As children, we cannot conceive of our parents having lived before we were born, or having lives that don’t include us. B and B, as their mother called them, come to find out through a recording their mother left them upon her death, that their mother lived an incredible and dangerous life before becoming their mother. Benny and Byron, estranged for a good number of years, are forced to reckon with all they do not know about their family, and to decide how to live their own lives with the new found knowledge of their rich and complicated history. I especially appreciated the skillful way Wilkerson described the changing relationship between two siblings who are so fundamentally different from one another. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Random House/Ballantine for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson is a beautiful character driven book. Beyond that the prose is exquisitely chosen to enhance every action and scene. Excellent debut novel.

This was one of my favorites this year. A bit mystery, family secrets, and heavily character driven. I really loved how different this one felt from anything else i've read this year. Eleanor Bennett has died and has left her two children a recording of her life story explaining the secrets she's held onto for decades. We then go back and forth in perspectives from the current siblings to the past of Covey in the Carribean. This was a wonderful multi-generational story touching on many things: self-discovery, family, cultural challenges, and loss.

An incredibly unique and innovative portrait of a family throughout time and an exploration of only coming to know a parent after losing them. I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a strong sense of place through storytelling and characters who exemplify complex but meaningful family relationships.

Now, this is a family saga!

The family matriarch, Eleanor Bennett, lived a life worthy of a thousand books. Unfortunately, her children do not know of such tales. Upon her death, she decides to tell.

From the first syllable of her recordings, as a reader, you never want her to stop.

This book's amazing from painting life on Eleanor's home island (I get the feeling the island reads Jamaica, but I really get a Trinidad and Tobago vibe.) to her adventures in the UK (Honestly, I don't want to say adventure because of so many devastating events occurring there.) to her life in California. I held my breath as I turned each page (I don't say that lightly) because, as you read each chapter, you get a taste of bittersweet merging with joy to worry to anger.

Better yet, every character wanders to find the boxes in which they fit, fighting against those boxes society, family, and friends believe they deserve. Life's incredibly murky. Sometimes, gray areas approach when you expect life to go black or white.

Furthermore, sacrifice, grief, and loss are major themes in this tale. It's not a sad story, by any means, because hope weaves itself with each lesson or mark. Those themes hold tight for dear life, even after setting the book aside to breathe.

The only critique I have is that the last third's a bit slow as the train comes to its ride's stop. But, that's okay. With the first tw0-thirds' dynamic start and middle, the ending still does not disappoint with an answer Eleanor always sought Mathilda and the end of several chapters with the promise of fresh and new ones for her children.

Finally, this story's a must-read. The writing's beautiful, devastating, and hopeful. No one's immune to the themes discussed.

Now, I have to go get myself some black cake. Hopefully, I can find a baker with stories to tell, many of which may weave themselves inside the mix.

Bonus: The chapters are short, so the book moves fast. I heard a movie/t.v. show adaptation's coming, and I welcome it with open arms.

4.5/5

“Black Cake,” by Charmaine Wilkerson (Ballantine) is a great debut novel featuring the story of Byron and Benny, estranged siblings who are faced with an unusual inheritance from their mother: a black cake, which is made from a family recipe, and a recorded message.
Eleanor Bennett’s tale releases long-held secrets that will turn the lives of Byron and Benny upside down as they work together to put the full story together.
I understand that this book was in development for a Hulu series. I don’t know if that still stands, but I’ll bet it would be good.

I’ll tell you this right off the bat: this book is well worth the hype.

I found myself thinking often of Fredrik Backman’s style while reading Black Cake. Wilkerson has an incredible eye for the human-ness of a person. The characters in the book are incredibly nuanced, flawed and messy, heartbreakingly human. They’re so honest to real life that it holds a mirror up to yourself and it can hurt but there’s a beauty to that as well.

