bahareads's reviews
1065 reviews

Dunn's book is a look back at Miami's first century through black eyes. It tells the story of Black Miami through the events of lives of Black people; it is not meant to be comprehensive. Dunn has certain organization but the narrative does jump around in certain sections. I also thought the Early Bahamian history narrative was kind of rush and wrong. He kept making comments like "Bahamian roots are still apparent" but did not elaborate on what he meant by it. Overall though, I enjoyed reading the history of Black Miami, especially after the 1950s. The photographs he had in the book were so shocking.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone was just like I remembered! The plot unfolded slowly but in such a meaningful and impactful way. The romance - some call it insta-love - had all the yearning and love I desire in a book. Taylor the genius that you are!  

A good end to an okay series. I thought the book was long for my taste, and once again I was skimming to get to the parts I wanted to really read. I enjoyed the world building AND I was surprised at the twist. I did not see it coming. I did get annoyed at Serilda reasonings for many of her actions. I was pissed off at her for multiple things. I hate dumb main characters. I also hate pregnancy tropes.

Backman had me TORN UP. What a grey cloudy mess this book was! You will have all the feelings coursing through you. I teared up in places. The book was tad too long for me. I though it slowed up in places. But overall I'm excited for the final book.

A quick read; I couldn't put it down but I also started skimming through. The book is too long, and a lot of time is spent on exposition or characters I didn't care about AT ALL. The premise of the story was really interesting though. 

I like this book but I think I should read Backman physically. I was grated down by the repetition of some of the characters complaints or thought processes. The story is very moving and thought provoking though.

Caribbean by James Mitchener covers a large span of history, from the history of indigenous people of the Caribbean up to when the book was published. He covers all the different empires in The Caribbean from the Spanish to the French, Dutch, and English. He attempts to cover major points of Caribbean history through these different empires.

I enjoyed the chapter setups. Even though, Mitchener went from Point of View to Point of View with the different characters, the stories were connected enough or flowed into each other well enough to follow. Throughout the book I kept wondering, “where is The Bahamas?” But at the very end of the book, with his ‘the setting’ page, I see he chose to exclude The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands from the book completely. 

To me that was an interesting narrative choice, though The Bahamas is not in the Caribbean Sea. It is a part of the Caribbean in every other way. It is the place where Columbus first landed and the first interaction between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ world. Nassau, New Providence also played a large role in the Golden Age of Piracy among other historical events, so I was disappointed to see its exclusion. The one chapter where he did mention The Bahamas (Chapter 5) made me wonder what he was citing or where he was drawing his information from. The Bahamas was barely an established English colony by 1650 as the first English settlers created a colony in 1647. So the likelihood of the colony weighing in on important government matters would have been very unlikely.


I have always enjoyed reading historical fiction. I liked elements of Caribbean; it was a mammoth task to try and write a whole history of the Caribbean. I believe a number of the characters fall into the White Savior trope, particularly in latter half of the book. I am aware of racism throughout history but some of the POVs were apologetically racist. Racism is even acknowledged in the book and characters shift and change. But the lens through which, not only the characters see people of color, but also the way Mitchener describes people of color rubbed me the wrong way at times. 

There is an exotification of indigenous people with how they are physically described and how their way of life is described. What stuck out to me the most was in chapter 14, Ras-Negus Grimble is described in very physically dirty language. “Mud” in his hair, that looks like “writhing vipers.” He has a “savage appearance” and “fetid smell.” This is not a particular POV, this is just general description from Mitchener. Personally, I have never known a Rastafarian, or people with locs, to have mud in their hair and not bathe.

too long and bad writing 

The way Backman unfolds a story should be praised. I loved it. It covers a lot of heavy topics in a light way. The story did drag at times for me, but I'm not sure if that was the format or the actual story itself.

I wanted to love this book so bad; I went through phases of enjoying the story and then asking where the hell we were going. Sometimes it felt like the plot got sidetracked. The ending had my head reeling.