Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I thought I was going to love “Black Cake” when I first started reading. And then I didn’t 🤷🏽♀️. Maybe 2.5 stars. I actually found the story boring. I found myself skimming a great deal at the repetitive revisiting of some of the story lines. I really do not enjoy a book with so many characters and none seeming to evolve or grow.
The author touched on every issue she could think of (misogyny, racism, assault, immigration, loss, etc.) but then didn’t actually successfully delve into any of them with any depth. I literally realized as I finally finished the unnecessarily long book that I had zero emotional investment in any of the characters. It is rare for me to not have any interest in characters of books I read.
As a Jamaican I also did not enjoy her use of a supposedly fictionalized island yet basing it very clearly on our culture. It felt like a cheap writing ploy to name every other location but leave the place from where the story supposedly originated simply a generic “the island”.
I know many other readers found an emotional connection with the black cake. I grew up with it being made every Christmas (I have 2 different ones in my fridge right now) and for every wedding yet I honestly did not find the constant descriptions of it to have added anything to this story.
All in all, a story I could have skipped. My entire Book club had a completely different feel about this book, so I recognize my minority experience.
I actually read “Black Cake” last year. I only posted the review because with the new miniseries several people have asked me my opinions. I truly think this might make a better tv show than it did a book. I have heard that the island is named in the show so that’s an improvement, though I have also heard the accents are bad. lol. I have also heard that the repetitive reference to the cake is not as pronounced. Quite honestly, I would consider watching even though I did not like the book.
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