveholders about the “wiliness” of enslaved women.

Night Wherever We Go reminded me in many ways of Toni Morrison's Beloved - it is similarly lyrical with mesmerising prose, but less obtuse and more readable. It is experimental in that it switches from a third person narrative to first person plural and this is where the book really sings - the collective voice of the women is where they derived their power and their only means of resistance, however futile and fragile that may have been.

This isn't an uplifting read; it's sad, it's melancholy, it's oppressive, but it is beautifully written and the characters are wonderfully distinct. Stories about slavery play a vital role in understanding the generational trauma that flowed from it and that is still felt today. Never has it felt more necessary to be reminded of humanity, of moral integrity and of dignity for all people. I wouldn't be surprised to see this book feature on the Women's Prize longlist next year. 4/5 stars

*Night Wherever We Go was published in April 2023. Many thanks to the publisher The Borough Press for a copy via @netgalley. As always, this is an honest review.*

Some interesting commentary on the devastating effects of racism, slavery and the darkness that is alluded through in the title definitely follows you throughout the book. I found the book quite slow paced and thought the happier ending was rushed.

This novel offers a poignant and powerful glimpse into the everyday horrors that enslaved women in Texas had to endure. It is moving and beautifully written, making it an incredibly accomplished debut. It is a must-read for anyone seeking to gain a deeper understanding of this dark chapter in history.

A heartbreaking read and one I am very glad to have read. It is so well written that I read it in one sitting on holiday. Its an emotional story that I found bard to read at times but I feel that it is also an important read.

An historical novel about enslaved women. There is a lot of tension which builds on many different fonts, a hard and sad tale of American history. It is well written and gives a glimpse into the life of these poor slaves

This debut is a transfixing work of historical fiction, rooted firmly in awful fact. Set on a plantation in Texas in 1852, the book opens as six slave women meet in the woods, under cover of darkness: they have found a place where they can talk safely, which soon becomes essential for their survival.

Their ‘owner’, Mr Lucy of The Lucys (his family has been named by the women after Lucifer, the devil) has hired a ‘stockman’– Zeke, another slave – to impregnate the women and bear a second generation of slaves. They have each tried and failed to dissuade Zeke from his task, yet his life also depends on the women becoming pregnant. The eldest of them, Nan, shares her herbal knowledge: chewing on cotton roots can help to prevent or end pregnancy, and if all of the women fail to become pregnant, they can point the finger at the stockman rather than themselves, sparing them the emotional and physical burden of bearing a child into this world. The plan only works if they all take part: the danger is that if one woman slips up and becomes pregnant, they risk revealing their plan to their sadistic owners.

Peyton’s writing is stark and visceral, sparing the reader nothing, yet the book is impossible to put down, grimly beautiful in its descriptive passages of nature, human bodies, remembrances of past times of peace and hope for future contentment. This is a haunting, absolutely heartbreaking read that will stay with you for a long time after its final pages.

Reviewed in the June issue of Cambridge Edition – thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC
https://online.bright-publishing.com/view/284400817/24/

On a Texas plantation, six enslaved women planned a rebellion. They meet after dark to discuss their dire situation. When the plantation owners, called the Lucys by their slaves (after Lucifer), decided to save their financial situation by hiring a “stockman” to impregnate the women, they knew they had to act to protect themselves...

Night Wherever We Go is a gripping and powerful story. It presents the lives of women who struggle to maintain some control over their lives and bodies. The narrator paints intimate portraits of the characters, their feelings, pasts and desires for the future. I wanted to love it, but the story was too fragmented, and the detailed introspections made it move very slowly.

This was a tough, hard-hitting read. Not because of the writing, which was excellent, but because of the content. An important, realistic account of the atrocities of the era.

This was a really interesting book, both delicate and powerful, hugely atmospheric, but perhaps not as absorbing as I would have liked.

´this was a thrilling compelling read that will stay with you after reading. I found this moving and a fresh look

This had good and not so good parts. I thought the concept was great, the closer look at the breeding of slave women was really compelling. Unfortunately I found it a little unemotional despite the subject matter. I don't know if it's the constant changing narratives but it felt like you only got a glimpse of characters and some were more fleshed out than others. Perhaps needed to be longer or have a smaller narrative focus.

CW: As this novel is set on a plantation in the antebellum South, it contains details of the brutal treatment of slaves, including rape, physical abuse and lynching.

Texas, 1852. The Harlow family owns a struggling cotton plantation, with bad weather, and the inhospitable land sabotaging their dreams of making their fortune. In a desperate bid to turn their fortunes around, the couple - known as 'The Lucys' by their slaves for their proximity to Lucifer - decides that the most effective course of action is to force their six slave women - Nan, Sarah, Junie, Patience, Lulu and Alice - to have children. (The intention being to raise more slaves, plant and harvest more crops, and make more money.) When the women catch on to the scheme - thanks to the arrival of a travelling 'stockman', they are determined that this will be one aspect of their lives over which they will maintain control.

The story is narrated by an omniscient 'we', whom I took to be the collective voice of all of the slave women. This device allows us an insight into the private thoughts and dreams of each of the women, while also periodically seeming to take a step back and offer commentary on the broader events which frame the novel, such as the Lucys' deteriorating fortunes and Mrs Lucy's difficulties with breastfeeding her own children. This first person viewpoint does require a degree of suspension of disbelief, as they also fill us in on events the women could not possibly have been aware of, such as the growing abolitionist sentiment in the United States and its effects on the psyche of the Southern slave owner. Some readers may also feel that, by choosing not to describe events from a particular character's viewpoint, the author creates a more detached, impersonal tone when describing even the most brutal occurrences. However, this rang true for me as I felt it reflected how the women would try to close themselves off from the worst of their experiences, escaping the pain by imagining it was happening to someone else.

