Charlene Carr has an innate ability to tap into some of the most painful emotions of the human experience and somehow turn those dark, lonely feelings into the most beautiful, poignant stories you’ll ever read. When I first read her book Hold My Girl I was moved by the way she wrote so tenderly and so honestly about motherhood womanhood, and the way that race intersects with those identities.

We Rip the World Apart is no exception. In the book, we follow two main storylines, although a third is peppered throughout and by the end you realize is equally important to the heart of the story. We have Evelyn, a white woman who travels to Jamaica to start her own life. There, she meets the love of her life, Kingsley, and all would be perfect except this is Jamaica in the 1980s and political unrest forces them to flee. Years later, relocated in Canada, police violence touches their lives in a way that completely unravels their family. The second storyline follows Kareela, their daughter, as she navigates life as a biracial woman in the present day. Her life has been cast in the shadow of the loss of her older brother, and she struggles to understand her place in the world.

This book covers so many important, sensitive topics, and Charlene Carr writes with a deft hand that understands how to be honest while also valuing the dignity of her characters. It takes a skilled writer to pack so much trauma into a story while still having a through-line of hope.

I got to experience this book as an audiobook, and Tebby Fisher does a really great job of bringing differences into the tones of each character. I would definitely listen to another book narrated by her, and specifically recommend this book on audio because hearing some of the harder scenes really brings the emotion to life.

Overall, I loved this book and plan to read anything Charlene Carr writes in the future. If you like stories that center people and their experiences this is certainly one that you need to read.

I read 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐌𝐲 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥 by Charlene Carr last year and I was so invested in the characters that I took sides in the battle early on in the battle for a baby girl born in an IVF mixup. I was PISSED. I was just as invested reading 𝐖𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐩 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐀𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 but this time not in taking sides per se. Just invested in all of the main characters, their POV. Their pain. Their fear. It was Intense. The social landscapes of Jamaica and mostly Canada. In me newly realizing that Canada has police shootings of unarmed black men and protests too. That colorism and racism is not just an American problem. The insight into how police violence tore this family apart is incredible. You read the headlines but when the spotlight is no longer there, what happens? The book describes what happens from the POV of those left to struggle with it in the present and the past. What struck me the most is hoe the author writes the way women are silenced and the way women silence themselves. How daughters judge mothers without knowing the full story. Once the full story is revealed, it is even more intense. And it was powerful. Charlene Carr’s writing is powerful. This story is gut wrenching. I need to lie down. This was a lot. You must read.

I listened to the audiobook for the first few chapters then switched to the ebook.

What a thought provoking novel! This is a Multi-generational story told mostly from the "mother" and "daughter" points of view. Spanning the 80's to present day. Mixed within the chapters sporadically is the point of view of the "grandmother" when she lived in Jamaica previous to the 1980s. This is a story of race told through the eyes of being a mother, sister, wife and soon to be mother. Although the story was raw and heartbreaking, it was also a beautiful story of adversity. I would highly recommend this book. Thank NetGalley and RBmedia for providing me with a copy of this book.

Thank you @bookmarked @netgalley & @recordedbooks for the complimentary book & audiobook.

Emotionally devastating. Oh my god, my heart was in a vice from the very first moment and stayed there until the very last word. We Rip the World Apart is an unforgettable exploration of the profound and lasting consequences of racism and violence, and the trauma and grief it leaves in its wake. It’s not an easy read, nor should it be. It was a punch to the gut, yet it’s incredibly important and necessary. I strongly suggest waiting until you’re in the right headspace for something this heavy so you can fully appreciate it.

I honestly can’t recommend this book enough despite the emotional toll. Poignant and powerful, I don’t want to give too much away because the synopsis says enough. Beautifully written, every single word.

Additionally, I must give a standing ovation to narrator Tebby Fisher, absolutely phenomenal!

