Dwight Thompson

I initially picked up this novel because it was discussing an important subject matter. It’s a coming-of-age story set in Jamaica exploring themes of toxic masculinity, friendship, culture, and violence against women. I understand what the author was aiming to write about and appreciate that it attempted to tackle these issues.

However, all the characters were plain disgusting. These were sensitive topics, and I don’t feel that justice was done to this important subject matter. I show more understand what was trying to be said regarding Perry’s sexuality, but I feel the way the issue was approached was wrong. I also don’t like the message that was being said towards the end of the novel regarding Maude’s abuse. Furthermore, many of the storylines felt unresolved and didn’t feel like justice was served for the characters. But maybe another part of the message the author wanted to deliver was that many times issues like these can be left unresolved. Despite the author’s intentions and efforts, the way it was delivered made the novel incredibly difficult to finish. Also, I felt like the novel was really graphic, repulsive, and quite insensitive at times. I understand that it can be important to illustrate certain events to show the depth of the issue, but the way it was played out was quite insensitive & repulsive. It was overly sexualized, and I felt that some of this should be cut back. I feel like the novel should definitely have graphic/content warnings.

On top of this, there were a few things fundamentally wrong with the novel. The first was the way the book was formatted, which made it confusing to follow along with the timeline. In addition, the novel was quite dialogue-heavy and was also written in patois. Although this enhances the reading experience and gives a feel for the characters, it can sometimes be difficult to read. If this had been addressed and the dialogue had been a bit less bulky, it would have given a better reading experience. The novel would have benefited from a more streamlined plot, focusing more on the general issues rather than drifting to other topics. Moreover, I felt the subplots or certain scenes didn’t really add to the main plot or add more perspective to the characters.

Overall, I appreciate the author’s effort to tackle these issues, and I hope that the author can address these issues in upcoming novels.

2.5/5 show less

Part of me wants to rate this higher because I see what the author was trying to do, and it was a solid A for effort. This book really tackles the issues of toxic masculinity in Jamaica, and how hard it is to overcome even when you are aware of it. However, every single character in this book is flat out disgusting with no redeeming qualities at all. Not a one. Some characters you feel sympathy for like Maude, and Briana and the grandmother, but even those characters are just gross to read show more about, and I didn't like them, I just felt bad for them. Every scene seems to end with terrible, horrifying violence that you sometimes get a warning about, but that mostly seems to come out of nowhere. This book has definitely made me certain that I never want to set foot anywhere near Jamaica (and it sounds like only the ickiest, lamest, most racist Americans end up there anyway).

The nice thing about the book was that the dialogue was written in patois so you got a sense of the characters speaking as they would amongst themselves. I didn't get everything they were saying, but that seemed like an intentional choice, which I appreciated. show less

My thanks to LibraryThing Early Reviewers and to the publisher, Akashic Books, for my ARC.

The premise of this book intrigued me and I am always drawn to ethnic settings that provide exposure to new cultures. That being said, from the first chapter, it was sometimes a challenge to decipher the dialect and it became so cumbersome to Google vocabulary that I couldn’t even be bothered. Parenthetical or footnoted explanations/translations would have been helpful.

Narrator Nyjah Messado’s show more guilty conscience over his silence and inaction follows him into adulthood. When he was a teen, a young woman, a teacher, was brutally assaulted by his classmates, some of them his friends. Even others in his life can sense that something is off. His anger. His reactions. His apologies.

This was such a tedious read. I kept putting it aside and had to force myself to finish it. So relieved when I finally reached the end. I had no clue where the author was going with the story. If there was some deep meaning, it was completely lost on me. It was not only the subject matter, but the writing style, the excessive number of characters (most were unlikable, including the protagonist), the violence, the cultural misogyny and bigotry in Jamaica. Last, but not least, the gratuitous profanity, vulgar language, and graphic sexual content. It DEFINITELY should have come with trigger warnings. show less

Nyjah Messado is from Montego Bay, Jamaica and has witnessed a brutal assault by some of his friends. He doesn't intervene and carries that guilt with him. We get to know him in his younger and older years.


I kind of found this book hard to read because of the language. Had a hard time understanding some of the things that were going on at a given point.