A review by sharkybookshelf
Riambel by Priya Hein

4.0

15-year-old Noemi must leave school to work for the wealthy De Grandbourg family - the difference between their wealthy suburb and her slum is stark, and she finds herself dreaming of an alternative future for herself…

At 151 pages, this is a tiny book that packs a punch - Hein touches on Mauritian history but especially shows us the racist legacy of that history, colonialism and slavery. Slavery might have been abolished, but the extreme inequality remains, and a sense of ownership and lack of consequences lingers amongst the privileged whites. Plus ça change… this is not a story of hope.

I enjoyed the book and loved the recipes tucked within the pages - they made me salivate, and food does really give the feel of a place - but the brief, snapshot-style chapters didn’t quite come together cohesively enough for me to truly love the story. That and the intensity of the teenage angst - it was well-written and believable (and frustrating to read), but, to be perfectly honest, I simply do not have the energy for teenage angst at the moment (which is definitely a case of it’s me, not the book).

An atmospheric coming-of-age story anchored within the racist legacy of Mauritius’ colonial history, told in snapshots.