Little Syllables: The Blog
Review - Maame by Jessica George
I received a free advanced copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Maame by Jessica George tells the story of Maddie, a mid-20s office worker who has always taken care of others at the expense of herself. She comes from an unconventional family—a mother who was often absent, a father who was often reticent, and a brother who left as soon as he could. Now Maddie is left in the care of her ailing father while her mother spends most of her time in Ghana and her brother works an unpredictable job. Then her mother returns, freeing Maddie to move out and start to live her own life.
Maddie is sheltered and awkward, inexperienced and isolated. And as she determines to try new things, she makes a lot of mistakes. The important thing is that she learns from these mistakes and continues moving forward. When tragedy strikes, Maddie is left to re-evaluate her role in her family and in her own life.
I felt the main theme of this book is the search for identity. I especially appreciated Maddie’s realization that the identity she has been living in may not be what she would have chosen. Maddie has to come to terms with her life as a Black woman, an aspiring professional, a sexual being, a friend, and a daughter. As frustrating and hopeless as her life feels at times, the reader is ultimately left with a sense of hope for Maddie’s future.
Maame is a book that touched me in several ways and helped me see the empowerment that comes from reclaiming the self. I highly recommend this one!
Maame is set for release on January 31, 2023.
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Review - Scatterlings by Rešoketšwe Manenzhe
I received a free advanced copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Scatterlings was a slow, but interesting read for me. This book is historical fiction set in South Africa in 1927, when the Immorality Act was passed. The story revolves around Abram and Alisa and their daughters, Dido and Emilia. Abram is of Dutch descent and Alisa is Black, the daughter of former slaves in the Caribbean who was raised by a white couple in England.
Obviously, the Immorality Act complicates Abram and Alisa’s lives. As Abram considers leaving the country with his family, Alisa commits a terrible act, doing something that she thinks will be best for her children.
This story is built around several different points of view. A large portion of the book is excerpts of Alisa’s journal, and that is how the reader learns her backstory. We see her struggles with mental illness and with feelings of displacement. And we see how her actions affect the lives of her husband and daughters.
The characters in this story are complex and deeply wrought.
I appreciate how the author gives the reader intricate people to drive the story forward.
The setting is also very well done. This book provides a very detailed sense of place, and the reader falls in love with South Africa along with the characters.
Ultimately I felt this novel was about finding belonging and coming home. Each character in the book deals with displacement in their own ways, and I love how the author weaved different cultural beliefs together to show how these characters find their own homes (physical and metaphorical).
Scatterlings came out on December 13. Check it out and let me know what you think of it!
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Review - The Other Mother by Rachel M. Harper
I received a digital review copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Rachel M. Harper’s The Other Mother is a story of family relationships, racial and sexual identity, and loss. It follows a young man named Jenry, an up-and-coming pianist, as he begins to discover the truth of his past that has been kept from him by his single mother and his maternal grandparents. Jenry enters college and seeks out information about the man he has been told was his father. Once Jenry sets out to discover the truth about his parentage, the reader sees the story from the perspective of the other characters as well. We get to know each of Jenry’s parents and grandparents, their stories interwoven through past and present.
This book is intricate and complex. The reader is apprised to the truth long before characters within the book are. We learn about Jenry’s true parentage, and get to know his true family. There have been a lot of lies and secrets, and most of them are unraveled before the story ends.
Ultimately, I felt this book was about how we create our own family based on who we let in, who we keep out, and who we choose to be every day. This is a book that makes the reader consider what they would do if they were in each character’s shoes and consider a variety of perspectives on the same events.
Overall, I liked this book. It has well-written characters and a strong sense of time and place.
The Other Mother is available now!