Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Bolo Negro by Charmaine Wilkerson

61 reviews

nadiaherondale's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Such a beautiful tale of family, love and friendship, the narrative was enchanting and the premise very interesting. I had been putting off reading this book for no other reason that I didn't feel in the mood, and I'm very glad that I finally decided to go for it because I know this is one of those books that will stay with me for a long time 5/5
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melba1975's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Black Cake is a fantastic book. The complex and interconnected lives of the MCs give the book depth and interest that I found quite engaging. The bits of historical and/or scientific information sprinkled throughout this intriguing story made the read that much more enjoyable. By the end of the book, I felt close to all of the MCs. I rejoiced at their triumphs and lamented at their sorrows. Overall this was a book I am happy to have read and will gladly recommend to others. 
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blackcake's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I must say, Charmaine wrote a lovely story about breaking generational curses, the beauty and history within cooking, racism, and self life reflection. Even though the pace of this book is arguably slow, I rather enjoyed it as it took it's time to build many loveable characters and empathy for their journeys. The twists even landed harder for me because the author choose to take a slower route to build up the tension. 

This book will you inspire you to seek out knowledge about your family. It showed, in a plethora of examples through the generations, how history repeats itself when you're unaware of it or haven't learned from it. 

The hard hitting issues, as far as racism, colorism, featurism, and xenophobia was painted and explained brilliantly. Charmaine did a phenomenal job educating the reader on these topics, specially in the loosely based Jamaican culture. She walked us into the world of the toxic thinking and beliefs some people, mainly of the older generation, possessed.
Even the sexual assault was handled with care as the author didn't go into detail and refrained from giving the abuser too much acknowledgement. 
 

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in food culture, Jamaican/Island culture and lifestyle, family secrets, and/or civil rights. You will not be disappointed. 
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jayla_hh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I feel like a letter would've suffice but alas the recording drove the point harder
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sneelydan's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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esmelee's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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daniellestarredpages's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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mels_reading_log's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This is the story of a Caribbean woman and her family. Her life was full of secrets and mysteries and her children knew nothing about it until her death. Her children come together with their mother’s lawyer to listen to a tape their mother made telling them her whole story from a child of the Caribbean to a mother in California and all of her adventures in between. This book started out a little slow for me, but by the end when all of the puzzle pieces clicked in place, I really enjoyed it.
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suryac's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

untold stories shape people's lives both when they are withheld & when they are revealed

Everything is connected to everything else, if you only go far enough back in time

3.75/5⭐

I don't know if this is because I'm coming off of reading a lot of action/crime books, I just couldn't understand the need for secrecy. Other than that, I absolutely loved the book. I didn't like the prose at certain parts of the book but it didn't ruin the story in anyway for me. So many social and political issues are discussed in this book, but I would have loved those discussions in the book more if the author had named them explicitly rather than trying to convey something without actually naming it, which just leaves a bad taste for me, although, again it could be a "me" thing and it's not like other readers would feel how I felt when reading those parts of the story.

Even though it's labelled as a mystery with a mention of "murder" in the blurb, I just couldn't care much about it, reading this book, I felt like it was inconsequential, because so much had happened to Eleanor in the last five decades, that I just felt like she and everyone else are making a big deal out of it ? Even though I had that feeling, I still enjoyed this book and it made me smile and cry in various moments. Hoping to catch the TV show that was adapted from this book next
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that_brish's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Wildly anachronistic 
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