A review by zzara
The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is beautiful and horrific, it was both easy to read and one of the hardest things I've ever read. It tells the story of a light-skinned Trinidadian woman who is suffering domestic abuse, and unpacking a life of abuse starting as a small child.
Over the course of the book, she discovers that she is the child of incest, and her uncle who is also her father, also raped her throughout her childhood and impregnated her.
I'm so heartbroken by this story, it's so horrific and yet it didn't strike me as gratuitous in its violence, abuse and atrocity. It served a purpose in telling a story about a woman who struggles through and tried to process and accept such a difficult past. I also loved that the narration of the book was in Trinidadian Creole. I thought it was so rhythmic, so reading this book felt like being underwater and just processing the words. So many of the adjectives that I wasn't familiar with still felt like such perfect descriptors. This book is a hard read, and has graphic descriptions of
physical abuse, child sexual abuse and incest
, but was still well worth the read. I would highly recommend, but only if you're feeling emotionally stable - this book is one giant trigger warning and content wise a very difficult and heavy read.
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