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

The sadness and foreboding permeated this book. Even when the ladies were happy, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. A wholly captivating storytelling style that wouldn't let me look away.

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jasminealizae's review against another edition

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challenging tense slow-paced

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

1.0

I wanted to like this book so badly. With less than 10% of the book left I had no clue what the purpose or plot of this story was, and upon finishing I am still just as confused. This story was so extremely slow and dull. The characters made such poor decisions at every opportunity they could and it made them unlikable for me. The idea of these women all being tied to one man was very loose and the believability was just as flimsy. I completely understand what the author was trying to accomplish, but she unfortunately fell extremely far from that goal. The ending really negates the entire story and made the read feel pointless. The audio version was perfect to hear the accents and languages the characters spoke, and to be able to correctly hear the pronunciation of names for the places and people, but the narrator who spoke for both Kemi and Brittany often confused their established accents. Also was strange how Brittany was made to have a very stereotypical unrealistic American country accent and was off putting. I also couldn’t tell if all the Swedish characters were just unnaturally slow speakers or if the narrator was struggling using the accent so her words had extremely long pauses between them and everything was drawn out. This book was all over the place in a bad way and truly felt like it had no real direction and that the author had no actual vision for the book.

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zakiyaj's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A haunting depiction of Black women attempting to navigate through society. Three stories that intertwine only once. I related to a lot of pieces of each character

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morganrasco0315's review

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adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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toadstoolsnshit's review

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challenging emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

This novel covers some really important topics in an skillful and insightful way. While I wasn’t really a fan of the writing style, I appreciated the perspective that this book offers.

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booksjessreads's review

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informative reflective 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? No

3.0

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to Head of Zeus publishing for sending me a copy of this book and this has no way impacted my review!

In Every Mirror She's Black follows the lives of 3 black women moving to Sweden under different circumstances, and how their lives are connected through a rich man. Kemi navigates racism within her marketing role in Sweden; Brittany-Rae facing racial discrimination within her husbands family; and Muna, due to seeking asylum in Sweden from Somalia.

This isn't my typical read and I wanted to give something different a go and I definitely enjoyed this in parts! As Akerström says on the front of this proof, she wanted to have the characters make mistakes to allow us to engage with the gravitas of their actions and this definitely follows through! I have read some reviews that have said they didn't like the direction the characters took, but to be honest, this is exactly what I loved. They make choices which were unexpected and reminding the reader that life in books is certainly not picture perfect.

Perhaps my favourite character was Muna. Her story was quite different in comparison to the others and she had a lot of deep-rooted emotional trauma from turmoil in Somalia which, for me, made me feel more invested in her story. Kemi also really grew on me and by the end I was fully invested in her character.

I think one thing that knocked a star or so off for me was the expression of toxic masculinity in this, particularly in the beginning. Jonny gave me major red flag alerts. In the middle of the novel, he kind of grows on you. He makes you think he's just completely infatuated with his OH, but when his behaviour gets explained at the end, it just didn't satisfy me enough.

Overall though, a good read and a promising debut! Its very similar to Queenie and Such a Fun Age so if you have enjoyed either of those then this is definitely a book to read next!

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