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A review by amyvl93
This One Sky Day by Leone Ross
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This is a tricky one - as it's really a case of this book not being for me, rather than it being a bad book (I think). This One Sky Day is set on the fictional Caribbean island of Popisho, where everyone has something magic about them, from extra strength, to mind-reading, to healing, to lie detecting. As the title suggests, this is a novel that takes place on one day across numerous characters working through their own lives.
I cannot quite wrap my head around the creativity that Ross has in creating Popisho as its own mini world, with a political history, systems of religion, geography and all of the magical powers mentioned. The novel is also written in a slight dialect which completely immerses you in the world that Ross has created. Despite the deeply creative setting, her characters are all grappling with usual issues - grief, love, infidelity, sexuality - and there are times where the writing on this is beautiful, and there is some fantastic food writing here.
However. The pacing of this lost me a bit, it's quite meandering and it's quite easy to get lost in the individual character stories. Whilst the creativity on display in great, I also found it hard to keep track of all the magical changes. The central 'event' in this novel also lost me pretty hard unfortunately.
I cannot quite wrap my head around the creativity that Ross has in creating Popisho as its own mini world, with a political history, systems of religion, geography and all of the magical powers mentioned. The novel is also written in a slight dialect which completely immerses you in the world that Ross has created. Despite the deeply creative setting, her characters are all grappling with usual issues - grief, love, infidelity, sexuality - and there are times where the writing on this is beautiful, and there is some fantastic food writing here.
However. The pacing of this lost me a bit, it's quite meandering and it's quite easy to get lost in the individual character stories. Whilst the creativity on display in great, I also found it hard to keep track of all the magical changes. The central 'event' in this novel also lost me pretty hard unfortunately.