Black Cake

3.5/5 - Wasn't terrible but it wasn't great. The problem with doing two different time periods is that both have to be equally as good. While I loved the historical time period, the present time period was boring making it hard to finish the book.

“And what about a person's life? How do you make a map of that? The borders people draw between themselves. The scars left along the ground of one's heart.”

Charmaine Wilkerson's debut novel is an impressive and inspiring story of the bonds of love and family in the face of adversity. She takes the reader on a journey through the map of the lives of the Bennett family, which traverses from Los Angeles back in time to the Caribbean and England.

As the novel opens, Eleanor Bennett has recently died, and her two ch

ildren, Byron and Benny, learn that she has left them a recording they must listen to. Before Eleanor's death, the Bennett family was a bit broken. Benny, Eleanor's daughter, has not spoken to the rest of the family in over 5 years, and her brother Byron is extremely resentful of her for causing this rift in the family. Their mother's death and the black cake she has left for them to share bring them back together, but mending the scars of their estrangement is not an easy task.

Eleanor's recording to her children reveals the story of her past, one filled with heartbreak and betrayal. This part of the story is told in flashbacks set in the Caribbean islands and then in England. We are introduced to Covey, a strong-willed, beautiful girl from the islands, who faces numerous challenges as she grows into a woman. The story eventually reveals a connection between Covey and Eleanor.

The cast of characters in this book is large, but every character plays an essential role in the development of the Bennett family. Each character is fleshed out as much as necessary for the role they play in the plot. The relationships between characters beautifully develop themes about love, loss, resentment, and betrayal.

The writing is straight-forward and simplistic at times and lyrical and complex at others. Wilkerson understands how to match the writing style to the characters and events in the story. She also artfully weaves many important topics into the story of this family, including racism, sexism, sexuality, and conservationism. My only complaint might be that there is maybe too many societal issues introduced in the book without the space to fully develop all of them.

Simply put, this is a great book. I will recommend it to everyone, especially those readers who love family drama. I look forward to reading more from this author.

So rich and complex, unexpected and refreshing. I got chills so many times! Favourite book so far this year

this started off really strong but for me the story became bloated. i loved the short chapters but there were some povs of characters that i didn't think were necessary to hear from and at the end the book just felt like it was simply too long. the story itself is really good though, but it's a very character-driven novel i have to say, and at the 40% mark i stopped caring for any of the characters, so...

I really wanted to like this book but in the end it just wasn't for me. The switching of timeliness was cool but there was so much going on at times the story gets disjointed and pulled me out of it. I would say this book does make me want to learn to make a black cake though lol

I found it a little hard to get into initially but once I did I had to keep reading to see what would happen.

ignore the ending bc my girl pearl absolutely poisoned that creepy fuck i KNOW she'd pull through

I loved the story at its core and the themes of recipes as heirlooms, but it went on for a long while and felt like it often retraced its steps.

With the promise of a rich story, I was initially excited when I began reading Black Cake. Unfortunately, it didn't take long to realize it was going to be a struggle to try and follow.

Following the death of their mother, Byron and Benny are left with a recipe and a family history they knew nothing about. Through the things their mother left, they uncover the truth about their past, shaking up the life they've always known. 

I enjoyed the premise and the characters a lot. Better organization would have made such a difference in the reading experience for me. The timeline jumped all over the place as well as the perspectives. There were also too many characters to keep track of in between, making it nearly impossible to retain the information for very long. Otherwise, the writing was good.

As children, siblings Byron and Bennie are close but they grow apart as they get older. Bennie becomes estranged from her parents, too, after her parents express their dismay about Bennie's relationship choices.

And then Byron and Bennie's father dies. It isn't many years later that Byron and Bennie's mother dies, too. When their mother dies, the two learn that their mother has left them a recording, and the recording reveals the surprising secrets their mother kept about her life.

The Caribbean setting of their mother's youth was fresh and fascinating. I enjoyed learning about the complex lives of the many diverse characters in the story. The black cake served as a lovely metaphor for the lives and experiences of the characters.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a story of family secrets, what we will do for our children and to protect those we hold most dear, and finding ourselves in the midst of expectations that are placed on us by society, family, and community.

The structure of the book is a dual timeline, but is cleverly done in a way that doesn't give the reader whiplash from one storyline to the next. The short chapters and back and forth reads very smoothly, and adds to the story rather than distracting the reader.

The themes of family, inheritance, motherhood, race, emmigration, and grief are intertwined in a tale that has the reader rooting for the characters.

Great book club pick, and the author has a book club kit with a spotify playlist and recipes included!

Read the first half and then the last 4 chapters and suddenly this is a 5 star book. Everything in between is exhausting. There are too many POVs, too many time jumps, too many name changes and too many social issues. This is a book that was so close to being so good and ended up being very very average.

This was a required book for school and I had a great time reading it!

There were alternating characters, timelines, and storylines, but they all eventually came together to create a beautifully done story.

