12 Years a Slave

This is an excellent read. True life recount. Very touching!

This is an amazing piece of American history as told by the author who endured this horrific 12 years of hell. Absolutely jaw dropping, eye brow raising! It’s a very quick read as it’s so interesting and has you on the edge of your seat. A real life horror story with a thankfully happy ending. So well written. I bought 6 copies to share with friends and family!

I had never seen the movie for this and like all movies that are adaptations, I like to read the book first. This was an incredible book. I also bought this “banned in Florida” book for my son to read at school. Suck it DeSantis!

Despite being an older book, 12 Years A Slave is not a hard read. I would not say the language is "simple" persay but it is definitely not difficult to read, not too wordy or lengthy or full of old "isms" or long drawn out paragraphs like a lot of old nonfiction and fiction works tend to be. Solomon Northup is very descriptive and was good at being able to set the picture of events as they happened in a descriptivist fashion. Which is all the more better for readers who - while intended for people of the north who probably never saw what Plantation and slave holding life was like - in the modern era are far removed from that reality. I would say the book is actually superior to the movie adaptation in that, while the movie is a great modern take, the book is more accurate to Solomon Northup's views of his time as well as the fact the book doesn't get oversaturated in the brutality of slavery but rather presenting it as it is and also not holding any punches. I would say that 12 Years a Slave is a good read, a definitely good buy, and highly reccomended to all - young and old.

I'm not complaining about the narrative of the book because I haven't read more than the first two chapters, my complain goes against Amazon employees handling the item: I order 5 shorts and two books including this one, they came in an Amazon box as usual, the thing is that whoever package this decide to place the two softcover books at the bottom, then the weight of the 5 shorts on top and for some reason those air bags at the top of all, so obviously covers of the books came with creases, a more obvious packaging will be to protect the books surrounding them with the shorts... is like they don't even care anymore. So about the book, as in product quality, this edition is made from newsprint paper type, softcover is average in material but the printing is really good, colours stand out. I'll probably review the narrative of the book itself when I finish.

I love historic memoirs and was very excited when I discovered the movie "12 Years A Slave" was based on one. Every American should read this book. It is a window into our brutal past. And yet, despite this brutality, Solomon Northrup's inspirational human spirit shines through. The man was simply amazing: multi-talented, philosophical, clever, physically and mentally strong, and dare I say it...funny. There are several moments of genuine humor in this book -- totally unexpected, to be sure! -- that prove, no matter what our circumstances, one must attempt to live to the best of one's ability. Read this book and be proud to be in the same race as Solomon Northrup: the Human Race. And don't forget, BLACK LIVES MATTER!

I bought the book after I watched the movie. Great book, great movie. I think I never realized how evil slavery is, until I watched the movie and read the book.

I was amazed at how well this book was written. Solomon Northup was very eloquent, writing in the style of the times. I loved his objectivity throughout the book, for example seeing the beauty in a field of cotton in bloom. He's very good at describing objects, feelings, situations etc. It's worth it just to read the writing style, but the story, of course is very compelling.

Great book, easy to be read. I watched the movie on a few occasions and decided to purchase the book.

Not written from the movie, rather his memoirs from years ago. Quite dry, and hard to get into.

J'ai bien aimé ce livre et reçu les larmes aux yeux. Le niveau d'anglais est plutôt élevé mais on y arrive comme même à lire.

This story is non-fiction. In July 1808 Solomon Northup, a Black man, was born in New York State. In 1829 he married; he and his wife had three children. They were an ordinary family, living, working, being schooled in freedom in the northern states of the US. In 1841, Solomon became an innocent victim of what we today would call a scam. Supposed business associates in Washington DC (at the time a slave trading city) drugged, kidnapped and dragged him to a slave pen. In chains he was sold at a slave market in New Orleans and eventually ended up at the cotton plantations in the bayous running off Red River, an offshoot of the Mississippi. Most of the book is about Solomon's time as a slave on the bayous, the almost unbelievably bad treatment he received and witnessed, with vivid characterisations of his fellow slaves and his "owners." In 1853, he became free again, having received help in proving he had been born a free man of the North. This is a truly horrifying and gripping story; descriptions of slave life, labour and punishment are vivid and unforgettable. Solomon Northup wrote beautiful, old-fashioned English which fills me with delight (if only American English today could be as good as his was!), and his book teaches readers much about US history that many of us may not have known. An important book, very highly recommended.

this is not a book you can love but it happened,it is true,i found it hard to believe one human being could treat another human being like Solomon was treated in the so called greatest country in the world