Queen B’s Decree: This felt like a coming-of-age story but even after reflecting upon Hurricane Summer, I still don’t know what the lesson was. Everyone sucks and life is terrible?
This is supposedly an ode to the wonders of Jamaica, but except for some scenery and landscape all we hear about are poverty, shaming, racism, and abuse. Tilla and her younger sister are visiting their father down in Jamaica for the summer, and almost immediately their father drops them off in the country and bounces back into the city. It felt like foreboding for the rest of Tilla’s experiences: lower your expectations and it won’t be so sorrowful.
Hurricane Summer had no redemption arc for me. There was toxic abuse from her supposed family and right when I thought there could be some hope for happiness: BOOM. CRY.
I enjoyed the dialogue being almost entirely in Patois, but it did add to the difficulty of the read. While I do think the culture shock contributed to my reaction to Hurricane Summer, I can’t believe how terrible everything is yet I’m supposed to just accept that this behavior is normalized?
It was a little too “sad, everything is terrible, Oprah-book-club literary fiction” for me.
Book: Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield
Series: standalone
Genre: Contemporary/Non-Romance
Hotness: mild salsa
Plot Devices/Tropes: lots of triggers