Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - In Every Mirror She's Black

This book follows three black women from different backgrounds who are all impacted by the same man. Three out of four characters were incredibly unlikeable.

The meat of the book had some good story development, where one woman was finding her niche while trying the cope with the systemic racism surrounding her, one woman drowning in isolation due to outright racism she has to experience, and one woman who was constantly trying to make connections in the mist of all of her trauma. But the ending was simultaneously sad and frustrating, and I can’t say that I found it was a good ending. Only one character did my heart go out to.

I also did not like the fact that the main ‘villain’ was coded as ASD. The representation was poor and not accurate. To me it read like someone went to webmd- found the main symptoms of ASD then put all of it in one character.

Overall, the book was good enough for me to maintain interest to want to finish the book, but I would not recommend it to anyone. I felt like it had a lot of promise, but I was disappointed in the character decisions (not the last characters decision, that broke my heart) in the beginning and ending of the book.

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thatenbyisisreads's review

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emotional informative reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

I wish I could read this book for the first time again. I loved all of the girls even though I was disappointed a couple of times with Kemi and Brittany. Hopefully, there's a future where they both realize their worth. It was very sad to see Kemi and Brittany not become friends because I know in a perfect world, Kemi would've helped Brittany out in her situation at the end of the book. I hated whenever Brittany and Kemi would complain about stupid shit when Muna was going through such traumatizing experiences in her day-to-day. She deserved so much better..

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lauravreads's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

This book follows 3 different Black women and their immigration to Sweden. Kemi is a Marketing executive from DC and moved to Sweden for a job opportunity. Brittany is a flight attendant from Atlanta and finds herself in Sweden after she begins a relationship with a frequent traveler from Sweden. Muna is a refugee from Somalia living in an asylum for refugees.

Each of these women has wildly different experiences due to their personal circumstances. As expected Muna has the hardest time finding employment, and receiving legal documents. However, they all share a similar experience of being a Black woman. They deal with racism, fetishization, and tokenization. These characters did not interact much rather they each had their individual storyline.

Out of the three women I found Kemi the most relatable character. As she moved to Sweden for work, her story focuses a lot on workplace racism, tokenism, work relationsips, and exploitation. I absolutely LOVED how professional she is! There were so many instances where I was just so proud of the way she handled certain situations.

I found Muna to be the most loveable character however her story was very emotional and serious. Her story highlighted inequities, classism, and international politics. Brittany on the other hand was a very frustrating character. Her storyline was very dramatic but lighthearted at the same time. Her story almost felt like a telenovela or sitcom. However, it did highlight fetishization and white privilege.

**Spoiler Ahead**

Jonny is another main character in this novel. As soon as he was introduced I noticed that he had a lot of the characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder. In the last 10% of the book, it is disclosed that he was indeed on the spectrum but undiagnosed and protected by his immense wealth. I feel that this highlighted the stigma regarding ASD as well as the ablism in society. I am glad that he was held accountable for his actions rather than excused for his ASD. However, I did feel that it fed a bit into the negative stereotype of people with ASD.

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morganrasco0315's review

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adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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kayyphan's review against another edition

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Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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aargot1's review

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medium-paced

4.0

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nerdy_reader1's review

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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amandalorianxo's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

I just finished reading this debut novel and… wow. Thank you for pouring your heart and soul into this. It’s really going to sit with me for a while. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars. It would have been four and a half but the ending and unraveling of it all made me deeply sad. It’s a much needed exploration about what it means to be black in Europe, particularly in a country like Sweden where we discover three different voices from three distinct black women who all wind up in Stockholm thanks in part to one (white) man. The storylines were clear and powerful as we are enriched in Kemj, Brittany and Mina’s lives. The ending is tragic but unfortunately, more common than we realize. It covers racism, privilege, refugees, immigration and fighting to be heard despite feeling like you are on mute nearly everyday.

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