A review by readswithnatalieb
An Autobiography of Skin by Lakiesha Carr

3.0

We meet three women within AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SKIN as a separate novella. While I enjoy short stories, this small book needed more! I feel like we didn’t get a lot of time with each character and could’ve easy read each novella as its own book.

Each woman is riddled with trauma and readers learn how each one navigates throughout their lives. All novellas also provide a lot of insight as to what it means to be a Black woman and how each woman is affected differently within society and the time period she’s living in. Each story is powerful and raw, and very, very intimate. 

To continue talking about the short stories aspect, I sort of was hoping these would connect a little more. Perhaps I missed something, but I only found the connection to the first and third novella. Did the second connect at all? I’m not sure it did, but the second story really stood out to me. A mother living with postpartum depression while constantly hearing news stories about how the world treats Black boys with her two at home. It was very moving and will forever think about it. It truly gave me chills.

Content warnings: child abuse, racism, death