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Fingerprints of Previous Owners
At a Caribbean resort built atop a former slave plantation, Myrna works as a maid by day; by night she trespasses on the resort’s overgrown inland property, secretly excavating the plantation ruins that her island community refuses to acknowledge. Rapt by the crumbling walls of the once slave-owner’s estate, she explores the unspoken history of the plantation—a site where her ancestors once worked the land, but which the resort now uses as a lookout point for tourists.
When Myrna discovers a book detailing the experiences of slaves, who still share a last name with the majority of the islanders, her investigation becomes deeply personal, extending to her neighbors and friends, and explaining her mother's self-imposed silence and father's disappearance. A new generation begins to speak about the past just as racial tensions erupt between the resort and the local island community when an African-American tourist at the resort is brutally attacked.
Suffused with the sun-drenched beauty of the Caribbean, Fingerprints of Previous Owners is a powerful novel of hope and recovery in the wake of devastating trauma. In her soulful and timely debut, Entel explores what it means to colonize and be colonized, to trespass and be trespassed upon, to be wounded and to heal.
When Myrna discovers a book detailing the experiences of slaves, who still share a last name with the majority of the islanders, her investigation becomes deeply personal, extending to her neighbors and friends, and explaining her mother's self-imposed silence and father's disappearance. A new generation begins to speak about the past just as racial tensions erupt between the resort and the local island community when an African-American tourist at the resort is brutally attacked.
Suffused with the sun-drenched beauty of the Caribbean, Fingerprints of Previous Owners is a powerful novel of hope and recovery in the wake of devastating trauma. In her soulful and timely debut, Entel explores what it means to colonize and be colonized, to trespass and be trespassed upon, to be wounded and to heal.
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First published June 13, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
April 4, 2018
I’m becoming decreasingly likely to read POC stories written by white authors. (I also read the author’s bio to make sure nothing felt gross before reading). I’m glad I read it. And this old article: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/w...
July 2, 2017
In her debut novel, Entel transports you to a fictional island in the Caribbean, where a resort has been built over the ruins of a plantation. The protagonist, Myrna, is a maid by day, but by night she explores the island, yearning to uncover its secrets. The story builds slowly, its captivating words drawing you in, and the plot culminates in a powerful, thought-provoking conclusion.
July 22, 2020
'Fingerprints Of Previous Owners' (2017) is an exceptional book: diverse, credible characters; beautifully crafted descriptions and perfectly inflected dialogue, and an innovative structure work together to deliver a view of the legacy of slavery, its modern faces and the ways in which a community descended from slaves deal with their heritage and their present challenges.
This is not a polemic or a thinly-written anthem for the newly-woke. This is a novel that is firmly centred in the experiences, hopes, loves and frustrations of the people living on a small, formerly British, Caribbean island that once had a Plantation at its centre and the blood of slaves on its stones, and is now dominated by a foreign-owned, American-run holiday resort, built on the site of the plantation.
Most of the story is told from the point of view of Myrna, a young islander who spends her days supporting herself and her mother by working as a maid at the resort and spends her nights using her machete to cut her way into the thornbush-choked inland in search of all the things the older generations refuse to speak of.
The book opens with Event Management (white, brought in from off-island) at the resort curating the presentation of a fictional island and fictional islanders (black women, including Myrna, born on the island and employed as maids) to the tourists arriving by boat at the resort. The maids are required to dress in sheets so a white staffer, playing the role of Columbus, can deliver a narrative around 'Natives' welcoming Columbus the island hundreds of years ago. All the resort staff know that the islanders are descendants of African slaves and the original islanders who met Columbus were either killed or sent to die working in silver mines.
Here's Myrna, describes her work at the resort:
'My ID tag said nothing but "Maid" but it was also my job to be silent and visible only when the tourists wanted to see me. "At work2 meant not just a place or a time. A being. A not being.'
