3 Stars for Ta-Nehisi Coates's The Water Dancer

I really feel awful giving this book a three star review for two reasons: 1. Most of my teacher friends love this book and 2. It's clear Ta-Nehisi Coates did a ton of research which deserves reward. My problem with it is that it reads like a one of those true crime stories with unknown actors and actresses. The main character, Hiram was as flat as a pancake cooked in Crisco. Despite his hard life, I never got the emotional outpour of emotion from him and my theory on this is that Coates did way too much telling. As a reader, I like to feel and think for myself. The only character with the potential to pull at my heart strings was Sophia. This would have been a much better book if Coates had let her tell the story and allowed her to show her emotion rather than tell us what she was feeling. Considering the background of the book, loosely based on William Still, an African-American abolitionist, this is a noteworthy book, but it is not a literary great such as Morrison or Hurston.