A review by bookedupandbusy
Pleasantview by Celeste Mohammed

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.