Hurricane Summer: A Novel by Asha Bromfield
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
The fact that it took me 6 months of starting and putting it down then starting over and over before I finally finished this says it all. I think I hated this book but at minimum a strong dislike. Only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 was because of the dialogue. A good chunk of the dialogue is written in patois, and it is very well done. I did enjoy reading the dialogue in a language that is familiar to me. Some of the descriptions of the physical beauty of the country are also lovely. That’s where the positives end for me.
This book is about 2 sisters who come from Canada to spend the summer in Jamaica with their dad and his family. There are very many characters and interestingly I found myself not liking the vast majority of them. Only 1 character, Andre, had any redeeming value for me.
It is supposed to be a coming-of-age story for the main character, Tilla. I tried hard to like her but found her passive and annoying. But the hatred that wove throughout this book as a main theme was hard to stomach. The fact that everyone hated her based solely on the fact that she was from “farrin” was hard to understand. I am a born and grown Jamaican so appreciate that the people can be hard, but this level of vitriol was staggering.
Tilla keeps describing the island as paradise, yet the readers are shown nothing redeeming about the place. It felt like the author was trying hard to convince us that she loved her Jamaican roots when in fact she loathes them.
The end of the book is full of cliches and trite passages about growth and redemption. I was also surprised that this was coded as a young adult novel. It should be noted that there are dark themes and potential trigger topics of abuse, racism, infidelity, grief and loss, and some sexual content.
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