Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
Solid novel, and I liked the specificity of mentions of middle class black neighborhoods in Queens from her childhood - parts of the city that seem vastly underrepresented in literature.
This book could have been so much more. My favorite part was the main character's description of her first few days in Burkina Faso and how she described some incidents of culture shock. The rest was very unbelievable, and if it were more of a thriller spy novel, I'd be okay with an anti-hero doing unbelievably spectacular feats of changing geopolitics through sheer cunning (or force if it was a male character of course) but this wasn't quite a spy thriller and wasn't quite historical fiction and just overall wasn't quite good enough.
how can a comforter fit in a backpack? 🤔
really enjoyed this book. Excited to read whatever she writes next.
really enjoyed this book. Excited to read whatever she writes next.
I had to binge-read this book when someone else put a hold on it, and I'm grateful for that. I absolutely loved this book. This is a character-driven story of a woman in the FBI, starting out when she escapes an intruder in her home and flees to her mother's home in Martinique with her young twin sons. It tells her backstory and relationship with her family, how she started in the FBI, and then ultimately leads her to an opportunity in Burkina Faso. This section of the book is based in fact, and I love when I can learn real history while reading fiction. Ultimately, we learn why she, a Black woman, chose to work in a traditionally white man's field, and also about being a Black American in Africa, and the outsiderness of that situation. So many different themes relating to both feminism and race, and woven together well. One of my favorite fiction books of the year so far.
This was a different take on a typical spy story with lots of family drama woven in. Can't say I've read a novel partially based on Burkina Faso (nor did I realize the political aspect of that story was true until I googled it after reading).
A literary thriller that's far more comfortable and enjoyable on the thriller half of the equation.
Loved the first half of this book, then it fell flat for me. Unlike some other reviewers, I enjoyed the narrative voice - Wilkinson went for self-assured, self-knowing clarity, and it felt vivid and believable. It especially went to good use on the topic of being a black woman, both in general in the white man's world, and in particular the very specific white man's world of the FBI. Unfortunately, the actual spy stuff in the second half seemed full of holes. But overall enjoyable, and I'll still read her next book.
I'm not usually a fan of spy novels, but this one was a completely different perspective. Marie was an honest, sparse narrator. I was just a little confused about Helene's motivations throughout the book; I wish that had been fleshed out more.
Loved it, slow-moving at times but built slowly and the final pages had me in tears.