Reviews with content warning for Classism - Black Cake

Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

24 reviews

beate251's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.0

This is a book about secrets and forgiveness.

I have first encountered this story as an eight part Disney+ series. Now that I finally got round to reading the book it's based on I can see why some people have problems with the narrative. It feels a lot more disjointed than the series, with a constant back and forth and introduction of seemingly random characters who turn out to be someone we didn't expect. You'll just have to accept that there's a big cast, and we're following them all.

The book deals with a lot of difficult topics (my content warnings are probably longer than my review!) and it sometimes feels like it's too many, even though some, like the rape, are barely mentioned. The TV show fleshes the time in Edinburgh out a lot more.

The writing is beautiful but I would really recommend the Disney+ series - it makes the book a lot easier to read.

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kyriannaj's review

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

1.5

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reddeddy's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-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? Yes

3.5

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happyblkhippie's review against another edition

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Ugh I really wanted to like and finish this but the story was all over the place. I didn't know who's was who, or what's going on. Are we in present or in the past.

The story just moved too slow for me. I read 40% before dnf'g. I struggled to get through the part I did read. It was boring and confusing. I'm not one to "push through" and waste my time on a book I choose to voluntarily read if I don't like it. I typically only give books about 25% before moving on so I was very generous with this one.

I think the story was probably heading in a good direction, but just took too long to get there. I also didn't care for the writing style. It was too many characters that didn't add to the story and not enough important information to move the story forward. I listened to this on Audible and didn't care for the narrator either. Overall an interesting storyline but poor execution in my opinion. I would give it a 3.25 stars.

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tinyjude's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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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angievansprang's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

This is a fantastic historical fiction exploring the importance of heritage and our cultural roots, as well as celebrating our collective humanity. Black Cake details multiple generations of a family of individuals who have all face steep adversity and have had to develop strong senses of self. I felt as though the characters were well-developed, extremely vibrant, and most importantly, believable. I really enjoyed the expansive timelines and locations in this book, it takes you across time and across the Atlantic. I am very excited to watch the Hulu adaptation to see how it compares.

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jennabeck13's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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? No

4.0

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

About 380 pages

Eleanor Bennett’s family has been in shambles for years. Eleanor and her son, Byron, haven’t seen her daughter, Benny, in years. Including at her husband’s funeral…. So when Eleanor is determining her final wishes and her will, her biggest priority is to get her children back together. But when Byron and Benny are called by Eleanor’s lawyer, they get the last two things they would have expected, their mother’s signature black cake and a recording detailing family secrets. These family secrets completely re-write the past and leave the family reeling.

Contemporary fiction has become one of my favorite genres over the past year! I think whether I like them is heavily influenced by my ability to connect and empathize with the characters. Charmaine made that quite easy in this book. I loved all of the characters and the complexities of their stories. I think she did a terrific job of meshing the past and present timelines. And everything was beautifully woven together by the end. The pace was a little slow for me, but that is my only complaint!

Favorite Quote: “The beauty of a thing justified its plunder. And nothing was more beautiful than a girl who was fearless.”

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