Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Junie

Thanks to ZG Stories for an ARC to review!

It’s as much a story about the history of Hogan's Alley as it is about family, particularly the mother-daughter relationships the blurb mentions, girlhood, and some beautiful explorations of art. It’s a deceptively quick read as the chapters are short and sweet (sometimes only three pages), each ending with a short snapshot that shifts into first person, offering us a more intimate view of the different characters’ inner feelings.

While I found the prose beautiful and the story heartfelt, I just wanted more! More delving into these characters and their individual stories and much more than the brief paragraphs we go exploring their wants and desires and needs. Still a beautiful book and I’ll certainly seek out more from this author.

Content Warnings

planning2read's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.5

Content Warnings

serendipitysbooks's review

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emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.75

My first pick from the #carolshieldsprize longlist was a good one. Junie is a sapphic coming of age story set in Hogans Alley, a vibrant Black and immigrant community in Vancouver’s East End, during the 1930s. It’s a story about the complicated mother-daughter relationships that occur when women can’t mother in the way their daughters want or need. We see this with Junie, whose mother Maddie is a nightclub singer who struggles with alcohol. We also see it with Estelle, Junie’s friend, whose mother Faye operates a nightclub, is very focused on business and expects Estelle to be independent. The not always smooth friendship between Junie and Estelle is another important strand in the story. The third crucial stand involves the arts and mentors, Junie’s love of poetry and her talent for art and the role of Miss Shirley and Mr Andrew in nurturing that talent, encouraging and supporting her in her artistic endeavours. Finally we see Junie’s developing sexuality, and how her attraction to women causes further rifts in her relationship with her mother. I loved Junie. I felt she had the other characters were compelling. The writing was lush and intimate. The book had a slightly unusual structure in that each chapter ended with a short, entirely separate section, often but not always in the first person from Junie’s perspective. I know some readers struggled with these but I enjoyed them and felt they added a little something extra to Junie’s story and the way the author chose to tell it. The story also moves around a little in time, predominantly moving through the 1930s chronologically, but also jumping back to different periods in the 1920s. The time period was always clearly signalled and I liked the peeks into the pasts of Maddie and Faye since it fleshed them out as characters and helped me better understand them.

Content Warnings

dancevera's review

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emotional informative 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

3.5

I found myself enjoying the short chapters, and I especially loved how Knight brought a fictional version of Hogan's Alley to life in the 30s (the historically Black neighbourhood of Vancouver that was demolished in the early 1970s). The characters drew me in, and I was interested in the two mother/daughter dynamics that were the focal point, but the pacing often three me off, and I felt very unsatisfied with the ending. It wrapped up quickly and without much resolution for me.

Content Warnings

howdoyouwords's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad slow-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

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