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If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
“I’d be able to move out of my car and rent my own apartment; I could live like a fully formed twenty-first-century North American human. I needed this.” Being a big fan of collections of short stories following the same character/s, I was keen to read If I Survive You. Each chapter in this debut…
1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 20th century, 3 STARS, Adult, adulthood, America, AMERICAN AUTHOR, belonging, Black & Black heritage authors, black diaspora, brothers, Caribbean, CHILDHOOD, collection of short stories, Contemporary, contemporary malaise, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), drama, family, fathers & sons, FLORIDA, gritty realism, growing up, HIGH SCHOOL, homelessness, HUMOR, interconnected stories, intergenerational, jamaica, Jonathan Escoffery, LITERARY FICTION, male authors, masculinity, Miami, migration/immigration, music band, natural disasters, PRIVILEGE, published in 2022, RACE, read in 2022, satire, short stories, snapshots, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, work culture -
Monster in the Middle by Tiphanie Yanique
A week or so before reading Monster in the Middle I read Tiphanie Yanique’s debut short story collection, Land of Love and Drowning, which I rather enjoyed. I remember being struck by Yanique ’s atmospheric storytelling, by her subtle use of irony, and by her thoughtful meditations on death, love, and everything in between. So,…
1980s, 1990s, 2 STARS, 2000s, 2010s, Adult, affairs, America, American, belonging, bi side characters, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Caribbean, caribbean author, cheating, Christianity, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, FAMILY SAGA, female authors, Ghana, illness, incest-y, interconnected stories, intergenerational, ISLAND, lgbtq+ side, MARRIAGE, mental health, Monster in the Middle, My reviews, NEW YORK, pandemic, published in 2022, read in 2022, reading, Religion, Saint Thomas, Saint Thomas authors, schizophrenia, sex, sexual assault/abuse/rape, social issues, Tiphanie Yanique, travel, U.S. Virgin Islands authors -
How to Escape from a Leper Colony: A Novella and Stories by Tiphanie Yanique
“Who wants to be the one in the Bible always getting cured? We want to be the heroes, too. We want to be like Jesus. Or like Shiva. Or like whomever you pray to.” How to Escape from a Leper Colony presents readers with a collection of interconnected tales that are a blend between the…
2000s, 20th century, Adult, America, atmospheric, belonging, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Caribbean, caribbean author, Christianity, collection of short stories, Contemporary, DEATH, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, female authors, gay side characters, HISTORICAL FICTION, How to Escape from a Leper Colony, illness, intergenerational, ISLAND, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, Longing, MAGICAL REALISM, My reviews, published in 2010, read in 2022, reading, Religion, Saint Thomas, Saint Thomas authors, sea, short stories, summer reads, Tiphanie Yanique, U.S. Virgin Islands authors -
How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs
How to Love a Jamaican: Stories is a promising debut collection that focuses on the Jamaican diasporic experience, highlighting cultural and generational differences and providing us with some wonderfully realized vignettes. Alexia Arthurs’ prose is engaging, unsentimental yet lyrical, and she’s fully able to bring the places she’s writing of—be it America or Jamaica—to life.…
3.25 stars, Adult, America, American, bi side characters, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Caribbean, caribbean author, class, collection of short stories, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, female authors, intergenerational, jamaica, jamaican, jamaican american author, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, migration/immigration, My reviews, published in 2018, read in 2021, reading, short stories -
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
American Spy opens with a bang only to come screeching to halt within a few pages. What could have been an intriguing tale of espionage is thwarted by lacklustre execution: painfully slow pacing, watching-paint-dry levels of entertainment, cardboard characters, robotic narration, dry dialogues, heavy on the telling…Aside from its snazzy cover & title, and that…
