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A review by sometimesleelynnreads
Josephine Against the Sea by Shakirah Bourne
4.0
Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to TBR & Beyond Tours, Edelweiss, and Scholastic, Inc. for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.
I totally understand where Josephine is coming from when it comes to not wanting her father to date. I was the same way, albeit I don’t think I’ve ever poured fish guts and scales onto my dad’s date… Good job by the way Josephine! I could smell it coming out of the pages like I was there witnessing it all. Josephine is such a relatable little girl just wanting her father to have someone good enough for him, and probably some other underlying reasons about that. She is a girl that I could get behind, and she made for a fun protagonist to follow.
In this story, Josephine has her work cut out for her when one of her father’s latest dates is a mysterious woman named Mariss, and she doesn’t scare as easily as the others. For once, I believe Josephine may have met her match, but there’s gotta be something different about her, right? There’s no way that she should be able to withstand Josephine’s mischievous ways… at least that’s what Josephine believed. She does what she needs to to find out more about this Mariss person, and finds that she really may be up against someone that she never thought possible.
All of this is happening while we are also dealing with real life issues. The dynamics between a father and daughter, and how sometimes it is not what we believe a healthy father-daughter relationship should be – but is that based on our own experience or what we would want it to be? Is our vision the universal definition of a “healthy father-daughter relationship”? That’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself. We see different cultures throughout this story, one in particular the Guyanese culture that Josephine’s father has grown up with. We can see bits of how different cultures within this one place are treated differently, if not always treated well. There’s a lot of underlying things happening in here that I believe one should try to pay attention to. It makes the story have a bit more depth than one would anticipate, and it’s a lot to think about.
I think this was a decent book, and I am curious to see what happens in the sequel. I love reading stories inspired by mythology – especially when it’s not always the same Greek mythology, you know? – and I feel like this gave me a good taste of what some Caribbean mythology is like. It’s definitely something that I would want to read more of.
I totally understand where Josephine is coming from when it comes to not wanting her father to date. I was the same way, albeit I don’t think I’ve ever poured fish guts and scales onto my dad’s date… Good job by the way Josephine! I could smell it coming out of the pages like I was there witnessing it all. Josephine is such a relatable little girl just wanting her father to have someone good enough for him, and probably some other underlying reasons about that. She is a girl that I could get behind, and she made for a fun protagonist to follow.
In this story, Josephine has her work cut out for her when one of her father’s latest dates is a mysterious woman named Mariss, and she doesn’t scare as easily as the others. For once, I believe Josephine may have met her match, but there’s gotta be something different about her, right? There’s no way that she should be able to withstand Josephine’s mischievous ways… at least that’s what Josephine believed. She does what she needs to to find out more about this Mariss person, and finds that she really may be up against someone that she never thought possible.
All of this is happening while we are also dealing with real life issues. The dynamics between a father and daughter, and how sometimes it is not what we believe a healthy father-daughter relationship should be – but is that based on our own experience or what we would want it to be? Is our vision the universal definition of a “healthy father-daughter relationship”? That’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself. We see different cultures throughout this story, one in particular the Guyanese culture that Josephine’s father has grown up with. We can see bits of how different cultures within this one place are treated differently, if not always treated well. There’s a lot of underlying things happening in here that I believe one should try to pay attention to. It makes the story have a bit more depth than one would anticipate, and it’s a lot to think about.
I think this was a decent book, and I am curious to see what happens in the sequel. I love reading stories inspired by mythology – especially when it’s not always the same Greek mythology, you know? – and I feel like this gave me a good taste of what some Caribbean mythology is like. It’s definitely something that I would want to read more of.