We Rip the World Apart will leave a lasting impression. Guaranteed to leave you speechless, this is a book you won’t soon forget.

this was absolutely beautiful and the perfect example of fiction’s power to represent experiences of discrimination in order to provide a community for people who share them, as well as allowing those who don’t a deeper, more empathetic understanding of them.
i loved how racism but also women’s issues were explored through a multigenerational narrative, focussing on the connected, but rather different lives of three women. while frequent time jumps and switches in perspective can feel deteriorating in many novels, they worked very naturally here and created an incredibly powerful whole. not least thanks to the brilliant narration of the audiobook, i very quickly felt for the characters and the struggles they were facing, which were always laid out in their entire complexity. the novel does extremely well at portraying all of the different layers of each topic it addresses, which is quite an achievement considering the multiplicity of it’s themes. i absolutely loved this and couldn’t put it down! it’ll definitely stay with me for a good while.

Unfortunately, this one, We Rip the World Apart by Charlene Carr, did not hold my interest and I did not finish.

This story was serious, including addressing current events, and it felt too deep and too uncomfortable. I wasn't able to complete the story for that reason.

This story was very relevant and timely to the current climate of the world, especially when it comes to racial injustice and women’s health inadequacy. I thought the past and present sections, with international experiences was nicely done.

I loved Charlene Carr's Hold My Girl, so I knew that We Rip the World Apart would be full of emotion and dynamic characters. It met my expectations and took me on a gripping emotional journey with Kareela as she navigates a surprise pregnancy at 24 years old.

Through Kareela's experience, Carr guides us through the generations of her family experiencing the oppression of people of color in Canada. This book is very heavy and very well written. I encourage you to look at content warnings before jumping in.

I truly enjoy how multi-dimensional Carr's characters are and how believably they handle trauma, grief, and difficult decisions. This book does such an excellent job of putting the reader into the emotions of a family torn apart by racism and violence, while ending with a strong thread of hope.

OVERALL RATING: 3.75 STARS
I may have enjoyed this book more if I had read it instead of listening to the audiobook. There is one narrator, and while she did an excellent job switching between no accent and a Jamaican accent, there was little narrating difference for the other characters. That did take away from my enjoyment of the audiobook.

The overall story was timely and interesting. I am not from Canada, so it was interesting to read a book about racism in a country different from my own.
The story covers several different timelines. All dealing with racism, assimilation, sexism, and loss and grief, for 3 generations of women. The story also explores the complexities of being bi-racial and self-identity and blackness.
It is a multi-generational story (Kareela, Evelyn and Violet) and we watch these women struggle with choices many women face in motherhood, dating and marriage.
At times, I think this book tries to do to much and incorporate too many themes, which results in part of the book falling flat.
I would recommend the book, over the audiobook.

We Rip the World Apart is a multigenerational story told from different perspectives and timelines. Kareela is 24 years old and just found out she’s pregnant. Unsure if she wants to have a baby, she’s also trying to understand her identity and her family history. We also get the perspectives of her mother and grandmother and learn more of their family history.

This is a story about coming of age, understanding where you fit in and how to be fully yourself, decisions on motherhood, how race impacts your identity, the things we don’t know about the people we are closest to - it’s very difficult to summarize in a brief review but this was a compelling read. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free audiobook.

One of those multigenerational novels that teaches you a lot about the human experience and rips your heart out in the process.
Beautifully written.
Follows different women in the same family to paint a story of generational trauma and how it manifests in everyone.
Definitely character driven and slower paced but easily binge able and unforgettable

Thank to netgalley for an eARC.

When Evelyn and her husband fled to Canada from Jamaica in the 1980s, they were to find that their new country did not quite live up to expectations. At least, not in terms of how black men and their families were perceived.

Suppressed pain and family secrets flavour the complex environment in which Evelyn's daughter, Kareela, grows up. And while their family circumstances eventually provide her with an opportunity to explore her origins, she struggles with her identity and the decisions she must make.

This is a multigenerational tale of what family ties mean, the power of memory, and the strength of the women who are the keepers of family legacies.