The story is clearly carefully researched, with reference to specific historical events woven into the narrative in order to contextualise the story and place it at a specific point in time. The Lucys, particularly Mrs Lucy, are more developed characters than are often portrayed in this type of narrative; frequently the slave owners are just sadistic villains, cruel to the slaves because they can be. While the author in no way attempts to justify their behaviour towards the women, and they certainly are cruel, the story does go into detail about why they did what they did, and how they were able to rationalise it to themselves.

The relationship between the six women is thoughtfully, realistically portrayed. While they share a bond because of their shared predicament, and they protect each other (and each other's secrets) from their common enemy, The Lucys, they do not have an uncomplicated, beautiful friendship as can be implied in this type of story. They irritate and frustrate each other, resent each other and, at times, feel betrayed by one another. The author makes an effort to differentiate each woman from the rest by referring to her life before Texas, her family, and her beliefs and superstitions. We see each woman react differently to the events that unfold, rather than the group be portrayed as a homogenous, united collective. Of the group, Serah and Nan, the youngest and the oldest of the women, have the most page time and the most developed arcs, but Junie and Patience are also beautifully, hauntingly portrayed. Lulu is a more minor character, but is still clearly characterised so that the reader feels that we understand her motivations, even though the other women don't.

The ending was my least favourite part of the story as it felt rushed and the final episode felt unexplained and unlikely. However, the introduction of a group of minor characters, through whose perspective we see the women, worked well in showing how their story fit into the bigger picture of the South at a time when abolitionist sentiment was gaining ground.

Overall, I thought Night Wherever We Go was a fascinating, compelling and melancholy story which will stay with me. I look forward to reading this author's future works.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

This is a really heavy subject but the writer’s perspective and style prevent it from feeling like a ‘trauma dump’. The enslaved women’s voices and stories were each distinct, and their desires and priorities remained unique despite shared experiences and fears.

One of the best parts of this novel, was that the white women were not just portrayed as complicit bystanders, instead they were explicitly and actively involved in the business of slavery and the mistreatment of enslaved people. The author did an incredible job creating a white woman who could critique sexism’s impact on her life (specifically the expectation that she keep birthing children), and yet did not carry her critiques through to her treatment of enslaved women, instead perpetuating the same sexism with the addition of racism in all her interactions with the women.

As much as the novel focused on the abuse of enslaved people as ‘breeders’, in contrast with motherhood, the women were not reduced to this storyline alone. Their belief systems and inherited cultures were a really interesting part of the story, as was the shifting relationships between them.

This novel was honest about the reality of slavery, but it was purposeful and carefully told.

Peyton has created a riveting, intimate portrait of six enslaved women thrust together on a struggling plantation in Texas where they spar and bond in their mutual struggle to survive and thrive under desperate conditions.

Harlow is a plantation owner determined against all odds — and there are many — to grow cotton in the “land of wheat.” And his wife Lizzie is none too happy to have been uprooted from her home in Georgia to live in Texas, which “was still new, only a few years old in the Union.” Collectively they and all white people are referred to by the women as “the Lucys” — short for Lucifer. Acquired from different places and under different circumstances, the women share little in common besides enslavement.

The oldest is Nan, a maternal healer, midwife and cook. Impulsive Serah is the youngest. Patience is separated from her husband and clings to her young son, Silas, who is being groomed as a “house boy.” Junie grew up as Lizzie’s personal attendant and was forced to leave her children behind in Georgia. Alice spreads misery wherever she goes. And Lulu is a lost soul who’s been sold so many times she steals and lies just to feel connected to something.

At the heart of “Night Wherever We Go” is the evolving relationship between these women who spend their days together cooking, cleaning, sewing, weaving, planting and harvesting. Then at night they sneak out of their cabin to gather in the woods beneath an oak tree — a bucket tipped upside down at its base to “trap the sound” — where they talk about their travails.

There’s no way to truly comprehend the life of enslaved women in the American South during the Civil War, but Peyton’s captivating novel lights up the imagination in a way that leaves you with a better understanding of the horrors they endured

This was such a good book. I love historical fiction, especially when it is about eras/ situations that I previously knew nothing about and this was definitely one of those books. It was so well researched and so compelling in its narrative that not only did I love reading it but I felt that I learned too. A really enjoyable read and perfect for any fans of historical fiction.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

A very different approach to writing about slavery, and it's a compulsive read.

Six women, enslaved to a plantation owner, live together and work together. The owner and his wife, referred to as 'The Lucys' bring in a stockman with the sole purpose of impregnating them and therefore increasing the value of their slaves. However, the women decide to stick together and avoid pregnancy - and hope they're not found out.

The whole idea of slavery is abhorrent but, for many, it was their lives. This is a very different kind of novel, looking at matters from a different perspective and it is bursting with food for thought. The characters lift off the page, and I was quickly invested in each of their lives. It is, by the very nature of the topic, shocking but the women are admirable. Beautifully crafted and well-written, I was hooked from the beginning to the very end and shall certainly be keeping my eyes open for more from this author. An excellent read, and one I'm happy to recommend. 4.5*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

A gripping, searingly emotional novel that offers an original insight of the hardships endured by a small community of enslaved women. Set in Texas on a small struggling cotton farm we learn of the daily routines f both the owners " The Lucys" and the women that made these these farms worked. From organised reproduction (rape) by a travelling enslaved man to increase the workforce, to enforced wet nursing to owners friends, we the reader understand more of the minutiae that characterised this debasing period. We admire the small protests and the cohesion amongst these women. Such a well written engaging piece of work.