Thruman's The Blacker The Berry was an outstanding piece of work. His vocabulary was exquisite. Emma Lou evoked sorry, shame, and anger in me all at once because I refused to accept her as the "underdog" and her constantly looking for the "right sort of people" to make her feel whole and accepted. I did feel empathy for her because she longed to be truly loved but did not recognize that the ultimate love comes from within and the sooner she accepted herself as a worthy human being she would forever be dissappointed in her relations with others. The book had a lot of passion and for a brief moment I thought Emma Lou was going to suffer a major depressive episode or commit suicide because she seemed so hopeless. The ending was unexpected and it left me wanting Emma Lou to say more.