A review by serendipitysbooks
What's Mine and Yours by Naima Coster
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
4.0
I’ve found it very difficult to review What’s Mine and Yours because a couple of things outside of the book really impacted my reading experience. The first is the flap copy and marketing which led me to believe the book focussed on one thing, when in reality that thing is only a very small part of the actual plot. My advice is to ignore the synopsis and go in blind. I ended up feeling disappointed because I was really looking forward to reading what I’d been led to believe the book was about. The second factor impacting my reading experience is that I had the really unnerving feeling that I’d read sections of this book before. They just felt so familiar to me and I’ve no idea why since it is a new release. But it kept distracting me - were parts of this book really similar to something I had read and if so what? Or was I hallucinating? I’m still none the wiser.
The book itself focusses on two families whose lives intersect at one point. Noelle and her two sisters live with their white mother Lacey May. Their Colombian father is in prison and their mother remarries, chiefly for financial security. Gee is Black. His father was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was shot and killed when Gee was six. His mother constantly pushes and wants more for him. The book switches between the two families and back and forwards in time. It obviously has lots to say about race and about parenting. There are some great individual moments but as a whole this book didn’t entirely come together for me. How much of that is the book, how much of it is the factors above, and how much is down to me I simply can’t say.
The book itself focusses on two families whose lives intersect at one point. Noelle and her two sisters live with their white mother Lacey May. Their Colombian father is in prison and their mother remarries, chiefly for financial security. Gee is Black. His father was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was shot and killed when Gee was six. His mother constantly pushes and wants more for him. The book switches between the two families and back and forwards in time. It obviously has lots to say about race and about parenting. There are some great individual moments but as a whole this book didn’t entirely come together for me. How much of that is the book, how much of it is the factors above, and how much is down to me I simply can’t say.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Violence
Moderate: Miscarriage