Soul Kiss

by Shay Youngblood

A tender, lyrical, sensual, and funny novel follows the coming of age of an African-American girl in the rural South as she tries to cope with the death of her mother and searches for the father she never knew. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Coming Of Age, African American, Queer, Lesbian, Young Adult

207 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Georgia born writer Shay Youngblood is author of the novels Black Girl in Paris and Soul Kiss (Riverhead Books) and a collection of short fiction, The Big Mama Stories (Firebrand Books). Her plays Amazing Grace, Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery and Talking Bones, (Dramatic Publishing Company), have been widely produced. Her other plays include Black Power Barbie and Communism Killed My Dog. She completed a radio play, Explain Me the Blues for WBGO Public Radio's Jazz Play Series, featuring Odetta and the music of Olu Dara. The recipient of numerous grants and awards including a Pushcart Prize for fiction, a Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, an Edward Albee honoree, several NAACP Theater Awards, an Astraea Writers' Award for fiction and a 2004 New York Foundation for the Arts Sustained Achievement Award.

Ms. Youngblood graduated from Clark-Atlanta University and received her MFA in Creative Writing from Brown University. Her fiction, articles and essays have been published in Oprah magazine, Good Housekeeping, Black Book and Essence magazines among others. She has worked as a Peace Corp Volunteer in the Eastern Caribbean, an Au Pair, Artist's Model, and Poet's Helper in Paris and Creative Writing instructor in a Rhode Island Women's Prison. She is a board member of both Yaddo artists' colony and the Author's Guild. She has taught Creative Writing at NYU and was the 2002-03 John and Renee Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. She is
currently Writer in Residence at Texas A&M University.

Reviews

[jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love this book so much. thank you thank you thank you.

***

this may well be the most beautiful coming-of-age novel i've ever read. it's so non-clichéd and, you know, the author, just like the protagonist, is a poet, so basically every page is a poem.

the most astounding feature of this slender book is the treatment of sex. adolescent queer desire; straight puppy sex that is not exactly puppy-esque; the secret sex of not-very-sexual middle-aged same-sex lovers; the sex that inevitably passes between a mother and a child, a father and a(n older) child; rape (yah); and then some more mature same-sex attraction. it's all done so intelligently and so daringly, and even when it feels transgressive and icky it's still intelligent, delicate and smart.

love is sex is desire is love is tenderness is dedication is freedom is sex is desire is love. love can be entrapping or it can be safe. you have to pick your love carefully. if you can. (heartbreak.)

this is a book written by a feminist author who has no desire to traumatize her reader, but means to enrich her at every turn with the power of beauty, feeling, strength, and language.

if you are feeling like the world is a heavy place, this may be the book for you.

[Jocelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of all time. This is a wonderful coming of age story full of beautiful lyrical prose and charasmatic characters. I've read this book several times and I will definitel read it again. Beautiful!

[Continualknowledge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great literary book. Definitely not written the way you would expect when you read the story's synopisis. Youngblood takes you on a literary journey with her writing and descriptions and her ability to make you feel for the lead character. She draws out the nuances of the characters and you feel for them and against them as you progress through the novel. At times you feel yourself championing for the lead and then wanting to slap some sense into her at other times. In my case I was also aching to know more about the aunts and a little more development of those women. So while the book is well-written, there are some issues with plot development. My recommendation is pick the book up.

[Mica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a book that makes me think and one that paints a picture so vivid that I feel like I'm there. Soul Kiss does this and so much more. Minus all the pomp & circumstance of so many of today's contemporary novels, Soul Kiss is both delicious and disturbing....at the same time.

It's the coming-of-age story of Mariah, an introverted little girl who's left by her mother at the tender age of 7. The story follows her thru her late teens as she struggles to deal with abandonment issues, deviant sexuality, belongingness, rape, and so much more.

The story-- set in the late 1960s--is Youngblood's 1st novel. She was only a playwright beforehand. I think her background as a playwright lends to the beauty of the descriptions in the book. It's so poetic at times that it reminded me of some of the best of Alice Walker's work.

