Nalo Hopkinson has a great writing style and it worked with the historical fiction element that I was looking for from the description. The characters were everything that I was looking for and enjoyed how strong everything worked in this story. It uses the supernatural element in a way that worked with what I was hoping for.

Veycosi has a host of problems and clogged pipes are the smallest. There is the arrival of the Ymisen fleet to the shores of Chynchin, there is the whole question of his marriage, he lost a book by accidentally dropping it into water, and he hopes he hasn’t killed a cullybee.
Mainly, Veycosi is too smart for his own good, and dumb in all the wrong ways.
Veycosi’s island country of Chynchin is both familiar and unfamiliar. Hopkinson draws on history and folklore to create a realistic and well thought out world that is under threat from outside sources of various types. Cosi wants to be someone, he wants to be recognized for his brilliance and intelligence. In many ways, he is a graduate student wanting his university without having fully finished or even taken in his studies.
Yet, Cosi is likable. There is something about him. He is smart, sometimes thoughtless, but his heart is in the right place, and that can go a long way when done correctly in a book.
Cosi finds himself caught in the politics surrounding a potential war as well as a strange happening concerning the pickens (children) of the community.
What Hopkinson does with this set up is examine stories and how stories can spring from yet disremember fact. It is also about how that knowledge of what was is both lost and found within the story. Part of Cosi’s task is to understand and discover the truth or the variants of various tales told on the island. The examination of stories as well as Cosi’s relationship to the folklore of his island is the backbone of the novel, and it is an excellent backbone. It holds the novel even when in the hands of lesser novelist the story might derail.
It never derails.
What you have instead is a novel about storytelling and growth.

The former conquerors of Chynchin, a magical island, are returning and something sinister from within the island is awakening. Veycosi is a scholar of folklore, hoping to set sail to examine a rare book and secure his spot in the Colloquium. However, the unexpected arrival of Ymisen "traders" prevents his departure. The Ymisen arrive to force a trade agreement and Veycosi is tasked with trying to handle the situation, but quickly finds himself in over his head.

Blackheart Man is a fascinating novel steeped in Caribbean folklore and history. Diverse characters and romantic couplings/groupings are represented in the novel and Veycosi offers a lovable yet at times annoying leading character (part of what makes him lovable) as he questions the mythology of the island and believes he knows what's best. Blackheart Man is a wonderful mix of culture, myth, history, and fantasy and Veycosi's evolution as he wrestles with himself, his personal relationships, and the history and future of his island home made this book a must read.

This story was so much fun. A great mix of fantasy, myth and some history. Reading about Veycosi and his evolution as a student and subsequent events had me not wanting to put this book down for long.