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 1st pov, 2 STARS, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, American Spy, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Burkina Faso, Caribbean, espionage, family, female authors, gay side characters, heavy on telling, HISTORICAL FICTION, Lauren Wilkinson, lgbtq+ side, Martinique, My reviews, NEW YORK, political intrigue, politics, published in 2019, RACE, read in 2021, SISTERS, slow pacing, spies, THRILLER, west africa -
The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson
“Loving a country besides the one you lived in was a recipe for disaster.” The Star Side of Bird Hill is an enjoyable coming-of-age novel about two sisters, Dionne and Phaedra, who are sent off by their mother to spend their summer with their grandmother, Hyacinth, in a small town in Barbados. The girls’ aren’t…
1980s, 3 STARS, 3rd pov, Adult, America, Barbados, Black & Black heritage authors, Caribbean, caribbean american author, coming of age, family, female authors, GRIEF, growing up, HISTORICAL FICTION, illness, ISLAND, lgbtq+ side, mental health, mothers & daughters, Naomi Jackson, NEW YORK, published in 2015, read in 2020, SISTERS, social issues, suicide, summer reads, The Star Side of Bird Hill -
The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel
“I want to be forgotten. I want it to feel as if I’ve never existed. I want to be a stranger. Rootless.” A few days before reading The Veins of the Ocean I read, and enjoyed reading, Patricia Engel’s Vida, a collection of short stories centred on a Colombian-American woman. I was intrigued by…
1st pov, 3 STARS, Adult, America, Caribbean, Colombia, Colombian American author, Cuba, DEATH, family, female authors, heavy on telling, introspective, ISLAND, latin america, latin american, latinx author, LITERARY FICTION, Miami, migration/immigration, Patricia Engel, prison, PUBLISHED IN 2017, read in 2020, ROMANCE, siblings, social issues, The Veins of the Ocean, trauma, zoos -
Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta
“I wondered if all daughters fought with their mothers this way when they grew up.” Frying Plantain presents its readers with a vibrant coming-of-age. Through the course of twelve chapters Zalika Reid-Benta captures a girl’s transition from childhood to adolescence into young adulthood. But this is far from a conventional Bildungsroman as within each chapter…
Adult, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEWS, canada, canadian author, Caribbean, CHILDHOOD, class, collection of short stories, coming of age, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, female authors, friendships, Frying Plantain, girlhood, growing up, HIGH SCHOOL, interconnected stories, intergenerational, introspective, ISLAND, jamaica, jamaican, LITERARY FICTION, mothers & daughters, re-reads, read in 2020, read in 2021, short stories, Toronto, Zalika Reid-Benta -
Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid
“Everything I could see looked unreal to me; everything I could see made me feel I would never be part of it, never penetrate to the inside, never be taken in.” From the very first page, I was enthralled by Lucy’s deceptively simple narration. To begin with, I was struck by the clarity of her…
1980s, 1st pov, 20th century, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, Adult, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, America, Antiguan author, beautiful prose, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Caribbean, caribbean author, class, CLASSICS, cold tone, coming of age, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, female authors, GRIEF, identity, introspective, ISLAND, Jamaica Kincaid, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Longing, Lucy, MEMORY, migration/immigration, modern classics, mothers & daughters, My reviews, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, Postcolonial, psychological, published in 1990, queer undercurrents, RACE, re-reads, read in 2020, read in 2021, read in 2022, reading, SEXUALITY, sitter/au pair/governess, the female malaise, unnamed country, VILLETTE -
Afterlife by Julia Alvarez — book review
Afterlife is a slim novel that covers many topical and important issues, like mental health, in a not always satisfactory way. Alvarez’s style was at times a detriment to her story. While I could have moved past the lack of quotations, I had a harder time buying into the recursive narration. I sort of understood…
3 STARS, Adult, afterlife, America, American, Caribbean, caribbean author, Contemporary, Dominican American author, dominican republic, family, female authors, GRIEF, Julia Alvarez, LITERARY FICTION, MARRIAGE, mental health, migration/immigration, published in 2020, read in 2020, SISTERS, social issues, Vermont, widows
luce [is reading] 