Reviews

Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks

repeatbeatpoet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

Dub novel. Dub prosody. Coming of age, with hints of romance, crime, magical realism.

In the 70s Linton Kwesi Johnson (Jean Binta Breeze, Derek Walcott Mutaburaka etc) became visible and known for how they pivoted their language and poetic formats away from default Western traditions, and recentred the Caribbean, and created Dub Poetry, writing in patois, writing poems with reggae melody and dub riddim behind them. this book does a similar thing I feel, with a British-Caribbean experience. In the same way we think about “jazz novels”, this is a dub novel. Crookes writes to, through, inside of reggae and dub, using its inimitable qualities to propel the story forward and ground it, as our MC Yemaye  searches for herself inna de dance, searches for her estranged mother, presumed dead, searches for love and finds it, searches for escape after police murder her partner, searches for autonomy and agency after being forced underground, searches Jamaica and her history for traces of her mother, searches, searches, searches. 

It’s a thrilling read, fast paced, and the audiobook is fantastic too, incorporating the riddim and melodies of dub into the reading. 

jjustdylaan's review

5.0

Best book this year.

elviraqc's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Death and Police brutality

mjminkowich's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

mon_star's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

amesbond's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

alrauna's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad 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

4.5

robustogusto's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

elizaparr22's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

theoneana's review

dark emotional reflective 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

3.5