A beautiful debut novel on ghosts, sisterhood and family secrets.

Jamaican-Trinidadian sisters, Sasha and Zora witness their fathers violence and their mothers illness. Zora finds solace in writing stories, while Sasha discovers chest binding and explores her sexuality.

Told through alternating narratives, a mischievous narrator, Sasha and Zora’s voices and weaving coming-of-age with folktales and spirits, this deeply moving debut is an amalgamation of histories both ancient and recent and the traumas that come with it.

The novel focuses on many themes; race, gender, sexuality, and is done in a reflective and emotional way whilst still remaining sensitive to the issues discussed.

The story is not an easy read and the jump in narratives and writing styles didn’t always work but this was an excellent debut and a new author for me to look out for!

The summary of my review would be this:
- Soraya Palmer MASTERS the construction of realistic characters and relationship (family, friendships, romance)
- I am thankful for the opportunity to learn about Caribbean culture, and the struggles of first and second generation immigrants.
- Soraya Palmer writes beautifully about folklore/collective tales. I loved both that part of the book and the family drama, but for most of the story it was confusing for me how they worked together.

Thank you NetGalley and Serpent's Tail for the eARC. I wish Soraya Palmer all the success that she wishes for. I hope that she keeps writing and sharing her view of the world.

That being said, let me go into details:
- In many stories that include representation (racial, gender, queer) it feels kind of artificial: either too dramatic (devastating stories about suffering, many times based on true facts, but still, a bit of "pain porn") or too cheesy ("we can all EASILY love each other and accept ourselves!!!"). But this story is different. Soraya integrates the issues related to sensitive and underrepresented topics (gender, sexuality, trauma, mental health) with other parts of the personality of the characters and their stories. That's what make them so real to me. No person is only a category. I don't know, I really liked that - and it made me suffer a lot to, tbh. Many times I was tempted to research how much of the story was based on the author's life because, despite the magical realism, it all felt so true.
- As an outsider (I'm a woman, but white and European) I felt that I could learn a lot about Caribbean culture, not so much regarding the cultural facts (which you can always look up on Wikipedia or something) but the culture, the way of thinking and the struggles. However, it was always clear to me that I will never be able to speak on their behalf or fully understand what it's like to be in their skin. It is not (and will never be) my place to judge. The story made me feel not pity, but respect, empathy and compassion. I'm saying this because I believe it's hard to find the right way to cause that balanced effect on readers.
- Really, the mental health rep *chef kiss*
- Some dialogues are like phonetic transcriptions of the Caribbean/Trinidad way of speaking. As a person whose native language is not English, sometimes it was hard for me to fully understand what they meant. I believe it's important to keep the dialogues that way, but maybe it'd be helpful to include some footnotes, at least the first times, so that the reader can keep up with the story.
- The book grows on you and sometimes the reading experience is hard. The first part is good, the second... a bit less interesting and many times confusing, BUT THEN you reach the third part and you cannot stop reading because it all makes sense and you just want everyone to be happy or at least, at ease. Honestly I felt so connected to all of the characters, specially Beatrice and Sasha/Ash.
- Overall the book is fast-paced. Despite being emotionally charged, the story focuses on actions and not looooong descriptions or internal monologues. The thoughts and feelings of characters are described in a succinct way. However, Anansi tales are intertwined with the narration, which can be less interesting for readers who prefer more realistic novels. These tales do make sense as part of the story, but they are quite metaphoric and I'm really bad at deciphering metaphors.
- This books is NOT for everyone and you will need to be prepared to get in touch with your feelings and own traumas. PLEASE check the trigger warnings!! (TW: family abuse, homophobia, transphobia, violence -in all its forms-, death of a relative, suicide, abortion)

I honestly considered DNF this books many times, but when I stopped reading for a day or two, I kept thinking about the characters. I wanted to know more about them, I wanted to see if there was hope for them. I'm glad I kept reading.

not bad but I've had a déjà-vu feeling. I mean, same old tropes and stuff of this kind of novels - and it's ok if you have never read something like that, but if you have, well, it's not impressing.

Wonderful debut novel, set between Brooklyn, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Sisters and mothers, a violent father, Caribbean folklore and coming of age, narrated through an unreliable and sassy storyteller.

Actual Rating: 4.5/5 stars

"See once upon a time there was a woman. And this woman conjured stories from ghosts and gave them to her daughters. This conjure woman's name was Beatrice. The daughters loved her stories, and when she died it was all that she left them. Little did they know that this book had a life before me. You see, I, Your Faithful Narrator, will always carry the burden of knowing how my stories will end."

Caribbean spiritual folklore meets a grounded multigenerational saga of a Jamaican-Trinidadian family, in this stellar debut by Soraya Palmer. Based on blurb, themes and genre, this quickly rose to the top of my Anticipated-releases of 2023 list, and I'm happy to say that it did not disappoint.

Our story starts with a omniscient, unnamed, and slightly mischievous narrator, recounting the tale of three generations of the Porter women. In modern day Brooklyn, sisters Zora and Sasha have been floating apart for years now; introverted, reticent Zora loses herself in her own mind and journals amidst her hopes of becoming a writer, whilst outgoing and tough-on-the-outside Sasha explores her gender-identity, sex and her first sapphic relationship. When their mothers recent cancer diagnosis brings the family together one final time, old secrets, stories and even ghosts passed through generations resurface, challenging old dynamics and strengthening new bonds.

Palmer seamlessly interweaves threads of classic folklore (Anansi, the Rolling Calf and the powerful ocean-deity Mama Dglo) with a modern narrative into a stunning web of layered tales. Fans of magical realism will be delighted by the small interjections of the speculative in the plot, but readers of more realistic fiction can still find a grounded and heartfelt family-tale with folkloric metaphors at the heart of it. Palmer covers a full spectrum of themes, including sisterhood, family-dynamics, sexuality, race, belonging and cycles of trauma. Yet, the theme of storytelling and myth is at the core of this book. From the actual folktales we tell our children, to the mythologization of our own history to make sense of our lives; each of these women is both a teller of stories, as a character in them. This includes our unreliable narrator, whom voice was one of the highlights of the book for me. No, the narrator is not actually "death personified", yet it still reminded me of the narrative voices of Mrs Death Misses Death and The Book Thief.

From a representation-perspective: there's much to love here as well. As far as I'm aware, most of it is based on the authors own experiences, and as far as my personal expertise goes: the cancer-representation was beautifully done. Especially near the end, I was deeply invested in the relationships of Beatrice and her daughters, and their final interactions with each other and their mothers ghosts genuinely choked me up for a moment.
Overall, I cannot recommend this book highly enough to any fan of Southern Gothic, haunting familial tales or a beautiful depiction of ghosts and storytelling in general.

Many thanks to Viper Publishing for providing me with an ARC of one of my most anticipated releases of the year. All opinions are my own.

A fantastic debut, this coming of age novel follows two sisters, Zora and Sasha navigating growing up and dealing with everything that comes with it, everything is told from their perspective which is highly engaging. The girls use stories to cope with their fathers dv and infidelity as well as their mothers illness, these stories are what bring the family together. The story is told with folklore and magical realism elements which make the story very spiritual and many things have a deeper meaning
Zora dreams of being a writer and uses her journal as escapism which makes us feel close to her while Sasha is exploring her sexuality.
There are multiple themes in this book, focused around relationships, which are all executed very well, the characters are realistic while the writing is rich and imaginative
I loved everything about this book and look forward to more from this author