Here is her description of taking part in the charade for the tourists, where, dressed as 'natives' in white sheets, they offer the tourists beads in exchange for pennies:
'Christine and I ducked our heads to remove strands of plastic beads and handed them to the tourists in exchange for pennies. I could see in their eyes the expectation of gratitude. Pennies, not worth stooping to the ground for back at their homes, were transformed through some sort of island alchemy. The alchemy of poverty.'
I felt this to be astonishingly powerful. It made me squirm because I could image myself both as 'native' and tourist and would have hated being either.
As the novel progresses, we learn about Myrna's life, her family (father and brother now dead. Mother a retired school teacher who now scavenges a living), Myrna's self-imposed distance from the islanders around her and her obsession with the inland and what lies buried beneath the bush there.
Change in the story is driven by the arrival of a black American woman, her whiter-than-white husband and their son and their white blonde, college-age nanny as guests on the island. It is the first time that a black woman has been a guest and neither the brought-in staff nor the islanders know what to make of it. The woman brings with her an old book, dating back to the days of the plantation, that Myrna yearns to read and which will change everything.
Myrna's narrative is interspersed with chapters called 'Bench Stories' Each has an islander sitting on a bench, telling a story from his or her life. We don't know until the final chapters of the book who the stories are being told to or why but they're no less powerful for that. They're basically short stories with a common context and they are so intense. I'd buy the book for them alone.
There's one where a man explains why he walks the island wearing an old sock with a worn violin hanging on his back. It is human, so full of remembered love and pain and present courage that it hurts.
When I finally understood what the Bench Stories were, their power was increased immensely and they ended-up re-framing the whole novel.
'Fingerprints Of Previous Owners' was beautifully written but I found it very hard to take. When I read a chapter that finally gave a view (albeit an owner's view) of plantation life, I had to stop for a while before I could read more. The details of the way in which the slaves were treated, punished, used, sold are not new to me. I grew up on Merseyside. We were taught all about the slave trade and its cruelties. There's a museum to it in Liverpool's Albert Dock, but this book made the things I'd been told real in a way that they hadn't been before. It was the difference between reading a map and walking the land. It was the difference between thinking about things happening to 'them' and imagining things happening to 'us'.
As I sat and took this in: what it means, what the wealthy English did, for decades, to hundreds of thousands of people, I understood the outrage behind pulling down Colston's statue in Bristol.
The main narrative, while staying a very human, quietly told but emotionally rich story, showed me the ways in which modern Corporate Colonialism carries the ethics of slavery with it. The removal of dignity. Turning local people into second class citizens. The assertion of the rights of the owners over the needs of the people. And the so-taken-for-granted-we-don't-think-about-it racism. And none of it sounds like an exaggeration or a distortion. It's simply a stark exposition of a global corporate culture that treats people as things.
I liked the ending of the novel. No magic solutions were offered. No battle cry was raised. But there was change. The kind of change that comes from people talking to each other about their past and their present and doing what they can to claim and keeps their identity and their dignity.
I strongly recommend the audiobook version of 'Fingerprints Of Previous Owners'. All the narrators do a great job, especially in bringing the rhythms of the language to life.
This is not a polemic or a thinly-written anthem for the newly-woke. This is a novel that is firmly centred in the experiences, hopes, loves and frustrations of the people living on a small, formerly British, Caribbean island that once had a Plantation at its centre and the blood of slaves on its stones, and is now dominated by a foreign-owned, American-run holiday resort, built on the site of the plantation.
Most of the story is told from the point of view of Myrna, a young islander who spends her days supporting herself and her mother by working as a maid at the resort and spends her nights using her machete to cut her way into the thornbush-choked inland in search of all the things the older generations refuse to speak of.
The book opens with Event Management (white, brought in from off-island) at the resort curating the presentation of a fictional island and fictional islanders (black women, including Myrna, born on the island and employed as maids) to the tourists arriving by boat at the resort. The maids are required to dress in sheets so a white staffer, playing the role of Columbus, can deliver a narrative around 'Natives' welcoming Columbus the island hundreds of years ago. All the resort staff know that the islanders are descendants of African slaves and the original islanders who met Columbus were either killed or sent to die working in silver mines.
Here's Myrna, describes her work at the resort:
'My ID tag said nothing but "Maid" but it was also my job to be silent and visible only when the tourists wanted to see me. "At work2 meant not just a place or a time. A being. A not being.'
Here is her description of taking part in the charade for the tourists, where, dressed as 'natives' in white sheets, they offer the tourists beads in exchange for pennies:
'Christine and I ducked our heads to remove strands of plastic beads and handed them to the tourists in exchange for pennies. I could see in their eyes the expectation of gratitude. Pennies, not worth stooping to the ground for back at their homes, were transformed through some sort of island alchemy. The alchemy of poverty.'
I felt this to be astonishingly powerful. It made me squirm because I could image myself both as 'native' and tourist and would have hated being either.
As the novel progresses, we learn about Myrna's life, her family (father and brother now dead. Mother a retired school teacher who now scavenges a living), Myrna's self-imposed distance from the islanders around her and her obsession with the inland and what lies buried beneath the bush there.
Change in the story is driven by the arrival of a black American woman, her whiter-than-white husband and their son and their white blonde, college-age nanny as guests on the island. It is the first time that a black woman has been a guest and neither the brought-in staff nor the islanders know what to make of it. The woman brings with her an old book, dating back to the days of the plantation, that Myrna yearns to read and which will change everything.
Myrna's narrative is interspersed with chapters called 'Bench Stories' Each has an islander sitting on a bench, telling a story from his or her life. We don't know until the final chapters of the book who the stories are being told to or why but they're no less powerful for that. They're basically short stories with a common context and they are so intense. I'd buy the book for them alone.
There's one where a man explains why he walks the island wearing an old sock with a worn violin hanging on his back. It is human, so full of remembered love and pain and present courage that it hurts.
When I finally understood what the Bench Stories were, their power was increased immensely and they ended-up re-framing the whole novel.
'Fingerprints Of Previous Owners' was beautifully written but I found it very hard to take. When I read a chapter that finally gave a view (albeit an owner's view) of plantation life, I had to stop for a while before I could read more. The details of the way in which the slaves were treated, punished, used, sold are not new to me. I grew up on Merseyside. We were taught all about the slave trade and its cruelties. There's a museum to it in Liverpool's Albert Dock, but this book made the things I'd been told real in a way that they hadn't been before. It was the difference between reading a map and walking the land. It was the difference between thinking about things happening to 'them' and imagining things happening to 'us'.
As I sat and took this in: what it means, what the wealthy English did, for decades, to hundreds of thousands of people, I understood the outrage behind pulling down Colston's statue in Bristol.
The main narrative, while staying a very human, quietly told but emotionally rich story, showed me the ways in which modern Corporate Colonialism carries the ethics of slavery with it. The removal of dignity. Turning local people into second class citizens. The assertion of the rights of the owners over the needs of the people. And the so-taken-for-granted-we-don't-think-about-it racism. And none of it sounds like an exaggeration or a distortion. It's simply a stark exposition of a global corporate culture that treats people as things.
I liked the ending of the novel. No magic solutions were offered. No battle cry was raised. But there was change. The kind of change that comes from people talking to each other about their past and their present and doing what they can to claim and keeps their identity and their dignity.
I strongly recommend the audiobook version of 'Fingerprints Of Previous Owners'. All the narrators do a great job, especially in bringing the rhythms of the language to life.
January 1, 2018
We Americans forget that African slaves the United States represented a sliver of the total transported to the New World. Most were employed in the Carribean and South American, harvesting sugar cane and extracting other labor-intensive raw materials to make their owners rich. Rebecca Entel traces the residue of slavery in a small Carribean community in Fingreprints of Previous Owners.
The book's main character, Myrna, is passive, shadowy, and submissive to a fault. And yet, she's given to "exploring" the inhospitable inner reaches of her island. I could buy this if she were an exploring, rambunctious ten-year-old, but she's in her twenties, so her exploring without motivation sets me head-scratching.
Myrna's life changes when an African-American tourist brings the journal of the island's main land-(and slave)-owner's journal she'd stumbled upon to the resort where Myrna works as a maid. Unable to speak with the woman due to the company's draconian guest-staff relations policies, she becomes obsessed with the content of the journal. And much like her un-explained need to explore, she becomes oddly fixated on the journal. And makes some strange behavioral choices which seem odd. For instance, why not ask the guest's nanny, a person of about her station, to photocopy the important pages? Or just read it in the guest's room with notepad in hand when the guests were out? Instead, Myrna obsesses, steals the book which threatens her family's economic survival.
Why? Her motivation seems thin.
Though the book's idea intrigued me when I read it in the Chicago Review of Books, Entel's storytelling fell short for me. A fan of Toni Morrison, who's the master of tracing slavery's impact on African-American psyches, I was expecting a lot out of the book. Perhaps it's an unfair comparison, but I found the character motivations (and the almost surreal, inhuman rules the domestic help needed to heed in the resort) weak.
3-stars. It wasn't bad, and it addresses some interesting issues, but there were too many plot, character and motivation 'holes' for me to bump it to 4.
The book's main character, Myrna, is passive, shadowy, and submissive to a fault. And yet, she's given to "exploring" the inhospitable inner reaches of her island. I could buy this if she were an exploring, rambunctious ten-year-old, but she's in her twenties, so her exploring without motivation sets me head-scratching.
Myrna's life changes when an African-American tourist brings the journal of the island's main land-(and slave)-owner's journal she'd stumbled upon to the resort where Myrna works as a maid. Unable to speak with the woman due to the company's draconian guest-staff relations policies, she becomes obsessed with the content of the journal. And much like her un-explained need to explore, she becomes oddly fixated on the journal. And makes some strange behavioral choices which seem odd. For instance, why not ask the guest's nanny, a person of about her station, to photocopy the important pages? Or just read it in the guest's room with notepad in hand when the guests were out? Instead, Myrna obsesses, steals the book which threatens her family's economic survival.
Why? Her motivation seems thin.
Though the book's idea intrigued me when I read it in the Chicago Review of Books, Entel's storytelling fell short for me. A fan of Toni Morrison, who's the master of tracing slavery's impact on African-American psyches, I was expecting a lot out of the book. Perhaps it's an unfair comparison, but I found the character motivations (and the almost surreal, inhuman rules the domestic help needed to heed in the resort) weak.
3-stars. It wasn't bad, and it addresses some interesting issues, but there were too many plot, character and motivation 'holes' for me to bump it to 4.
May 14, 2017
(4.25 stars, rounded up because it's a small press book)
This remarkable debut novel is set in the Caribbean. Myrna works as a maid for a resort that was built on the grounds of a former slave plantation and unlocks the island's past. It's a quiet novel, but quite beautiful, too.
This remarkable debut novel is set in the Caribbean. Myrna works as a maid for a resort that was built on the grounds of a former slave plantation and unlocks the island's past. It's a quiet novel, but quite beautiful, too.
February 18, 2018
It took far too long for the history and the true plot to be revealed. This would have been a better book written as a factual non-fiction book. I found the character motivations unconvincing and tedious.
November 8, 2020
Fingerprints of Previous Owners, the debut novel by Rebecca Entel, is a beautiful and heartbreaking read about generational trauma, colonialism and racism, set on a tiny (fictional) Caribbean island.
The island doesn't belong to Myrna's people and it doesn't belong to the corporation who have purchased land with broken promises and erected fences to keep out the local population. The indigenous population died out so long ago that no memories of them remain. Myrna's enslaved ancestors built and worked the plantation that everyone wants to forget - "Anything and everything gets lost eventually. Disintegrated into sand we walked on. Unremembered but carried in the soles of our shoes." Their blood was spilled at the site of the whipping post, named Lovers' Lookout by the hotel owners, and Myrna's people have survived despite the poor soil and harsh storms.
There is hope at the end, not that everything will be mended, but that in naming their pain they can begin the long journey towards healing - "find out where the pain is coming from, Dad told me about his dentistry work. To know exactly how to dig out the source of the pain." "I said knowing how to fix things was only for ghosts."
The island doesn't belong to Myrna's people and it doesn't belong to the corporation who have purchased land with broken promises and erected fences to keep out the local population. The indigenous population died out so long ago that no memories of them remain. Myrna's enslaved ancestors built and worked the plantation that everyone wants to forget - "Anything and everything gets lost eventually. Disintegrated into sand we walked on. Unremembered but carried in the soles of our shoes." Their blood was spilled at the site of the whipping post, named Lovers' Lookout by the hotel owners, and Myrna's people have survived despite the poor soil and harsh storms.
There is hope at the end, not that everything will be mended, but that in naming their pain they can begin the long journey towards healing - "find out where the pain is coming from, Dad told me about his dentistry work. To know exactly how to dig out the source of the pain." "I said knowing how to fix things was only for ghosts."
October 30, 2017
This was an intriguing story of the effect of not speaking about the past of the island at the center of the book, where a slaveholding plantation once existed. Most of the island inhabitants are descendants of the slaves, and their history is so brutal that they prefer not to revisit it. In the meantime, the island is being taken over by a resort that employs the "natives" in menial jobs and obscures the island's history for tourist's sake. When an African American from the US arrives as a guest, the tears that were beginning to show become fissures. Although the story is told mainly from the perspective of one, compelling character, the narrative is interrupted by Beach Stories of other inhabitants, each with their own voice, shedding light on the past and the present.
I learned an inside perspective on US colonialism and militarism in the Caribbean, as well as insights into the unique perspective of the heirs of a legacy of this kind, unexamined.
I learned an inside perspective on US colonialism and militarism in the Caribbean, as well as insights into the unique perspective of the heirs of a legacy of this kind, unexamined.
August 31, 2017
Those reviewers who have said this book was a nice story about a Caribbean Island have missed the point of the book. In this book, Entel gently explores racial inequities in a way that is not militant or preachy. The reader easily understands the main character, Myrna's, desire to learn about the history of the island's plantation. And Myrna takes us on a journey in which we explore the subtle, and not so subtle, habits in a racially divided resort. This thought provoking story is more than a simple book about a Caribbean Island and is well worth your time.
April 17, 2018
Synopsis:
At a Caribbean resort built atop a former slave plantation, Myrna works as a maid by day; by night she trespasses on the resort’s overgrown inland property, secretly excavating the plantation ruins the locals refuse to acknowledge. Myrna’s mother has stopped speaking and her friends are focused on surviving the present, but Myrna is drawn to Cruffey Island’s violent past. With the arrival of Mrs. Manion, a wealthy African-American, also comes new information about the history of the slave-owner’s estate and tensions finally erupt between the resort and the local island community. Suffused with the sun-drenched beauty of the Caribbean, Fingerprints of Previous Owners is a powerful novel of hope and recovery in the wake of devastating trauma. In her soulful and timely debut, Entel explores what it means to colonize and be colonized, to trespass and be trespassed upon, to be wounded and to heal.
4 reasons to read Fingerprints of Previous Owners:
1. Enjoy a good ghost story.
This story has a little bit of a mystery that will appeal to fans of detective stories.
2. Experience the imagery.
Readers will be immersed in the Caribbean lifestyle. Readers will feel the sun on their
shoulders and sand between their toes, smell the sweet breeze, and enjoy the view of
endless waves and palm trees.
3. Reflect on history
This story reminds readers of the importance of talking about the past. This book brings
up points about colonialism, slavery in the Caribbean, and race relations.
4. Reliable Author
Rebecca Entel writes from her experience as an international studies student in the
Bahamas. There has been some criticism about whether or not Entel has the authority to write about these topics from history; however, it is evident that Entel did her research.
My Recommendations:
I recommend this book to fans of coming of age stories and historical fiction. Readers at the high school, college, or adult level will enjoy this book.
At a Caribbean resort built atop a former slave plantation, Myrna works as a maid by day; by night she trespasses on the resort’s overgrown inland property, secretly excavating the plantation ruins the locals refuse to acknowledge. Myrna’s mother has stopped speaking and her friends are focused on surviving the present, but Myrna is drawn to Cruffey Island’s violent past. With the arrival of Mrs. Manion, a wealthy African-American, also comes new information about the history of the slave-owner’s estate and tensions finally erupt between the resort and the local island community. Suffused with the sun-drenched beauty of the Caribbean, Fingerprints of Previous Owners is a powerful novel of hope and recovery in the wake of devastating trauma. In her soulful and timely debut, Entel explores what it means to colonize and be colonized, to trespass and be trespassed upon, to be wounded and to heal.
4 reasons to read Fingerprints of Previous Owners:
1. Enjoy a good ghost story.
This story has a little bit of a mystery that will appeal to fans of detective stories.
2. Experience the imagery.
Readers will be immersed in the Caribbean lifestyle. Readers will feel the sun on their
shoulders and sand between their toes, smell the sweet breeze, and enjoy the view of
endless waves and palm trees.
3. Reflect on history
This story reminds readers of the importance of talking about the past. This book brings
up points about colonialism, slavery in the Caribbean, and race relations.
4. Reliable Author
Rebecca Entel writes from her experience as an international studies student in the
Bahamas. There has been some criticism about whether or not Entel has the authority to write about these topics from history; however, it is evident that Entel did her research.
My Recommendations:
I recommend this book to fans of coming of age stories and historical fiction. Readers at the high school, college, or adult level will enjoy this book.
May 10, 2025
I read this book because I work at the same institution as the author and generally enjoy reading books by people I know as a show of support.
I did not enjoy the writing of this book as it was too close to stream of consciousness with fragmentary phrases standing in for sentences much of the time. I found it difficult to understand what was going on sometimes because of how the prose flitted between these fragmentary thoughts.
There was also no guiding plotline. Things just...happened with no clear overall goal the reader could latch on to for expectations on what could happen. It wasn't even clear why Myrna, our protagonist, was clearing the brush like she was, risking her life and her livelihood.
The reason this is 2.5 not 1 star is because it's obvious what the themes are: colonialism and racism, but we don't get the meaning of the book's structure until the last third of the book, and by then, I was honestly only finishing this book out of spite and pure determination to be done so I could move on. These ideas would be better served by clearer writing and stronger character and plot development.
I did not enjoy the writing of this book as it was too close to stream of consciousness with fragmentary phrases standing in for sentences much of the time. I found it difficult to understand what was going on sometimes because of how the prose flitted between these fragmentary thoughts.
There was also no guiding plotline. Things just...happened with no clear overall goal the reader could latch on to for expectations on what could happen. It wasn't even clear why Myrna, our protagonist, was clearing the brush like she was, risking her life and her livelihood.
The reason this is 2.5 not 1 star is because it's obvious what the themes are: colonialism and racism, but we don't get the meaning of the book's structure until the last third of the book, and by then, I was honestly only finishing this book out of spite and pure determination to be done so I could move on. These ideas would be better served by clearer writing and stronger character and plot development.
October 27, 2017
There is some lovely use of language and poetry in this novel. I did run across some phrases that left me bemused. It is a haunting story.
