colorism

The struggle between who you are and who you want to be

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

December 28, 2021 by teresaelectro 1 Comment

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett was another Mocha Girls Read pick. I definitely would not have read it without the book club impetus. To no surprise, as indicated by this annual onslaught of reviews, I procrastinated reading it. I ended up reading most of it in one day. It was well worth the time and exceeded my expectations. The novel centers on two Black twin sisters who run away from a small Black community. The town prides itself on being a close-knit town for […]

Some light can only be seen in the dark

Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o and Vashti Harrison

December 28, 2020 by Malin 1 Comment

Sulwe is the colour of midnight. Her mama is the colour of dawn, her father the colour of dusk and her little sister is the colour of high noon. Sulwe has darker skin than anyone in her family and pretty much everyone at school. While her little sister is given positive nicknames like ‘ray’ and ‘sunshine’, Sulwe is called ‘darkie’ and ‘night’. This is obviously deeply hurtful to the little girl, who remains withdrawn and friendless. Sulwe tries a number of things to lighten her […]

“How real was a person if you could shed her in a thousand miles?”

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

October 14, 2020 by narfna Leave a Comment

This is one of those books I don’t really feel like I can review without writing something the length of a dissertation. The Vanishing Half follows the divergent paths of identical twin sisters Desiree and Stella Vignes, from their childhoods in the 1950s through the early 1990s. The twins grow up in a small town called Mallard that is entirely populated by mixed race Black folks. The founder of the town wanted a place that people who didn’t fit in with either the white or […]

Self-love out of self-loathing: Genesis Begins Again

Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams

February 25, 2020 by cosbrarian Leave a Comment

Genesis has taken hating herself to a new level: she has a long list of reasons she can’t stand herself and she’s adding to it every day. She gets help, too: from her father, who can’t help commenting in his drunken rants on how she had to end up dark like him instead of light like her beautiful mother, to the kids at school who’ve covered every cruel name for her dark skin. Genesis has a hard time making friends anyway. Every time she starts […]

Malin
on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
In my book club, when we have pretty much come to the agreement that if the protagonists are still teenagers...
katie71483
on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
Like so many others here, I'm a sucker for Tamora Pierce. Is Robin McKinley YA? Because I love her books,...
Tracy
on Interesting From an Intellectual Standpoint
I didn’t find it funny, and I’m not sure if my sense of humor doesn’t mesh with his or if...
Jen K
on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
Oh, see I definitely read it as, “give your teens this magic school book instead.” Maybe because I remember The...
wicherwill
on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
Interesting with Scholomance, I very much read it as the adult book for former YA magic school book readers

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