shansbookspace's reviews
25 reviews

emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

So nice I had to listen twice. Literally! Everything about this story: brilliant.

Have you seen people doing the life thing & wonder about their lives? I’ve heard and seen warner women & I have wondered on occasion why would they bother to ‘warn’. Nobody seems to be taking heed anyway….but after reading THE LAST WARNER WOMAN, I see it differently.

I enjoyed the narrative style because the listener gets both an impersonal & personal telling of the story & it worked oh so well.

This story of spirituality, loss & survival represents what life can look for like for abandoned people & people who make it out alive & it was excellently done.

Sweethand by N.G. Peltier

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lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin

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emotional fast-paced

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

3.0

This book causes the reader to become a silent interlocutor. This is a style choice that I usually enjoy & it was ok in the 1st half but I was properly annoyed by the 2nd half. A lot of what the characters told us felt like filler though I know it should’ve been received as necessary backstory.

The secrets took on a more insidious nature than I expected though they had the potential to be outright scandals. The wife that revealed all acted sooooo out of character that it just felt like an abnormal progression in the story. The reactions following the revelation felt off. Something major happened around the time of the revelation but I somehow just didn’t focus on it.

I liked this story but I just didn’t feel moved to any sort of emotion by it. It was a quick read & touched on a lot of issues that women in uber patriarchal societies face & if that’s something you think you’re looking for right now, then I’d recommend. But if you’re looking for a blow up scandal with endless drama then this isn’t your story.

Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn

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emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

This isn’t a ‘Jamaica no problem’ story. It’s the compilation of the parts of lives that don’t often make the news but we all know about. Here comes the sun indeed & what it reveals isn’t pretty.

In the place where hearts are broken, money is scarce & dreams are wasted time we meet 3 generations of women under a shacked roof, Delores, Margot & Thandi. All hurt in the same way, all coping differently. It is through their eyes River Bank is revealed to us.

We know hurt people hurt people. In this story, that’s the phrase that bounced around in my mind. Everyone in this story was hurt in some way & in trying to live with that hurt they (intentionally & unintentionally) hurt those around them. Without sounding ‘preachy’ this story manages to emphasize the importance of being safe in your community & being able to access mental health care to cope with your traumas.

I appreciated the commentary on poverty vs the capitalist agenda. In Jamaica & some of the wider Caribbean, tourism is a heavily relied on industry for revenue but when poverty meets tourism what we often see is underpaid & overworked staff, citizens being unable to access tourist destinations & like River Bank, developers displacing citizens from “[their] home[s]…their shabby neighborhoods, away from the fantasy they help create about a country where they are as important as washed-up seaweed”.

There was so much I appreciated about this story, like the dangers of an education system that perpetuates ‘otherness’, the realities of the sex work industry & the effects of internalized anti-blackness. But what mostly wrecked me were the moments where queerness was weaponized & how it either made you a pariah or cost you your life.

Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

This story had me at the embassy interview.

Though Patsy is the character the story begins with I found myself thinking perhaps she wasn’t the only star & that perhaps that wasn’t a bad thing. I became enamored with Fionna’s dedicated friendship, Claudette’s bravery to love & Tru’s spirit. I was hurting for Marva in her marital frustrations, fascinated with Roy’s development & intrigued with Pope’s motivations.

I think there are a few ways one could react to Patsy. One could think she was selfish or came to her awakening too late but I think she was a young woman burdened by poverty & motherhood, hopeful for freedom who never felt seen or heard. So she took a chance, made a few mistakes (like we all do) & began to slowly find her way home.

This story was sobering & cathartic I really enjoyed it.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced