Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Black Cake

When I found out at the end that this was the first author's novel I was left speechless. What a delight! Every character's voice is distinctive and unique, they are complex and flawed, but over all of them, Covey's voice whenever she just took over in those letters, completely destroyed me and stood out the most. I could feel without fail all her love, pain and regrets and those were the paragraphs that broke me the most.

The story deals with topics such as immigration, racism, colourism, gambling issues, biphobia, sexual assault, domestic abuse, colonialism (specifically the West Indies-The UK, America and Spain) and its consequences even in the way the characters viewed their oppressors' land as full of opportunities and then became disillusioned and appalled by the bigotry and lies. It also deals with conflicts such as police brutality and abuse, the difficulties both women (just for being women sometimes) and men of colour face in the workfield; as well as how colourism and gender plays a big role in it.

But most of all it's a book about family history, heritage, feeling torn and at a crossroad with your identity (multiculturalism, hybridity, cultural assimilation, etc.), feeling lonely and ashamed by unfair things that happened to you (mostly women), white lies, safety and love. Above all. It's a book about love. A mother's love for her children. Family's love, friends' love, sibling's conflicts and love and romantic affection. Love for yourself, your safety and your life.

And: What are you willing to sacrifice for x?

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estherk809's review

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emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

one mom’s kids realize that their present is heavily molded by their mom’s past. i started crying long before i was halfway through the book

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alpettit's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

This book was just okay, for a few reasons. First, the editing could have been better. There were some word choices that were inconsistent. The most jarring example is using the words “torch” and “flashlight” interchangeably. Second, I didn’t find Byron interesting or well developed. He was clearly an angry person and career driven, but his connection to the sea and his mother wasn’t entirely believable. Additionally I felt his story arc was haphazardly closed at the end when it wasn’t critical to the story. Same for Mathilda. No one needed to know what happened to her because the story was about Covey and her children, not Covey and her mom. I don’t under understand why the author chose to close Byron’s career loop and not Bennys (she’s still struggling). That brings me to my third point: the ending just fizzled. Unnecessary information/meetings (with Lin and his background on getting rich), no real emotion, and unpolished writing. Almost as if the author realized the book was about to border on long for this type of story and they wanted to wrap up. I might still watch the Hulu series. Maybe they’ll do a better job of showing the familial connections than the author did.

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