Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts by Soraya Palmer

1 review

nini23's review against another edition

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

3.25

The opening is smashing and I like the cheeky cynical omniscient narrator. However, this novel reads young and the narrative unravels about two-thirds in. The folklore of Anansi, Dglo, the Rolling Calf, soucouyant and douen intertwine to make sense of life for a pair of American sisters with Jamaican Trinidadian heritage growing up in a chaotic household. Their home life is marred by domestic violence and infidelity by their father Nigel on their mother Beatrice.  The narrator from Anansi Stories promises to make us not hate the father by telling us more backstory. I still dislike Nigel for abandoning his first family and mother.

Let's talk about mothers. Being lgtb or a blocked young writer does not give teens an excuse to not be there for your mother.
Especially if she is terminally ill with cancer and wants to spend more time with you
Teenage angst does not eclipse everything. A lot of dramatics with little substance. The daughters weren't there to support their mother, the sisters didn't prop each other up, I am really not sure where the empowerment is.

There are a substantial number of lgtb characters - Harold (Nigel's brother is homosexual {his death still doesn't explain why Nigel is an ass}), Beatrice (I'm guessing she's bisexual or the lesbian part was beaten out of her by her mother), Sasha (lesbian or trans, unclear), Shay (trans)


I like the anti-colonial points made. That scene at the Jamaican restaurant is electric! 👍to the Trinidadian English dialogue.

Overall, I much prefer When We Were Birds by
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo. 
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