Official Review: Henrietha: Waiting for the World to Chan...

[Nelsy Mtsweni]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Henrietha: Waiting for the World to Change book 2" by Joyce M. Johnson.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Henrietha – Waiting for the World to Change book 2 is a thought-provoking and heart-touching fictitious novel. It is the second book of the series, Henrietha, written by Joyce M. Johnson. Henrietha and Joana, two older women who are best-friends, share their fair shares of challenges in life as they catch up with each other after some time apart. Henrietha recalls not just her own sufferings, but also those of her child, Melinda-Sue, and her granddaughter, Ruth. After Ruth’s father lends in jail, Melinda-Sue finds herself getting married to Jason, who then sexually abuses Ruth from the tender age of five years old, for seven years. Although Melinda-Sue knew what was happening, she sided with her husband and insisted that Ruth kept mum about it.

After Melinda-Sue gets imprisoned on the charges related to drugs, Jason would lock Ruth outside the house at night because she rebelled and went to church when he told her not to. When Ruth turns fifteen, she visits her biological father who recently got out of prison. But what does this mean for Ruth? Now that daddy’s home, will she receive love and protection from her father and be a child again? Or is her birth father a sexual pervert like her stepfather?

I liked that the stories shared in the book covered a wide range of themes. Those themes included gender, power, race, religion, love, guilt, stigma, and class. I also enjoyed reading about these women’s stories, as they successfully painted vivid pictures of the events they recalled. Although their stories were engulfed in sadness, they added a twist of humor occasionally to lighten up the reader from the darkness of the tales.

The book was poorly edited. There were a handful of spelling mistakes, wrong use of punctuation and the sentence construction was disastrous in some cases. I spent more time than I was meant to reading this book because I was attempting to make sense of what Johnson was trying to say. I found the book to be untidy in that one chapter seemed to be way better edited than the other. It was as though they were not written by the same person.

I, therefore, rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. This is due to the editorial errors I encounter when reading the book which made it more of an effort than a pleasure to read this novel. I am not giving the book a lesser rating than I have because it touched on important issues which have gruesome effects on our lives as individuals, and our societies.

The book featured a great number of Bible verses, therefore, I would recommend this book to those who conform to the Christian belief or anyone not offended by its principles. Otherwise, anyone who wants to get a good holistic view on how one issue in the society, such as racism, can aid in creating other more disturbing issues, such as stigma and segregation, can be enlightened by reading this book.

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Henrietha: Waiting for the World to Change book 2
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Like mtsnel006's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Rosemary Khathibe]

Being sexually harassed from the tender age of 5 until 12 years old must have been very painful for Ruth, and to think that her grandmother did nothing about it is even more heartbreaking. It's sad that the book was poorly edited. Enchanting review!

[Debjani Ghosh]

The editing must have been really shoddy that compelled you to deduct two stars because you have not mentioned any cons of this book. Other than the fact that this book deals with dark themes, I could not find any lacunae pertaining to this book in your review. In that case, I will prefer to stay away from this book because reading it seems more like a pain in the neck. Thanks for the review!

[Mindy Conahye]

This book seems to cover a wide variety of topics. I think I would enjoy that it does touch on such topics and that it includes Bible verses. However, a poorly edited book can make an enjoyable book not worth the effort.

[jcoad]

Lots of deep topics in this book. Not sure it sounds like pleasurable reading, but I guess may be important reading. I don't think worth fighting through the editing errors to read. Thanks for the great and honest review!

[Manali_DC]

Sounds like an interesting story, but poor editing is always a turn off! Thanks for an honest review!

[Connie Otwani]

It's horrendous for a child to be sexually abused for 7years, and the mother siding with the abuser. Really sad. I also can't stand unedited books.