Reviews

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

kaileycool's review

3.0

Read this for my Women and Speculative Fiction class. It was aight.

lyrrael's review

3.0

In a post-riot Toronto that the rich and privileged have fled, barricaded, and left to crumble, the inner city has had to rediscover old ways: farming, barter and herb lore. Now the monied need a harvest of bodies, so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and a tragic mystery surrounding her family and bargain with the gods to save herself. My husband read this for his Caribbean Folklore class he took this term, and he’s been insisting that I read it ever since, even though I really didn’t think I’d like it that much. I was right: The dialect in this book was really difficult for me, but the traditional folk-tale structure of the story revived a lot of it. There were notes of African folklore, Anansi stories, and even a little bit of Neil Gaiman’s storytelling structure present. Not really for me, for the most part, but I can see why it was so well-loved.

books_and_keys's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

aww_ada's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

pbeeandj's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

A Caribbean magic story in post-apocalypse Toronto. A young mother struggling with her gifts becomes a reluctant hero when she realizes she's the only one left capable of stopping the super evil local crime lord who threatens her grandmother's and baby daddy's life.

caedocyon's review

5.0

Pretty certain that [b:Shadowshaper|22295304|Shadowshaper (Shadowshaper, #1)|Daniel José Older|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1416429594s/22295304.jpg|41683308] can trace some of its roots to this book. This is the not-so-YA version, darker in substance, but ultimately much more hopeful than I expected.

You can get the shape of the story from the first ten pages: Toronto's city center has been abandoned by anyone privileged enough to leave, but now they've found a use for the citizens who remain: organ "donations" are in demand. And then there's Ti-Jeanne, a new single mother who's trying to figure out a lot about family and love, and is tormented by unwanted visions of others' deaths. That would be an interesting enough tale, but there's a lot more to the story that follows than what those details sketch out.

Clearly I need to read [b:Ti-Jean and His Brothers|6471136|Ti-Jean and His Brothers|Derek Walcott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1446524607s/6471136.jpg|6661753] now too. And I want to know how the folk songs in the epigraphs go---I couldn't begin to figure out the rhythms, but there was one I did know and I realized the raw lyrics didn't suggest how it went, either.

drkappitan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

I read this because a client wrote about it in an article and my interest was piqued. I'm glad I did, despite the gruesome bits. As with other works by POC, I find the violence has a very different effect (and isn't gratuitous) than in works by white writers. It is, however, still hard to read. My point of contention, and the reason I'm not giving it five stars, is

Spoiler

that I found Rudy's character history/development insufficient to his level of sociopathy - but that is also likely commentary about the inexplicable evilness that haunts humanity.

jonknightknighthunterbooks's review

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A pacy post-apocalyptic adventure, featuring ritual magic, and a dramatic climactic showdown. 

I have a sneaking suspicion that I have read this before - that dramatic conclusion I mentioned in particular seems familiar. 

The world building and action elements were all well done - the idea of a "local" apocalypse caused by the wealthy and powerful abandoning a city seems plausible still, as does the violence and disruption caused by a venal politician throwing money around. 

The protagonist and her ex-boyfriend were at times annoying, but not necessarily poorly drawn.(A low point being shaking a <8 week old child as punishment for being noisy.) 

grey_jayne's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The majority of this book takes place over one night and that's both really cool and hard for me to read, as I choose plot first, then character. Not much happens during the first third of the book and then once it starts unleashing its secrets, things move very quickly.

There's a lot of really interesting stuff, with Caribbean folklore and spirits and a post apocalyptic future. I would have liked a bit more sci-fi but when it gets into the fantasy elements, it goes and you need to roll with it. Really fun blend of genres.

I found it easier to listen to the audiobook and follow along with the ebook because I didn't know how to pronounce the main characters' names and it was really tripping me up. Also, the first third was challenging for me. Will definitely check out more from Nalo Hopkinson in the future.

michael_taylor's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75