WE RIP THE WORLD APART by Charlene Carr

Thank you @recordedbooks for my #gifted copy.

📖 We Rip the World Apart is a sweeping, multi-generational novel, spanning from the 1980s to the present day, focusing on the experiences of three women, each grappling with the pervasive impact of racism.

💭 Powerful, wise, and emotionally charged, We Rip the World Apart is a thought-provoking, multilayered novel that explores themes of motherhood, generational trauma, racism, colorism, interracial relationships, politics, activism, and social justice. Perfect for fans of Charmaine Wilkerson and Brit Bennett!

🎧 The narrator, Tebby Fisher, breaths life into these characters and this story, and was a pleasure to listen to. While I did have to pay close attention to the change in perspectives as it wasn't always clear by the narration, this is not uncommon with single-narrator stories. That said, it may have benefited from multiple narrators.

All in all, this was a deeply moving novel that I'd absolutely recommend!

📌 Available now!

I just finished We Rip the World Apart by Charlene Carr and here are my musings. I listened to the audiobook and read the e-version.

Imagine being 24 and pregnant and not knowing if you want to bring your child into a world that has taken so much from you. This is Kareela, she doesn’t feel black enough and she doesn’t feel white enough. She feels like she has straddled two worlds but is a part of neither. After her brother was murdered by the police as a child, her family was never the same again. Her Canadian mother never got over the loss and her Jamaican father hit the bottle. Her grandmother was the person who was there for her… Her heart and her family are in shatters and trying to find any path to take a first step on, is the scariest thing she has ever had to do.

This book follows two timelines and POV. We get Kareela in the present and her mother Evelyn in the past.

Firstly, the audiobook was amazing. The narration was top notch.

This book hit me in a way I can’t really articulate. I could never imagine this kind of loss and the feeling of not belonging. Kareela not only doesn’t know who she is in the world but she has the added sadness of feeling like she doesn’t have a family that sees her. Her family fractured the day her brother was killed and she had to grow up fast. Both of her parents may as well have died too considering they basically forgot they had a living child. My heart aches so much. The trouble with me is the whole pregnancy and whether she wants the child purely because the man she is with is white. She allowed his skin color to prejudice her own feelings, well thats how it felt for a good portion of the book but finding out that she didn’t know who she was because she had spent her time bending to make him more comfortable, I had a major lightbulb moment. I understand that it was done for a reason but I felt a little annoyed with her for a majority of the book then I felt really guilty.

This book shows you that your side of what you are feeling based on a situation isn’t always the same as the other person. All 3 women had their own reasons for doing what they did but it had negative effects on others. Honestly I was really drawn into Evelyn’s story and it helped me to understand Kareela more.

This book highlights the fears that POC had then and how those fears are still here today. It’s horrible. I cannot imagine what that must be like to have these kinds of fears on a daily basis. Fear of someone making assumptions over the color of someone else's skin.

This book hit me in a really profound way. It was beautifully written and did a wonderful job of weaving the kind of story that needs to be said loud enough for the people in the back to hear.

4.5 stars
Thank you @netgalley @sourcebooks @recordedbooks for my gifted copies

A beautiful, heartbreaking story about three generations of Caribbean-Canadian women struggling with racism and tragedy while navigating motherhood and finding their place in the world. It's an emotional read, gorgeously told, and the narrator has perfect delivery.

We Rip The World Apart is a complicated, winding story that follows one family as they try and come to terms with terrible loss and the impact it has on all of their lives.

24-year-old Kareela is pregnant. She isn't sure if she wants to keep the baby, and she also isn't sure if she wants to stay with her boyfriend. To add to all of this, she's never really felt like she belongs. Too black to be white and too white to be black, she has struggled to find a place where she fits without compromising an aspect of her identity. Then there is her relationship with her mother, or the lack of one.

In the past, we get the story of Kareela's mother Evelyn. Originally from Canada, she moved to Jamaica to start a new life, meeting the man who would become her husband and having a child with him. But when violence grows, her young family decide to move back to Canada, believing they will be safe there. Except they aren't, because her husband and son are black and treated with suspicion.

