Reviews

Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood, and Myth by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton

misstsbookroom's review

emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

4.0

“When you’re grown from gunpowder, you have no choice, but to be the bomb.” 


From Reading this book Other Books that come to mind: Her Stories & The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton 
African Folktales

 What makes this memoir different from others is that Mouton makes the statement Black women can be fierce, sexy, poetic, and able to put monsters in their place. 

There are no bounds to Mouton's ability to craft the black woman into an everyday superhero. 
I have always believed that the black women in my life have always been magical. From Family to Friends, we have a way of creating magic, and we don’t even realize it. 

ablaine's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

5.0

Memoirs are their own myths, and in this memoir, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton leans into this myth-making. By blurring the lines between straight ahead recounting and speculative fiction Mouton pens new fables centered around the experiences of Black women. 

I think this book is best read a little bit at a time to allow breathing room for reflection. The writing is fierce and dense. Each word has heft. This book is the opposite of fluff — even at its most dreamy.  While exploring beyond the limits of reality, Mouton remains entirely truthful

I received a digital advance reader copy from NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company in exchange for an honest review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Body horror

mixedreader's review

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

. Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton recounts a childhood in which she searches for connection and belonging, moving back and forth between her younger POV and the reflective lessons of her present self. Interspersed with her stories are myths, some pulling from recognizable characters, others from the author’s imagination. These myths sit right up against her narrative, paragraph to paragraph, requiring the reader to bend with her and let go of linear time. It’s a book worth the trust fall, though, even if I felt floating without a tether sometimes. Through myth-making, Mouton reminds us of women’s inner worlds, their power, their wildness. This book is a reclamation as much as a memoir. 

“What are we Chameleons but the greatest imposters? Convincing ourselves that we can fit into the world. That our Joy doesn’t alter the bodies limits. What storytellers. But there is no longer a reason to hide one so much shelter can abound.”

emzireads's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.5

wanderonwards's review

medium-paced

4.0

Thank you to Macmillan/Henry Holt & Company for sending me an ARC of this title. I received this copy for free and this review contains my honest opinions. 

 

This was my first time reading a biomythography/mythmoir, but I think it was definitely the right approach for this book. I really enjoyed this writing style and how Mouton weaves in, and builds on, mythology to create this experience. One quote in particular has continued to stick with me, and I hope it makes it unchanged in the final copy: 

 

“Mythmaking isn’t a lie. It is our moment to take the privilege of our own creativity in Black Mythology and use it to fill in the gaps in literature that colonization has tried to steal from us. It is us choosing to write the tales that our children pull strength from. It is hijacking history for the ignorance in its closets.” (Afterword, page 303 in the copy I received) 

 

I will definitely be picking up more biomythographies and mythmoires in the future. Thank you again to the publisher for sending me a free ARC.