"When I had a choice, I read from the book of rhymes Mama left me, but usually they selected long poems from slim leather-bound volumes by men and women they told me were colored like us. Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Robert Hadyn, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Georgia Douglas....They wrote about blues, loneliness, love, bitterness, pain, all about being colored. Sometimes I stole one the books and slept with it under my pillow so I could dream special dreams. Sometimes I tore pages from the books and ate the poems word by word to keep them inside of me."

It's beautifully written and truly moving...hauntingly erotic...so much so that you'll be uncomfortable with it at times. I definitely recommend this book.

[Sabrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I AM MAD AT CORAL!
This is a story that is sad, but often has been told in the black community. The circumstances teaches you the importance of a village and that actions truly leave a impact. There were incidences where I held my breath, and some where I couldn't bare to see her still be unhappy. But, I loved the character growth in the end and the realization she has that she can move on despite how others have treated you.

I had to scream "PLEASE DO NOT FUCK YOUR DAUGHTER! PLEASE DO NOT FUCK YOUR DAUGHTER!" So thankfully, He didn't, because I don't think I would have been able to finish it honestly. The portrait aspect was odd but I could understand that dynamic, only due to the fact the relationship was new and unrelatable to them at the time. But, the were fully aware of their relation title to each other so I was begging for him not to sleep with her. Especially since he didn't even want to be called "Daddy", but I am glad she eventually started calling him that again.

Mariah just wanted a belonging, but she had to realized she was accepted all along from the people who truly mattered.

[Beverlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angst.
Melancholy.
Yearning.
Cleanse.
If I was to limit my impression of Soul Kiss to 4 words, this would be it. Shay Youngblood does an excellent job capturing the many emotions that Mariah experiences in a snapshot of her life from age 7-18. This isn't the typical coming of age story where a character moves from innocence to some sort of temptation, a brief moment of being on top of the world to a precipitous downfall, perhaps an awakening of sorts followed by redemption and restoration of good feelings. In Soul Kiss, Youngblood first presents Mariah and Coral as an unorthodox mother-daughter duo. They share a love of words and a deep bond. There's a crack in their seemingly solid wall that serves as a protection against the world and it is blown apart with a single act. Coral's decision to move Mariah with her great aunts is devastating to Mariah but it's an act of love that is realized in the end.
My only real criticism of Soul Kiss is some of the characters seem less developed, though they are central to the story. It's not really explained what happened between Coral and Gert and I think knowing why may explain a little better why Coral behaves the way she is portrayed. Based on how she was in the beginning compared to the end, her behavior is beyond erratic. I wish Aunt Merleen and Aunt Faith were a little bit more prominent in the story line because they are important to Mariah, but there's no details given about Aunt Merleen, a woman who drank scotch, drove a car, and had some degree of wealth in the 1960s South. This is not unheard of or unbelievable, I just think she could have had an amazing backstory.
My favorite thing about Soul Kiss is the writing. Youngblood, like Mariah, has a way with words that is a gift to any reader. Youngblood also inserts commentary on several issues such as respectability politics/classism, feminism, drug abuse, sexual assault, and lesbianism. Some important lines-
"there was a swing in our backyard where Mama spent several hours pushing me into the sky. Sometimes I sang songs into the wind, catching a piece of cloud in my throat and swallowing them for safekeeping" (6)
"I am beginning to see that nothing lasts long, not even hope" (30)
"I ain't no n** and I don't want to be stomped to death under some white man's boot who's calling me one. There is a charge in the air that is beginning to smell like the start of a fire that will burn out of control" (95)
"Be a lady...bedtime prayers...learn your lessons well" (102, 113).
"Music is a train for me and I ride, hanging on to the rhythms as if their grace will carry me along" (180).
"My thirst is endless, the well has no bottom, but there is love around me, I'm sure of it now" (207).

[Maan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a coming-of-age novel. I think it was written beautifully but I was somewhat disturbed by the family issues, graphic description of the loss of innocence and the like. Maybe that's just me.

Favorite Lines:

I want to make words so delicious that people will want to eat them.

She marks out the four directions on the map of my heart and I remember that if you feel lost you follow the one you love and go where your love takes you.

[Fran Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so glad to have come across this book and it will stay on my shelf and not end up in a charity shop. I was delighted to be introduced to Youngblood's poetic delivery whilst telling this coming of age tale about a young girl finding herself. I loved the portrayal of her aunts. Well rounded characters and strong use of dialogue will make this one I'll read again and would definitely recommend

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know about this book. It disgusted me the relationship Mariah has with her father. There were hard parts to read and get through. Mariah is dropped off by her mother to live with some aunts who she barely knows. When she finally tracks down her father in LA she goes to live with him for awhile and they have a twisted/sick relationship. I believe Mariah realized what was going on and how wrong it was. She is notified one of her aunts has passed so she returns home to help the other aunt. Not much a story or an ending.

[Carrolet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read that Shay Youngblood passed away in June 2024 and remembered that I had a first edition hard copy of her debut novel. I don’t remember reading it though. It’s a coming-of-age story filled with quiet sadness. Abandoned by her parents, Mariah is left with her elderly aunts whose love she resists. She finds her way into much more than she can handle. I was left feeling sad for almost every character. Almost.

[Natalie Cave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This absolutely gets five stars from me I have read this historical fiction over and over and over again. I've probably actually been reading this from a very inappropriate age considering some of the content I think it was 6th grade I started this book and it is still to this day in my top five of stand alone faves

[Cesca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and gobbled up the coming of age story, swaddled in romantic and dreamy words within a few days. The setting is not comfortable swinging from longing and loving and losing, finally coming to terms that all three are apart of each other.

I loved it and definitely will be looking to read more from Shay Youngblood

[sarah panic · Rating 5 out of 5]

So lyrical. Beautiful, haunting. I felt every range of emotion that Mariah experiences. Youngblood has a way of writing that makes you feel that these experiences are universal - and they are. Thus, creating a story that can touch every reader.

[Morgen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Affecting story of a girl abandoned by her drug addicted mother, then raised by elderly church going aunts, who spends many years waiting for her beloved mother to come back and love her without realizing how loved she already is.

[Marilyn Pronovost · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad but it did not hold my interest. Halfway through, I quit the book.

[Monica Boudreaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book

[Bethany Loper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it truly better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all...? 💔😭

[Floibmontse · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book are really good.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

(FROM JACKET)The story begins with a bus ride from Manhattan, Kansas to a small town in Georgia in 1968. Seven-year-old Mariah Kin Santos is on a trip with her beautiful sad mama, just the two of them, as always. When they reach the porch of a tidy white house, her mother rings the doorbell, is greeted coolly by her two maiden aunts, conducts a brief, cryptic conversation with them, then flees, leaving Maria in the care of two old strangers who claim to be family. Mariah's mother, devastated by yet another failed love affair, is sliding out of control, and rather than endanger the adoration her little girl has for her, she abandons the child before the good memories go bad.

After a difficult start, Mariah and her aunts come to form a strangely harmonious threesome-soft, round Faith teaches Mariah to play the piano; strong, fierce Merleen teaches her to drive and to garden-but Mariah still dreams of her mother's glorious return and the far-off father she has never known. As a teenager nursing a nascent rebellion, she begins a flirtatious correspondence with him and before long travels to Los Angeles to confront the hero of her imagination. For his part, her father is suddenly face to face with a replica of the woman he loved passionately fourteen years earlier, and she is his daughter.

With intoxicating, gorgeous prose and images that shimmer like watercolors on the page, Shay Youngblood writes of the call of unrequited passion and the insidious pull of memory. "Soul Kiss" is infused with longing, eroticism, and haunting emotion-a stunning debut.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second read of Soul Kiss. In all honesty, I revisited it because I couldn't remember the plot and I wanted to figure out why Black Girl in Paris had such a hold on me and this one didn't. It turns out, the way I related to the protag in BGIP is the difference. I read BGIP so many times in my mid-twenties because Eden and I were going through some of the same things. Mariah Santos, like Eden, is experiencing restlessness and discovery but within the confines of childhood.

