CW: fatal car crash in the past, past homophobia, physical altercation that could have veered towards physical abuse except that it was stopped before any character is hurt
What a beautiful cover, I have to say. The UK version is very boring looking in comparison.
I have been thinking about the review for this book for ages, and here goes: If this was a book about Feyi and Joy, it would have been an easy 4 star book. Their interaction alone is 5 star, excellent, I want everyone to have a Joy in their lives who pumps them up and calls them out and is a delight and also a bit of a mess in her own way.
But the actual romance of the book? All I wanted to do (and…did do…) was repeatedly yell at my Kindle, “GO TO A THERAPIST, DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT STAY AT UNNAMED CARIBBEAN ISLAND.”
In a nutshell, Feyi is still recovering from a traumatic incident five years ago when her college sweetheart husband died in a car crash, leaving her a widow after barely a year of being married. She’s since moved to NYC (where she doesn’t need to drive), lives with with her best friend Joy, and is trying to make a living as an artist, creating multimedia pieces that work through her grief and pain.
But now, Joy is pushing Feyi to finally get out there and be alive, fully, not just living in the shadow of the life she could have had. Feyi does so with aplomb, eventually ending up in a sort of thing with Nasir, the friend of a guy she hooked up with for a bit after meeting at a party. So far so good! Joy’s commentary on Feyi’s decisions is everything I need. Feyi’s attempts at opening up and becoming more emotionally involved come with pitfalls and setbacks, as one would expect.
Nasir invites Feyi to stay at his father’s house on an island, throwing in that he’s also gotten her work into a prestigious art show because did he mention that his father is loaded and so he’s got great connections? Feyi thinks about it, and then decides to go for it and get herself in the room where things happen. And that’s where the wheels started coming off for me.
On the island, Feyi meets Nasir’s father, the charismatic Alim Blake (if I had a nickel for every time that Alim is described as magnetic/charming/charismatic/smooth I’d have enough to buy my own gorgeous pad on an island) and immediately starts to fall for him. And by fall for him I mean she’s ready to jump headfirst into a Relationship with a capital R, notwithstanding her many, many (reasonable) hesitations over what it means to be into the father of the guy you’ve been taking things slow with who brought you to an island and helped you get a big commission.
I think I understand what Emezi was trying to do–show Feyi’s progression and growth and that working through grief is not a linear path but a messy, circuitous route–but all I could think about during the entire latter part was how much every character in this book needed to be seeing a therapist. Alim has someone he “talks to sometimes” but seemingly hasn’t discussed how he’s put off having a life of his own for the sake of his kids for 20 ish years. Feyi no longer sees her therapist regularly but reaches out when she needs help–despite the fact that, post the death of her husband, she’s still never been in a relationship. That seems like the exact sort of next step that you’d want a therapist to help you through???
I dunno, I was very done with the no-Joy (who is in NYC)-ness of it all as well. No part of Feyi’s relationship with Alim felt like her meeting the right guy at the wrong time; it all felt like her finally talking about her emotions and therefore being into the first person that listened to her. And once again there’s a bit power discrepancy between struggling artist and super wealthy successful older dude, so this book was a big nope for me.