A review by tregina
The Impending Possession of Scarlet Wakebridge-Rosé by Samantha L. Strong

2.0

There are so many individual elements that I liked about this book that it's a shame I was disappointed in the outcome. The protagonist is a black lesbian approaching fifty and for that alone I probably would have picked this up, even without the enticing paranormal elements, because how often do you get that? But even with exorcisms and magic spells and possession and past lives, the book never came together for me. It was set in Toronto, but had no Canadian cultural grounding at all, nor any specific elements of the city to give it a tie to the place at all. Likewise the protagonist's spouse being French-Canadian; besides a couple of instances of her cursing or counting in French, it was like a random choice with no meat to it. I did like that the Catholic rituals and pagan rituals were put at par with one another (both the good and bad elements of faith and ritual), and Zoe's relationship with 'Mother' was effectively and creepily drawn, but they didn't make up for the inconsistent characterisation and overall lack of depth.

There is a good book in here, but it's still buried.