My heart ached often reading this story. Eleanor Bennett is a woman of many stops and starts, many remakings, and you feel the flesh stripped away with each ending she faces. Benny is who I connected with most (we share enough similarities that it’s almost creepy) but every single voice is so fully-fleshed you feel as though you could meet them in real life.

The prose is gorgeous. Not a single word is wasted, every paragraph moves the story onward to the final page. That last reveal of who is behind *it* (when you read, you’ll know what I’m taking about) absolutely took my breath away. True chills down my spine! It was one of those experiences you live for as a reader.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It is a triumph and it’s mind-blowing that it’s a debut. It’ll be hard to top but if Wilkerson graces us with a sophomore novel I’ll be there to buy it on release day. You should read this book, then let a friend borrow your copy because it’s one that you won’t want to stop talking about.

This was an OK read for me. The plot was good but there were a lot of characters and at times I would get a little confused.

Excellent debut novel. Written in the characters' voices and in dual time lines, it is surprisingly easy to follow. She touches on some racial and environmental issues without being preachy or overbearing. Characters are interesting and story keeps you reading. Read on a rainy afternoon easily. I was provided an advanced reader copy at my request but was under no obligation to provide a review. The opinions expressed are my own. Thanks to the author, publisher & NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

I really liked the overall story of this book. But I found it hard to read sometimes because the story jumped all over the place. It was confusing. I thought the story was very original and I did enjoy learning more about the culture of the fictional Caribbean island. I love the whole concept of food and culture and the past living on through it. Thank you for the advance reader copy.

Family secrets are often kept from loved ones until the end of life or in the case of Elly Bennett, kept from her children estranged from each other, until after her death, told in her own voice in a recording to them. The story is told in dual time frames, recounting Elly’s past and in the present with Benny and Byron trying to understand their mother’s past and trying to find their own place . This is a wonderful story of family, imperfect at times in spite of their love . It’s about the power of tradition, but also of abandonment and loss, of dark things that in time are overshadowed by the light of friendship and love . A wonderful story of a mother’s wish that her children will find each other again with the help of the truth and eating a black cake. Not quite 5 stars because it was a little repetitious at times . I had a copy of this for a while now and I’m sorry that I didn’t read it sooner, but glad I did now.


I received a copy of this book from Ballantine through NetGalley. Apologies for the late review.

Black Cake is a moving story of intergenerational family trauma and resilience. It will undoubtedly be one of my favorite books of the year, or even decade. I've already gifted it several times--it's the kind of book that makes you feel, and makes you want to share that feeling. When two estranged adult siblings' mother dies, they discover there is much they did not know about her. Through her lawyer, they learn the story of the girl she was. Black Cake is beautifully written, with characters that feel alive and familiar, despite the more extraordinary circumstances they encounter.

I did not know what to expect going in when starting this book, but I ended up being deeply moved. What I loved the most about this book are the descriptions. I felt present in each scene/decade.. The author does a great job transporting the readers into each setting. I did not get pulled in until halfway through as I was still trying to understand what this book was really about in the beginning (besides the death). I’m glad I gave it a chance. The main complaint is that I felt too many topics were discussed and lacked depth.

Byron and Benny are the surviving children of Eleanor Bennett. Their father had died years earlier, but after their mother’s death, they receive a message she left about who she and their father really were, and about the heritage of the family. The parents had always kept their real identities secret.

Eleanor was really Covey, the daughter of a Caribbean mother and a Chinese father. Covey’s mother abandoned the family and her father became consumed with drinking and gambling. When he got into financial trouble, he promised his daughter in marriage as payment for his debts. Covey has always been fascinated by the ocean and on her fateful wedding day she swims out into the surf, never to be heard from again. Many believe she has died but with help from her best friend, she starts a new life far away. She cannot reveal her true identity because the police suspect she is guilty of murder. She creates a new identity and, with the help of the man she ultimately marries, continues the deceit. Now that both parents have died, Byron and Benny are learning the secret story of their parents and of other family members they know nothing about.

