Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Published 2017 · 100,000 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
How hard is Before We Were Yours to read?
Before We Were Yours scores 19 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 22 out of 100
- Simple, accessible vocabulary. Period details rendered in plain language.
- Sentence structure: 22 out of 100
- Clear, readable prose. First-person child narration in 1939 chapters.
- Abstraction: 15 out of 100
- Concrete storytelling. The injustice speaks for itself.
- Information density: 32 out of 100
- Historical details woven into narrative. Dual timeline adds moderate complexity.
- Narrative indirection: 22 out of 100
- Dual timeline with gradual revelation, but the structure is conventional.
- Symbolic density: 18 out of 100
- The Mississippi River as freedom. The orphanage as captivity.
- Ironic distance: 80 out of 100
- Earnest and emotionally direct throughout.
- Resolution withholding: 20 out of 100
- The dual timeline creates suspense about the connection, resolved satisfyingly.
- Structural complexity: 22 out of 100
- Alternating timelines, two first-person narrators. Standard commercial dual-narrative.
How Before We Were Yours is regarded
Before We Were Yours holds a literary regard score of 22 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.