Red at the Bone
On the night of her sixteenth birthday, Melody wears the cotillion dress her mother never got to wear, descends a staircase in a Brooklyn brownstone, and is surrounded by relatives whose own unfinished stories weigh the air in the room. Jacqueline Woodson's 2019 novel unfolds around that single moment, looping back through the quiet catastrophe of Melody's mother Iris becoming pregnant as a teenager, the fracture it opened between her and her own mother, the shame of the boy's family, and the long tail of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre that still shapes how her grandparents move through the world. Short, lyrical, and structured in alternating voices, the book is less a chronological family story than a set of overlapping griefs and graces across three generations of a Black middle-class family.
What you might want to know about Red at the Bone
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Sixteen-year-old Melody steps into her grandparents' Brooklyn brownstone for her debutante ceremony. From that night the novel spins back through her parents' teenage romance, a family fortune, and a Tulsa fire.
Red at the Bone was written by Jacqueline Woodson and published in 2019. Woodson is a Newbery Honor winner whose other works include Brown Girl Dreaming and Another Brooklyn.
Red at the Bone is published as adult fiction, though Jacqueline Woodson is best known for her YA and middle-grade work. The novel's brevity and accessible voice make it a popular crossover read.
Red at the Bone is 208 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Red at the Bone takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
Red at the Bone is a standalone novel by Jacqueline Woodson, not part of a series.
Red at the Bone is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