This book is desperately sad. Hopeless, at times. Because as a reader you know in part where it is heading and no matter how much you wish it wouldn't, it does. An aspect that worked well was the overwhelming sense of loss and pain. This family went through too much, and the worst part is they are hardly the only family to go through experiences like this. All of the characters were imperfect and their actions frustrated me at times. I think that's what makes them human. They aren't either all good or all bad. They are people who sometimes made bad choices with awful consequences. And sometimes they did nothing wrong at all, but horrible things still happened because that is life. It is not always kind.

Having said all of this, there was something missing with this book. I found Evelyn's actions particularly frustrating and I could never quite decide if her actions were justified or not. There was a part of me that wasn't sure if she deserved forgiveness, and particularly towards the end I felt like the author threw in a dramatic twist so that we had to feel sorry for her. I can't help feeling that the book would have been better without it. More complex. More nuanced. Less intentional regarding who was right and who was wrong. It almost felt like one thing too many, and without spoilers, it was a fairly significant event that either deserved more attention than it received and to be the centre of a story, or it shouldn't have been included, because it took something away from the story that we already had.

I read another review that mentioned how the black characters, particularly the black men, were sidelined in this story. It is a story where what happens to them shapes everything, and yet we spend very little time with them. On the one hand I understand that this was a story about the women in this family, but I also understand this perspective and definitely felt it at times. I described this book as complicated and it certainly is, as are my feelings about it. Once I'd started reading it I didn't want to put it down, and I picked it up to read a little more whenever I could. So I would definitely read another book by this author.

Special thanks to the author, @bookmarked for my gifted copy, & @recordedbooks for my ALC‼️

I have to give it to Ms.Carr she is without a doubt an amazing writer. If you’ve read Hold My Girl then you’ll understand why I say that after reading this book. She knows how to craft a story that will pull you in and fiddle with your emotions and make you think. Her stories and characters are always so complex to the point you don’t know if you should be angry with them for their choices or sympathize with them because certain things are out of their control.

The novel follows Kareela as she struggles to find her place in the world. Born half-Black and half-white she doesn’t feel she belongs or fits into either ethnic group. Then coming from a family who raised her to conform to society in order to make others comfortable. Kareela has lost her sense of identity and now being pregnant with a child she doesn’t know if she wants this kind of life for her baby.

When I first started reading this I literally had to restart the book out of confusion not realizing that all of the characters were connected. I did not agree with many of Evelyn’s choices for most of the book but in the end I found myself sympathizing with her a little. I felt she turned a blind eye to the experiences lived by her son Antony and daughter Kareela way too much.

It’s like she wanted to make the racism and discrimination they encountered less than what it was. Always making an excuse or having a reason for why someone may have stereotyped them. She couldn’t teach them what it meant to be Black (Jamaican) or how to carry themselves only how to blend in and not draw unwanted attention. Then their father Kingsley was a different story smh!!!

Overall, I did enjoy this book just not as much as Hold My Girl but it’s still a very thought-provoking read. The author delved deep into themes of motherhood, race, police brutality, self-identity, and generational trauma. If you’re looking for a good multigenerational story add this to your TBR.

Rating: 4.5/5⭐️

This book was phenomenal I went into it knowings very little, if any, of the crime that was happening in Jamaica during the time of this book. The back and forth between time and the 3 main characters was perfect. So heartbreaking in parts but the character growth from it was so good. Truly an eye opening experience.

Kareela Jackson is the daughter of a white Canadian mom and a black Jamaican father. We Rip the World Apart looks deeply into her identity - the challenges and traumas her family experienced that shaped her upbringing and her current 24-year-old self. Part coming of age story, part family drama, with deep dives into race, identity, and culture, We Rip the World Apart makes you step into the characters’ lives, building empathy and understanding for one family’s experience over the decades.