Myrna lives on a Caribbean island that used to be a plantation. A luxury resort arrives, promising ample employment, but forbidding the locals to wander inland. The resort also rewrites history. The pay the employees receive is minimal, and they are treated horrendously. Myrna insists on searching for the real past. Then a black woman arrives at the resort as a guest, carrying a book of the plantation’s background, throwing everything out of kilter.
My three star rating is because I don’t quite understand Myrna’s drive to go where she knows she’ll get in trouble for when her job keeps the family alive. Yes, I love to learn, tend to be curious and always asking questions, and am interested in my family’s ancestry. However, the need to provide an income to feed my mother probably wouldn’t overcome my urge to learn more.
Myrna lives on a Caribbean island that used to be a plantation. A luxury resort arrives, promising ample employment, but forbidding the locals to wander inland. The resort also rewrites history. The pay the employees receive is minimal, and they are treated horrendously. Myrna insists on searching for the real past. Then a black woman arrives at the resort as a guest, carrying a book of the plantation’s background, throwing everything out of kilter.
My three star rating is because I don’t quite understand Myrna’s drive to go where she knows she’ll get in trouble for when her job keeps the family alive. Yes, I love to learn, tend to be curious and always asking questions, and am interested in my family’s ancestry. However, the need to provide an income to feed my mother probably wouldn’t overcome my urge to learn more.
March 30, 2018
I dig books about dark secrets lurking beneath shiny veneers, so the premise of this novel definitely caught my attention. The rich, colorful Caribbean setting, which Entel brings to vivid life, also reeled me in. Unfortunately, neither was enough to keep me engaged in this slow, dull story. Long, dense chapters; choppy prose littered with fragmented sentences; and the lack of any real plot or action combined to make this a tedious, boring read for me. If I hadn't promised a tour host that I'd read it, I wouldn't have continued past the first few pages. I'd give the book a C- because Entel does use careful, pointed observations/symbolism to make her points, which I appreciated—I just wish the story itself would have been more structured and entertaining.
June 12, 2017
I received a copy of this book from a Goodreads giveaway.
I really liked this book. The story was emotional and interesting, and the writing was a great contributor to that. At the beginning of the advanced copy I received, there was an author's note about her voice as a non-Caribbean author telling a colonization/slavery story. I think her choice to include that was a good one. As I'm a white woman myself, it's not really my place to say if she handled the culture and topic with appropriate respect and detail, but I know I did feel what the author intended. I'd be interested in learning more about her sources.
I really liked this book. The story was emotional and interesting, and the writing was a great contributor to that. At the beginning of the advanced copy I received, there was an author's note about her voice as a non-Caribbean author telling a colonization/slavery story. I think her choice to include that was a good one. As I'm a white woman myself, it's not really my place to say if she handled the culture and topic with appropriate respect and detail, but I know I did feel what the author intended. I'd be interested in learning more about her sources.
September 26, 2017
Myrna works as a maid at a resort built on top of a former slave plantation, at night trespassing on the resort's overgrown inland property, secretly excavating the ruins of the plantation that the locals refuse to acknowledge. When a wealthy African-American arrives at the resort with new information about the history of the slave owner's estate, tensions erupt between the resort and the local island community.
February 8, 2019
This had all the right ingredients for a compelling novel, but the execution just wasn't there.
On the one hand I found Myrna's journey of self discovery paired with her journey to understand her ancestors roots through the ruins of the slave plantation fascinating. But ultimately, I feel like that portion of the story took more of a backseat to the contemporary (and not as interesting) storylines revolving around the hotel and the great divide between tourist and residents.
On the one hand I found Myrna's journey of self discovery paired with her journey to understand her ancestors roots through the ruins of the slave plantation fascinating. But ultimately, I feel like that portion of the story took more of a backseat to the contemporary (and not as interesting) storylines revolving around the hotel and the great divide between tourist and residents.
