Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Black Cake

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Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

43 reviews

daniellekat's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

This book covered A LOT, possibly too much...identity, racism, colourism, environmental topics, immigration, gender roles/expectations, sexuality, colonization, food culture, the list goes on and on. I thought this would be an easy 5 star read and while I found some of the topics relatable (I am a first generation Canadian born to parents from the Caribbean) this author did not leave enough up to the imagination and assumptions of the reader. Everything was explicitly told in the story, often with great repetition. For me, this watered down the emotion and poignancy of the story. The narrative was relatively predictable and at times a little too convenient. I liked that this was rooted in the lived truths of many people from the islands and I could sense that as I was reading, but I think the author too often took the easy road for her storytelling.

The narration was perfection, and I would highly recommend this format based on that alone. I will say that the organization of the book is strange and confusing...a lot of very short chapters with sometimes unique chapter titles, sometimes just the character's names. And the back and forth jumping between timelines was not well executed. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives but again, I think the author could have done without telling the reader exactly what every character was thinking at every scene.

Overall, this was good but maybe better suited for those who do not personally connect to a story like this. Also, I really wish she had included a black cake recipe!

Content Warnings

dfrancis's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

strwberidaquiri's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The author's ability to weave so many different forms of injustice and trauma into one story is incredible, as it demonstrates how situations are never simply because of "one" problem. Thought-provoking book, definitely recommend.

Content Warnings

kelly_e's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

Title: Black Cake
Author: Charmaine Wilkerson
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.25
Pub Date: February 1, 2022

T H R E E • W O R D S

Layered • Delectable • Memorable

📖 S Y N O P S I S

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

💭 T H O U G H T S

After a few 'Read with Jenna' misses, I was hesitant to read Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson's debut novel. With a little urging from some wonderful ladies in my online book club, I decided I must give it a try, and am so glad that I did.

Yes, it took me awhile to settle into the story, but once I was invested, I was all in. There's a touch of mystery to this character driven, multigenerational debut. The writing is precise, the structure is strong, and the characters are well flushed out. There are so many layers to the complex family history that really showcases the messiness that is family.

There are a lot of characters combined with shifting time periods and places, which came across as jumbled at time, and meant I often found myself needing to go back to catch something I'd missed. At other times, it felt slightly repetitive, and certainly longer than it needed to be.

One of my biggest takeaways was reflecting on the role and importance food plays in our lives. Food is one of those cross-culture, non-verbal ways of communicating with and taking care of the ones we love. Of showing we care. Of keeping our history alive. This narrative also showcases how betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names, are passed down through the generations, and how it all shapes the past, the present and the future.

Black Cake is a journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch. I was left asking myself how this was a debut novel? Charmaine Wilkerson is a writer to watch and I cannot wait to see what she writes next.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers with diverse tastes
• multigenerational saga lovers
• fans of food in books

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Question yourself, yes, but don’t doubt yourself. There’s a difference."

"More people’s lives have been shaped by violence than we like to think. And more people’s lives have been shaped by silence than we think."

"The people who love us the most have the power to hurt us the most too."

Content Warnings

rlinnyc's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

kimveach's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book. It had some of my favorite elements: dual time lines, interesting history, flawed people.

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honeyvoiced's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

kaseybereading's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

ruth_power's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Great book! Relatable characters where you love them one minute and hate them the next. Insightful into the Chinese-Carribean experience and the sense of dual identity many Carribeans felt when they settled into new lives in the UK. Short chapters keep you turning the pages.

Content Warnings

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

3.25

I picked Black Cake as my free add-on because it was named one of the Book of the Month Club’s Book of the Year Finalists. All of the other finalists I had either read or did not appeal to me.

Blurb:

The book begins with two siblings, Byron and Benny, as they meet together for the first time in years because of their mother’s death. Byron is a successful and famous ocean scientist, who has achieved everything his Caribbean American parents expected of him, yet who struggles with emotional unavailability and interpersonal relationships. Benny is an aspiring café owner who has not spoken to her family in years after they reacted negatively to her dropping out of a prestigious university and coming out as multisexual. They meet together to hear a recording by their mother explaining that her past is not what she has led them to believe, forcing the siblings to reconsider their heritage, relationships, and identities.

Review:

Black Cake has a fluid structure: Wilkerson switches between perspectives, modes of storytelling, and time periods in order to tell her intergenerational story. Instead of being confusing or obnoxious, the constant change between perspectives and time frames serve the story well, as they allow Wilkerson to disclose information at a pace that suits the story as well as address the complexities and backstories of multiple characters. I found Byron and Benny to be a little obnoxious and childish at the beginning, but I grew to appreciate their struggles and personalities as I learned more about their backstories. I also really enjoyed learning about their mother’s history, which was full of twists and turns, and which painted a wonderful portrait of a strong, capable—although not perfect—woman and mother. The symbolism of their mother’s Black Cake recipe beautifully tied the story together.

Black Cake is divided into four parts, and by the end of the third part, I felt that things were starting to reach their natural concluding point. However, the book still had another part to it (approximately 140 more pages). As I read part four, I started liking Black Cake less and less. In the first three parts, the tragic accidents and serendipitous twists of fate served the narrative but stopped just short of being unbelievable. Unfortunately, Wilkerson overuses such devices in the fourth part, and the book lost all sense of believability for me.

For example, I was rather confused as to why the main characters were so afraid of retaliation from Little Man's family, despite it appearing extremely unlikely to me that such people would a) piece anything together and b) have the desire, decades later, to do something about it. Perhaps it would have been more believable if Wilkerson had showed earlier on an example of his family being excessively vindictive or clever.

Each improbable turn of events was too coincidental, too well-placed—in short, too fictional.

The story seems to lose focus in part four as it tried to include resolutions for all of its characters, and Benny and Byron’s character arcs fall by the wayside. A couple of chapters seem completely superfluous, especially one in which a completely unimportant side character faces police brutality. The incident is only tenuously related to the main story and is never referred to again after that singular chapter. If Black Cake had stopped while it was ahead around the 250-page mark, it would have been a solid 4 or 4.25 rating for me. Its meandering and unbelievability toward the end, however, brings it down to a 3.25 for me.

The Run-Down:

You will probably like Black Cake if: you enjoy multi-generational stories with complex characters, books that celebrate the diversity of its characters, and themes of heritage, family, personal sacrifice, and identity.

You might not like Black Cake if you dislike shifting POVs and large casts of characters. Readers who have a hard time suspending their disbelief when it comes to certain narrative coincidences and connections might also find this book frustrating.

A Similar Book:

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Similarities between these two books include:

· An epic plot that spans multiple generations of a single family

· Themes of identity, heritage, belonging

· A main character who runs away and changes their identity

· Characters who get caught up in illegal gangster activity

Content Warnings

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