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emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was my very first ARC reading and I was so excited as “Black Cake” was one of my five star reads of 2024! I admit, I had a bit of a rough go in part one. Learning the names of all the characters and the repeated jumps in point of view, timeline jumps, and the shortness of the chapters really detracted from my ability to get into the book. Part two was better, and I felt it was a little less clunky. Part three and four felt like I was reading a much more cohesive and more balanced work that worked so much better for me than parts one and two. I was very thrown off by the rumblings of a thriller sub plot line in part one that seemed like such an anomaly to the rest of the story, and I rather wish it wasn’t there, which is what I think added to my confusion and my overall uninterested feeling in the first quarter of the book.
Overall, however, this book takes a lot of what I like about this author’s writing style and motifs and weaves them into a new story. Tropes like sibling dynamics, family dynamics, grief, the inner workings of marriage are all centered around an inanimate object that holds a piece of essential Black history - a cake recipe, or in this case, a clay jar. There is so much research and painstaking detail in this book and it is well appreciated. Sometimes the development of characters is sacrificed for the amount of time and research put into this work and it shows sometimes in characters like Henry. On the whole though, this book is a vibrant treatise on the way we respond to trauma, how it permeates our lives, and how it can either paralyze or propel us. This book is also another great commentary from this author on how remembering our history is a powerful act, and is a quintessential part of what it means to be human.
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for sending me an advanced reader copy (ARC) of this book in exchange for an open and honest review!!
Overall, however, this book takes a lot of what I like about this author’s writing style and motifs and weaves them into a new story. Tropes like sibling dynamics, family dynamics, grief, the inner workings of marriage are all centered around an inanimate object that holds a piece of essential Black history - a cake recipe, or in this case, a clay jar. There is so much research and painstaking detail in this book and it is well appreciated. Sometimes the development of characters is sacrificed for the amount of time and research put into this work and it shows sometimes in characters like Henry. On the whole though, this book is a vibrant treatise on the way we respond to trauma, how it permeates our lives, and how it can either paralyze or propel us. This book is also another great commentary from this author on how remembering our history is a powerful act, and is a quintessential part of what it means to be human.
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for sending me an advanced reader copy (ARC) of this book in exchange for an open and honest review!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic