Reviews - The Day I Fell Off My Island

45 reviews for:

The Day I Fell Off My Island

Yvonne Bailey-Smith

4.0 AVERAGE

sophiekingo's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

lucyisaname's review against another edition

4.75

emotional hopeful 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

happilynappyme's review against another edition

4.0

I had NO idea that Zadie Smith’s mother wrote this coming of age immigrant story. How immensely proud she must be of her mother. I don’t know if everyone will appreciate this book the way I did but this book deeply moved me. It made me think of all the experiences of my mother and grandmother who migrated to the states and how hard that must have been , leaving a beautiful island beautiful people and beautiful simplicity to the coldness of a new world. I saw my family in every one of the characters in the book. Smith’s descriptions of simple country life in Jamaica from the smells to the color of the soil transported me back to my own childhood summers there , playing between my grandfather’s mango and ackee trees. There is a lot of heartbreaking parts to this novel , but you walk away giving ALMOST everyone grace , even the main character’s biological father.

gungopeas's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

Content Warnings

saintlybernard's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The Day I Fell off my Island is a beautifully written book. I found it to be fast paced & it really draws you in once you get to chapter 3/4. In part one it might seem like some of the harder themes are glossed over but this does fit with Erna being younger. As you move through the book and she gets older they're looked at in more depth, as we tend to in real life. The characters are vivid and 3 dimensional.

Content Warnings