Byron and Benny's mother has recently passed of an illness, and she leaves behind an audio recording explaining her past and what brought her to her beautiful life. She also leaves behind a black cake in the freezer for her children to share when the time is right. However, only they get to decide when that time is.

Throughout the story we are learning with Byron and Benny who her mom its and the history she faced. The points of views by different characters are also thrown in to show a different perspective in the scenes.

My enjoyment of the book coupled with the short chapters made it seem like I was flying through this book! I simultaneously wanted to find out the ending while also preserving the book for as long as I could.

I'm floored that this was Wilkerson's debut novel, and I can't wait to see what she creates in the future.

Twists and turns. I love a story that takes me on a journey. This one did that, and I liked where it took me. This is a great story and I would recommend it to others

4.5 ⭐

This is a beautiful book about families and mistakes and triumphs and traditions. It shows us the negative effects of racism and colonialism and sexism, but it doesn't let the characters drown in it. There is hope for overcoming and having a better future. There are hurts and mistakes made, but there is also forgiveness and second chances. This might be one of my top books for 2022.

I am calling it early but this is my best read of 2022.

CW: death of a parent, parental abandonment, biphobia, biphobic attacks sexual assault, rape, racism, murder, domestic abuse, mentions of suicide, and attempted suicide

I read this via audiobook and I recommend it as a way to read this story. The author has such a beautiful writing style that made me want to continue picking it up. I found myself caring for Benny and the complexities of her story. She is a queer woman that just wants her coffee shop and to be loved. Byron is such an interesting character, he is hard to like at first. But then, you can see has he develops as the story progresses.

I started loving this book up until halfway through. There were so many different characters that I just kept confusing them all. By the end of the story, I didn't remember the majority of them. The author tried to take on so many things at once that it just felt confusing by the end of it. I mean this could just be me thing. I recommend you to read it and make your own opinions.

I still really enjoyed my time reading it and would recommend it. Especially if you like messy familial dramas filled with secrets and interesting character dynamics.

CW: death of a parent, parental abandonment, biphobia, biphobic attacks sexual assault, rape, racism, murder, domestic abuse, mentions of suicide, and attempted suicide

I read this via audiobook and I recommend it as a way to read this story. The author has such a beautiful writing style that made me want to continue picking it up. I found myself caring for Benny and the complexities of her story. She is a queer woman that just wants her coffee shop and to be loved. Byron is such an interesting character, he is hard to like at first. But then, you can see has he develops as the story progresses.

I started loving this book up until halfway through. There were so many different characters that I just kept confusing them all. By the end of the story, I didn't remember the majority of them. The author tried to take on so many things at once that it just felt confusing by the end of it. I mean this could just be me thing. I recommend you to read it and make your own opinions.

I still really enjoyed my time reading it and would recommend it. Especially if you like messy familial dramas filled with secrets and interesting character dynamics.

Hehe made me cry in public :') so beautiful

4.5 stars rounded up

Black Cake starts off promising with an enigmatic premise. Two estranged adult siblings learn that their dead mother wasn't who they thought she was. It was interesting and engaging to watch the story unravel at first, but the second half of the book really suffers from trying to do too much at once. As other reviewers have mentioned, the author addresses a whole host of social and political issues from the perspectives of numerous characters. I really felt that the plot started to drag and we had too many digressions. It feels like the author didn't want even a single loose end, but many of the resolutions felt contrived to me. Some questions don't need an answer, especially if the answer is obvious or unremarkable.

Cannot believe I didn't finish this book earlier this year because the writing is amazing and the character development especially when grieving was such a ride. For a debut novel, this is one of the best ones I've encountered thus far. I would rate this 4.5 stars.

The storytelling in this book is fantastic. So many characters to follow, but you're never confused and none of it could have been edited out. There were several moments in this book that brought tears. Some of the sad, some of them outraged, and some of them touched by the story. It reminded me of a Miyazaki movie. Poignant plot lines with plenty of adventure, but also serious environmental and social issues sprinkled throughout the whole way. I loved this book.

Lots Of Moving Parts That All Work Well. This book is a 400 page version of the first time we see a Transformer transform in the first live action movie all those years ago - so very many moving parts, so many that it can get quite dizzying and hard to keep up with at times, but if you put in the effort... you get a pretty solid story out of it. Though yes, it does in fact get a bit preachy at times (never enough to truly ding it a star, but enough to roll the eyes at times) and yes, with a bit of editing this story could have been much stronger overall. Still, all the various issues Wilkerson brings to the table - various race based issues, LGBT, rape, workplace discrimination (of varying forms), the ease of adopting a new identity pre-mass surveillance, etc etc etc - ultimately work to create a rich, vibrant tapestry rather than crowd each other out too much. And for a journalist turned debut novelist... this is a pretty solid indication that maybe she has something here. Admittedly, I'll be a bit leery that Wilkerson could indeed get too preachy in subsequent works... but I'm going to read the next one based on the strength of this one and find out then. Very much recommended.