Match BookWe Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys
Erin Kimmerle
2022 · 256 pages · Narrative nonfiction
How it reads
We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys is narrative nonfiction (investigative narrative nonfiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in a small town setting, in the historical past, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are justice, loss and grief and class and society. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. At 256 pages it's a quick read. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something dark
- you want something to chew on
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy, heartwarming or funny
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- narrative nonfiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- small town
- Setting: time
- historical
- Mood / feeling
- dark
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- justice, loss and grief, class and society
- Ending style
- bittersweet
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated AmericaRichard RothsteinShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black PowerDanielle L. McGuireShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- Buried Women SpeakMia FallerShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy's Guide to Silencing WomenZoe VenditozziShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
Green River, Running RedAnn RuleShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace- Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of AmericaSarah KendziorShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
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