Soul Kiss is a coming-of-age story. Mariah is the only child of two romantic, dreamer-type parents who split before she's born. They are both very loving but not so stable. After a few years of living alone with her mother, her great-aunts raise her and then in her teenage years, she goes to live with her dad. A lot of stuff happens. A lot.

The story moves at a slow pace (or at least it feels that way w/ Youngblood's use of short sentences and 1st person present POV) and, on a macro level, it feels driven by the question of whether Mariah and her mother will reunite. Beyond those family dynamics, Youngblood really has a talent for taking it beyond convention when exploring ideas about sex/sexuality/desire/intimacy within this family. The way these things encounter each other is certainly one of the more interesting things about Soul Kiss.

[Shirma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my second book by Shay Youngblood, the first was Black Girl in Paris and I enjoyed that one much more than Soul Kiss. Not to say that this one was not an enjoyable read. Soul Kiss is the story of a young girl, Mariah, of African/Latino descent who at the age of seven is abandoned by her mother. For eight years she lives with two old aunts who apparently share a secret lesbian relationship. At the age of fifteen, Mariah goes to live with her estranged father. This coming-of-age story is one of loss and longing as Mariah experiences life in a constant state of expectancy, wanting her mother to return and not understanding why she left in the first place. It is also a story of learning acceptance of love wherever it's found.

Youngblood is quite an imaginative writer, allowing her characters bizarre and unexpected behavior which kept the story interesting. Her writing is poetry. I enjoyed seeing her love of language, words and art in general both in her writing style and in the lives of the story's characters.

[Christina]

A first novel can go one of two ways, and I am so glad that Ms. Youngblood sat down and "opened a vein," as Red Smith defined writing. I feel so deeply for this motherless girl searching this confusing world for a meaning behind the actions of those that "love" her. The imagery and poetry of her novel all drew me in and made me a part of the fabric of this story. I seriously would love to call up Ms. Youngblood and get together with her for lunch. "They" say that most first novels are somewhat autobiographical, and I love to read stories that reveal people honestly. Fiction is so plastic when you can't ever imagine the story happening unless they force-feed you the images on a twelve-foot screen in 3-D and THX. No one is sweet and perfect all the time, and we all feel guilty for things we have done or haven't done - but to what extent do we feel we deserve the "puinishment" of the world. Karma is supposed to come around sometime, right?

[Tonia Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as coming of age stories go, this one ranks up there with White Oleander for me (which continues to be a favorite). Youngblood is a poet and with her words she paints the soul with vibrant, almost painful color. There were times I had to set the book aside just to absorb the pain and beauty of what I'd read. I put off reading this one, knowing I would sink into Mariah's world, and sink I did. All the way down the rabbit hole. Wonderfully done in the vein of Toni Morrison's work and Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. I wanted to surround Mariah with the love and security she so desperately needed. Wonderful, sensual book.

[Jonna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved, loved, loved this book. It tells a wonderful coming-of-age story and shows how the main character struggles with growing up, falling in love, all the while surrounded by other wonderful characters. This is a book that you hate to stop reading because it makes you feel so good. A must read in my opinion.

[HeavyReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

This might maybe should get shelved under queer too. I can't remember. It wasn't so long ago that I read it, but I don't really remember it. I borrowed it from the Solidarity library, I do remember that. I guess it didn't make much of an impression on me.

[Fazette · Rating 5 out of 5]

i learned that love comes in many different colors, that it feels good all the same

[CJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Youngblood's writing renders me breathless.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

a daring highwire act of a novel, Youngblood is as gifted as the year is long.

[Maritza · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book and author of all time. Romantically written, poetic in rhythm, just melts word to word. I can read this book a million times and never tire of it.

[Marquise De Sade · Rating 4 out of 5]

bit pervert