Woven throughout the story is the family’s cherished black cake recipe. It was inherited from Covey’s family and passed down to her children. This cake is key to the family’s story and it demonstrates the nurturing aspect of creating something over time that sustains and satisfies. As the story unfolds, we learn about a troubled family who force a young girl to make desperate decisions that govern her entire life. When the truth is revealed, the children become aware of the struggles and hardships that shaped their parents’ lives. One true part of their heritage is their mother’s black cake and it will feed their bodies and their souls when shared. This story of family, of secrets and of sustaining love is sure to warm the hearts of readers.

I really enjoyed "Black Cake," which was an elegant, slow-burn of a read. I got strong "An American Marriage" vibes from this story, in it's stylistic delivery. There are elements mystery, historical fiction, family drama, recism, sexism and women's issues. I'd recommend it highly to my book club friends. Great fiction!

An estranged brother and sister arrive for their mother’s funeral, only to discover she has left them a lengthy recording that upends everything they know about their family. Wilkerson’s many layered and endlessly twisting novel directly confronts ideas of identity as these siblings have their foundation pulled out from under them and must reassess everything they know about the Bennet family and, in turn, themselves. This book is packed with ideas, and while it occasionally feels a bit overstuffed the fast moving pace keeps you page turning as lives twist and history unravels itself into the present.

The story is about loss, about the decisions we make that we can never take back, the sacrifices we are forced to make. It’s a reminder that sometimes our stubbornness gets in the way of a happy life. But it’s also about being a survivor. It’s a powerful, moving story on a personal level.

Wilkerson impressively juggles a lot here, rotating between the past and present in brief chapters that, while written entirely in third person, spirals through the characters to reframe on their specific lives, emotions and thoughts. The style gives each character their individualism while also weaving them together to view each individual as connected through the community of their shared lives. ‘Like many people, he isn’t any one thing,’ Wilkerson writes of Byron, but this sentiment is universal for each character and as the story progresses we see just how true this is.

What a book!!!! As estranged siblings Byron and Benny's mother dies, they are brought together to read her will which is actually a voice recording with a cryptic message. While Byron and Benny battle their own demons and work through their personal tension with one another, they also try to decipher exactly what their mother's last dying message is all about and along the way they learn details about their past and their family's past. While the story does get super deep and personal, sometimes making it hard to follow or hard to keep pushing through-i thought it was worth while and exciting nonetheless.

This novel is fantastic! It is the story of a family and friendships of a family from the Caribbean. It explores friendships, love, corruption, Caribbean culture, and even swimming! You cannot read this novel without caring not only about the characters. You will also learn a bit about how to make a black cake!. This is one of my favorite novels of all time. I am hopeful that it will become a classic. Readers of this novel will not be disappointed. I look for to reading more novels in the future from this talented first time author.

Multi-generational book that explores a family after the death of the mother. An immersive read, with strong story telling.

"The biggest moments in our lives are often just that, a matter of seconds when something shifts and we react and everything changes."

I love the idea of tracking food and how it changes from region and culture. That once they couldn't get a bread right until they tried it with salt water (because that was what was available to those making it). I love knowing that many have family recipes that they pass down to their kids - I love that they don't have measurements but instead just list a group of items with no idea how much of each to add.

This story is a bit of a tangled ball of string. It's all scrambled in the beginning. Two kids come home at the request of a an attorney to play a recording left by their recently passed mother. It details a lot of secrets they had no idea about.

But the story isn't linear. It bounces around with each secret and they jump through huge sections of the mother's life. Mixed in are the "now" sections of what's going on in the kids' world and how they are handling the secrets. It was a bit hard to untangle, but the chapters are really short so it's easy to keep flying through the story and try to keep it all straight.

I really liked the struggles of the kids, the bigger cast of characters as they were revealed both past and present, and getting to know the mother (even though it was already after she'd passed). It's an amazing story of family and love and remember, you have a limited amount of time with them and you never know when time will run out. Don't leave things unsaid.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.