Reviews with content warning for Racism - Hurricane Summer

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield

22 reviews

minamina's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

You could feel the passion the author put in her words. I could identify myself in a lot of matters Tilla dealt with and the first half, I really liked how the author portrayed Tilla‘s processing of thoughts. The torn feeling of belonging to a place you’re not familiar with realllyyyy got elaborated perfectly here. Tilla doesn’t have a place to call home yet and she tries and tries and TRIES to find it in a country that seems to reject her. I get that.
Still, many things became irritating.
First of all, the dialogue seemed unnatural. And I do not mean by the local people, but by the protagonist herself. If teenagers talked like that, you’d laugh into their face. Additionally, the sentences began to feel so dramatic that I had to scrunch my noise. There is a thin line between poetic and cheesy, and sadly I think this book hit the latter one. Plus, the word beautiful was used many times as something significant, and it was cool at first but felt bland after the forth time.
Not one of the characters were redeemable and I had to ask myself countless times if there is anything good in Tilla‘s stay.
Severe and fragile issues such as rape were incredibly overlooked.

Spoiler:

Tilla didn’t even process what has happened. I’m not telling the character how to handle it since it’s individual, but at least one paragraph to digest what has happened would be better than add rape merely for the plot.
Many things happened for the plot, actually. A certain death to the end, for example. It crushed me and broke the single speck of hope for the ending of the book. I repeat, nothing was redeemable in this book. Everything was irreversible. And still, Tilla concludes it like it’s a positive thing, which sounds like an extreme amount of denial here.

All the characters that did her wrong still didn’t get what they deserve. Only the good ones got the worst fates. And I wonder why? You can’t call this „life“ by putting all the hard ship in a few pages and gloss over them, and process them as „beautiful destructions“.
And Hessan. I had a bad feeling throughout, their love quickened and seemed imbalanced. There was no space to second guess his intentions with her. Since the narrator, Tilla, fell head over heels for him I started to enjoy their relationship, until—guess what—it got destructed to its core.
Again, this isn’t „life“, this is just something that has been added to spice up the plot.
At least she didn’t forgive him.

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bookcaptivated's review

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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? No

4.0

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jasmineshollow's review

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dark emotional tense 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

3.0

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malaikak's review

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adventurous challenging dark 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

5.0

Content Warnings

onemorepagecrew's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield is a debut contemporary YA novel that held my heart captive while I read it. In it, we meet Tilla and her sister who are traveling from their home in Canada to their dad’s home in Jamaica. During their annual trip to visit their father, we see Tilla grappling with their strenuous relationship while finding her way with family and friends in Jamaica. In the background, the island is preparing for a hurricane and the potential destruction it will bring.

Coming-of-age stories are one of my favorite types of YA fiction and this story delivered depth and heart. It directly confronts colorism, classism, sexism, and generational stories of a family with vulnerability. The biggest thing I take away from this book is how I felt while reading it. I was attached to Tilla and there were times that my heart was broken, and others when I was frustrated and protective, but also times where I deeply felt her joy and self-discovery. It’s such a well-rounded look at the complex emotions of young adults.

The author did a wonderful job allowing the reader to be uncomfortable with how Tilla was treated while giving space for her family and their stories, too. It’s a hard balance to strike and she did it very well. I also really enjoyed that the Patois language in the book and the glossary of terms included, it added so much.

If you enjoy coming-of-age YA then I strongly recommend you read this book – and do it when you feel ready for an emotional pummeling. I loved meeting Tilla and if there was a sequel that takes place in her adulthood, I’d sprint to the bookstore for it.

Content warnings: Abandonment, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Colorism, Classism, Sexism, Infidelity

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tayahmarie's review

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Tilla, the young brown skin girl from Canada who is trying so hard to connect with her homeland, Jamaica, and calm the storm within her by making sense of her complicated relationship with her father. Wow. I saw SO much of myself in Tilla that it was scary low key, lol. Her character truly transported me back to my own girlhood and that made this reading experience even more interesting. That said, I became attached and grew a fierce protectiveness over her very quickly. Unlike most YA books, I didn’t have to keep reminding myself that Tilla was young, because so many of the things she said and did, I might’ve said and did, too when I was her age. She got a lot of grace from me. Whenever she went through one traumatic/hurtful thing, it’s like something else was lurking around the corner, and my heart broke for her in so many different ways and so many different times.

I also wanted to note that the exploration of Black girlhood and Black fatherhood was done so well. I feel like there aren’t that many books or even works on the direct impact and correlation when it comes to the two. Tilla had so many complex feelings when it came to Tyson and the way in which she tried to navigate those feelings could resonate with so many Black girls and women. Tilla’s final conversation with him hit different, because sometimes all you can do is simply forgive and try to move on as best as you can.

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greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad 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

3.5

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daphne__02's review

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challenging dark inspiring reflective sad tense 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? No

5.0

Amazing plot. Talking about her relationship with her mostly absent dad. How it feels to be a stranger when u visit a struggling country and you’re well off compared to them. The love and hate relationship with people in Jamaica and their secrets that they keep within them. I cried as fuck so I loved it obviously.

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thelovelylibrarylady's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Bromfield, an author of Afro-Jamaican descent, wrote this beautiful story set in Jamaica. While it is not the main focus, I learned a lot about the island and Jamaican culture by reading this novel. Hurricane Summer is a bit of a slow starter. I found the early chapters to be a little boring, but once the plot picks up, it doesn't stop. Many heavy topics are addressed in this novel including (but not limited to) colorism, sexual assault, the sexualization of girls of color, and classism. I would recommend this book to others, but also make sure that they were ready to tackle such an emotionally taxing story before they started this one.
(PUB DATE: AVAILABLE NOW)
(I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed above are my own.)

Content Warnings

bookswithmybulldog's review

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emotional tense fast-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

5.0

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