A review by 2treads
Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks

challenging dark sad tense 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? No

4.0

As a Jamaican reader, having experienced the music and dancehall scene represented here in Crooks' novel, I was captivated. The prose is alive with the riddims and sounds of my country, the movements and tension of the dancehall and the skanking style of my people. 

Not only has she chosen to write this ode to a part of our musical heritage and legend but she has infused it with scenes of Black life in England that have been passed down in stories by families and friends.

Yamaye as a character is recognizable and I empathize with her. She loved and lost and then had to fight to emerge from a very predatory and violatory relationship in which she was seeking a safe place. The aid and welcome she found in Jamaica warmed my heart and I could see her strength emerging. 

I can see how the reverb and bass heavy prose might throw some readers, but coming from the island where our patwa is steeped in expressions like these, especially when one is surrounded by music and musicality just made this read even more special to me. I' jus' mek sense.
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