A review by kimcheel
Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim

1.0

I had a hard time with this book. Sure, it's simple to read, and I read it in one afternoon, but the topic is anything but simple; so the read, IMO, should not have been so mickey mouse. It deals with such grave issues: slavery, making slave women breed just so white women can utilize them a a wet nurse, the attachment of a white child to their black wet nurse. Not to mention the conditions of those in slavery. This book made slavery almost decent. Sure, Mattie couldn't live with her husband, but they got to see each other every week. High five! /s. What about the loss of Mattie's mother when she was young? Just because people treated them as only 3/4 (or whatever that horrific fraction was) human doesn't mean they were. How about the trauma that led to Mattie's choices. It was just too neat. It didn't seem very informed. It felt like a white reader (such as myself) could read this, pat themselves on the back and say, "well

Spoiler

Mattie and family escaped and lived a happy life

so bully for us!" Why did we learn more about a white woman's relationship to Mattie than Mattie's actual children? It's like Mattie only existed in the book for Lisbeth's growth.

Gross.