Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Here Comes the Sun

Exploring themes of violence, wealth, and autonomy, Here Comes the Sun follows two sisters and their abusive mother through the slums and resorts of Jamaica. With elegant prose, the characters are brought to life with engaging dialogue and palpable emotions.
Sexual and domestic violence are a paramount theme throughout. Margot's narrative largely follows her struggle to climb above hotel work and prostitution, while also balancing the weight of family and her romantic interest, the latter expanding into a major narrative exploring saphism and homophobia. Most of the female cast have histories of sexual violence, which plays importance throughout.
Wealth, or lackthereof, is another major theme. The impoverished backgrounds of most of the cast is starkly contrasted with the wealth of foreigners and the tourism industry, further split by the overlap of language, class, and skin color.
Impelled to be successful by her mother, who scrapes a living selling trinkets to tourists, Margot passes on most of her earnings towards her sister's education, while Thandi herself struggles to find her own identity and desires.
The conflict of sacrifice and blame between the family ultimately coalesces into an underlying question of autonomy.
A very good debut novel.

Content Warnings

onewoman_bookclub's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

abbie_'s review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

The bright cover and jaunty title did not prepare me for the contents of this book (I’m not one for reading or remembering synopses). I think this is one of the saddest books I’ve ever read, with cycles of violence and self-hatred that never end, spurred on by misogyny and homophobia, not to mention greed. A devastating exploration of the tourism industry in Jamaica, alongside female queerness.

Content Warnings

joisaddler's review against another edition

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emotional sad 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? Yes

2.0

Content Warnings

jennazim's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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eliasiexil's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

naoewald's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

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

3.25

I feel a little conflicted about this book. One of the main things that threw me off was the fact that the story was so dark. I did not go in expecting it to be lightweight but a lot of the content caught me off guard. I think that it’s a very well written novel. I like how everything came back full circle. What I didn’t really like was the writing and how slow paced it was because every single little thing was being described. Don’t get me started on how unlikable every single character was. And what was that ending ? Overall it was still a solid story but not my favorite at all.

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