Take My Hand

 

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was an excellent historical fiction piece about the de facto eugenics practices that were brought to bear on marginalized populations in the 1960s and 70s in America. Perkins-Valdez does a wonderful job breathing life into these characters and they feel real and nuanced. She gives dignity to the victims and investigates the complications "help" can cause. Because her characters are so well-fleshed out, it allows the reader to live in the era and situation instead of reading a story that runs parallel with facts and figures. Eugenics in particular is so horrifying to me--that we practiced it here in America and for so long. A book that needs to be read.

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