August 24, 2025
This was a great read and the characters were very diverse. I enjoyed reading about the struggles and realities of what a “profitable” business can look like in a place where it may not necessarily benefit the people who live in the area. These kinds of resorts are very common around the world and the people of those places tend to be overlooked. The bench stories were great pieces to add in and really share various stories how it can affect them.
September 30, 2017
An unusual, thought provoking tale set on a tiny Caribbean island with ruins of a plantation and a single resort and those native to the island. The more you read, the more you must read and the more involved you become. This book makes you question many things that you never gave a thought to before.
October 15, 2018
I found it shocking that the author teaches writing at an Ivy League university. She doesn't know enough to figure out which parts are worthwhile & which are not so she gives us both. Someone said she built the story slowly. That's a nice way of saying that she can't seem to get her story off the ground -- even though the subject is quite interesting.
December 16, 2017
Could not connect with this book, I wanted to like it, but not a chance. Myrna is a relatable character but she is not enough of a redeeming feature to keep a thin plot interesting. Sadly, this will be the lowest rating I have ever given as a member on Goodreads.
July 25, 2017
This book is very thought provoking. There's a vague, unsettled thread within this book which I think is true to life. Race relations are always under the surface and cause tension - even when things feel smooth.
The assholery of the resort is just blood-boiling. I hate when businesses do that.
The assholery of the resort is just blood-boiling. I hate when businesses do that.
December 23, 2017
I couldn't warm up to this story no matter how I tried. Her use of language is lovely but the characters did not feel compelling.
July 24, 2017
An amazingly easy read that took me away to the Caribbean.
July 29, 2017
Fantastic novel about life on a Caribbean island. Beautiful writing. Highly recommended.
March 20, 2018
Review will be on my blog for TLC blog tours on March 23rd.
November 22, 2021
I really enjoyed this book as it brought back memories and thoughts of previous trips and does a great job of helping the read view different perspectives. The author is super cool too!
March 23, 2025
It felt like a slow start and took a while to pull me in, but once it did I couldn’t put this book down!
March 28, 2020
Thank you to TLC Book Tours for the free copy to read and review. All opinions are my own.
Footprints of Previous Owners by Rebecca Entel explores the violent past of a slave plantation on a fictional island in the Caribbean.
I read this one while in Mexico, so while the tropical descriptions were easy to visualize, Entel’s descriptive writing helped me paint those images in my head with ease.
Myrna, the book’s main character, is a maid at the tourist resort by day, but at night she explores the resort’s grounds to uncover a past that locals chose to ignore.
When a rich African American arrives on the island, she brings new information that also increases tensions between the resort and the locals.
Footprints of Previous Owners by Rebecca Entel explores the violent past of a slave plantation on a fictional island in the Caribbean.
I read this one while in Mexico, so while the tropical descriptions were easy to visualize, Entel’s descriptive writing helped me paint those images in my head with ease.
Myrna, the book’s main character, is a maid at the tourist resort by day, but at night she explores the resort’s grounds to uncover a past that locals chose to ignore.
When a rich African American arrives on the island, she brings new information that also increases tensions between the resort and the locals.
October 21, 2018
Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings
Myrna works as a maid at a resort that is on an island that she has lived on her entire life. She has a feeling that there is more to this island than the resort and that things are being covered up. She risks about everything she has to find out the truth.
I liked the concept of the book and I liked Myrna. The execution and the writing just didn't completely hit the mark for me. I rarely say this about the book, but I wanted more descriptions of the people and the setting. I wanted to "see" this place more clearly and the especially wanted a little more of a picture of the "natives."
Myrna works as a maid at a resort that is on an island that she has lived on her entire life. She has a feeling that there is more to this island than the resort and that things are being covered up. She risks about everything she has to find out the truth.
I liked the concept of the book and I liked Myrna. The execution and the writing just didn't completely hit the mark for me. I rarely say this about the book, but I wanted more descriptions of the people and the setting. I wanted to "see" this place more clearly and the especially wanted a little more of a picture of the "natives."
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