Reviews

Pleasantview by Celeste Mohammed

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fifinlayson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective

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

bookedupandbusy's review

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5.0

A strong contender for my fave book of 2022. Set in the fictional Trinidadian town of Pleasantview, the town reveals the dark side of the Caribbean dream.

This book is a novel in short stories. Each new chapter tells the story of a new character with a link to characters from the previous chapters - and the links are fantastically done that it reads as one big story.

The author’s writing is incredible, she has such great range. One minute I was laughing hard, the next I was emotional and shocked. The characters are diverse from a policeman, to a politician, to the church ladies, to the drug dealers, to the whore house and more. The insight into how different people lived in the town and their status was illustrated very well!

The Trini dialect throughout was brilliant. I loved the authenticity and rawness of the dialect.

mesal's review

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4.0

Occasionally a bit heavy-handed with its imagery, but otherwise a very good collection of interconnected short stories. The language used—a mix of English and Trinidad Creole—takes a few pages to get used to, but once you've understood the rhythm it's easy to see how the shifts in language represent the different mannerisms and backgrounds of each major character.

clawcha's review

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♥️ I'll take a full-length novel for every short story, please.

scoker1612's review

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5.0

You know the kind of book where the characters stay with you long after you’ve closed the book? The kind of book where the characters feel like family members and people you’ve met before. Celeste Mohammad invites you to the living room table, the backyard, inside the house and shares stories of life with you.

Pleasantview is such a breathe of life. From start to end you are stumbling, falling, and dreaming with the characters. The short story format leaves you with questions. How is this character doing? Did they recover? But just like life, you will never know.

nadia's review

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emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

I really liked this book! I knew the sound of a novel in interconnected short stories set in a fictional town would be right up my alley. I love how all of the stories fit together but can be enjoyed standalone and I appreciated the variety of perspectives on the same characters and the different scenarios each story presented. I got a little confused with some of the relationships between the characters and also got a little confused with one of the plot points but overall I had a great time with this book. It got me tense and on edge quite a few times too!

Content Warnings