This smart, generous collection is a true gift.
A cross-genre anthology with a wide breadth of writing by African and African diaspora authors.
Brew-Hammond presents an anthology of works with a common theme of relations—which, she writes in an introduction, “obfuscate the convenient and comfortable narratives we tell ourselves about who we are” and “trounce boundaries erected by religion, class, race, and rhetoric.” The book collects short stories, essays, and poems, and the range is impressive. In the story “Lagos Wives Club,” New York–based author Vanessa Walters follows Simone, a woman who has moved from the U.K. to Nigeria with her husband and finds it difficult to fit in: “But seven years later, she still felt like a visitor. A foreign object. She would never be of this place.” Walters’ writing is nuanced and sensitive, and the story ends with a realistic sense of doubt and unbelonging. Rémy Ngamije’s subtly effective story “Fulbright” takes place on a flight to the U.S., where the Namibian narrator, a Fulbright scholar, is on his way to study at Columbia Law School. Ngamije does an excellent job balancing the student’s excitement (“I’ll have a hot dog on a corner. Bagels, burgers, soda, milkshakes—I might even watch an ice hockey game”) with his fears (“I worry I’ll be another Amadou Diallo…I don’t want to be another Black man waiting to become a white chalk outline on a curb somewhere”). The anthology closes with a gorgeous essay-poetry hybrid from Togolese author Ayi Renaud Dossavi-Alipoeh, who reflects beautifully on the importance of language to our lives: “We live in words as we sleep in bed….We clothe every moment of our existence with them, every form of our thoughts, every fold of our brains.” Brew-Hammond is herself an excellent author—as her own contribution, a short story, proves—and she has a great eye for quality writing; every selection in the anthology is at least solid, and most are remarkable. This is an anthology that sings, a wonderful look at the relationships and connections that sustain us, give us life, make us who we are.
This smart, generous collection is a true gift.Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-06-308904-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: HarperVia
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.
A collegiate diver and swimmer secretly pursue kink together, and risk falling in love along the way.
Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling. Despite a successful recovery from the injury that almost ended her Stanford diving career, she hasn’t been able to get her head together, and it’s affecting her performance. Plus, she’s trying to stay focused on getting into medical school. A relationship would be out of the question. By comparison, Lukas Blomqvist is a swimming idol, a record-breaker who wins medals as easily as breathing, and Scarlett has long been convinced he would never look in her direction—until one fateful night when a mutual friend lets slip that they have something unexpected in common: Scarlett likes to be submissive in the bedroom, while Lukas prefers to take a dominant approach. Now, they both know a big secret about each other, and it’s something neither of them can stop thinking about. It’s Lukas who suggests they have a fling—purely physical, just to take the edge off, so Scarlett can get out of her own head and stop overthinking her dives. Initially, their arrangement is easy to stick to, but the more time they spend together, the more Scarlett starts to realize that what she feels for Lukas is more than physical attraction. Complicating the situation is the fact that Scarlett’s friend Penelope Ross used to go out with Lukas, and the longer Scarlett keeps mum about her true feelings for him, the more difficult it is to keep the situation hidden from another person she really cares about. While Scarlett and Lukas’ relationship does begin as a physical one, their deeper psychological connection takes a little too long to emerge amid all the other storylines, resulting in a somewhat rushed resolution. However, Hazelwood’s latest is proof of the depth and maturity that has emerged in her writing over the years, and it highlights her embrace of sexier, more emotional elements than were present in her original STEMinist rom-coms.
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641057
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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