The Read Around The World Book Club discussion

First half of the book, any thoughts?

Enjoying it so far. I like how you can read the book as short stories, that interlink. But I must say I am most interested in Claire's storyline so far, so I hope we will get back to her story aswell. And not just have her story as something in the background of other stories.

I am enjoying Danticat's writing style, she really makes the stories come to life for me.

I just made it to the end of Part one and so far I'm really liking this book. The style is not specially flowery but I think it's beautiful and I like how all the stories help make a fuller picture of the place. Looking forward to reading part two.

I have read through part 1 and am enjoying the book. Danticat is very good at building the characters as their stories are told. There are quite a few characters and I have found all of them very interesting. The one character I know the least about is Claire but I think that is coming in the next part.

Danticat does not get very dramatic even when describing some very terrible and sad things. I found this helpful in painting a picture of what life is like for the people of the town.

There’s a gentleness to her writing which makes tragic things easier to read and there are some lovely descriptive scenes of the ocean and the flora.

Even though Claire and Gaelle are the most appealing characters, I like how she’s building this picture of the different levels of Haiti society from the poor to the rich to the diaspora. I would like to know more about Jessamina and Flore so obviously the women are intriguing me the most.

Just finished the first part and I loved it. The writing is gorgeous, some parts have an almost fairy-tale-like quality while others are very 'gritty'. I think the way the stories are connected works really well, flowing from one character to the next.

The writing is lyrical and the way the individual stories are woven together is just beautiful and tragic.

Is it short stories? It feels like many books I’ve read that have chapters from a particular point of view. How can one tell the difference in these scenarios? I’m enjoying the ease of his writing and the story has great flow and has my attention.

I just called the author he, *she 😉

In its structure, this is very similar to the other book I read by Edwidge Danticat. I had not realised it would be interconnected stories again. I hope we get back to Claire. I adore how ED can just paint a picture of lifenin Haiti with such ease, without creating misery porn.

The writing in the first part, despite the life altering and devastating situations, felt quiet and peaceful. She has a gift for developing strong characters and scenes using a soft touch. I really liked the first part! I jumped into a big chunk of Part 2 last night and I think I’ll finish tonight or tomorrow. 😊

I am of the unpopular opinion in that I don’t love this book so far. Danticat’s writing is spectacular but the story line is one tragedy after another. I have enjoyed how ED describes the love Nozias has for Claire.

I am a mood reader and if I read this at a different time I may have loved it more. I will keep reading and I’m invested in hopefully hearing more of Claire’s story.

Really loving this so far, I really love how all the stories are interconnected and you learn a little more about what may be going on through the stories, another thing I like is how some of the stories are happening at the same time...I’m such a sucker for that in books and film ect...feel like this will be a strong four stars frim me.

I’m not as hooked as I’d like to be unfortunately. I really would prefer Claire or her father’s story. I can see how following many characters gives us a more rounded view of Ville Rose but it feels disjointed to me. Maybe a tad to character driven for my liking...Especially when we know we have a missing child on our hands.

While reading, I am constantly reminded of a youtube video I watched on the VOX channel (in their "border" series) about the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The video also covers roughly the history of the two countries and was REALLY interesting (at least for me who has not had the faintest idea about these two countries...)!

I have a really hard time getting into this, I think it's so disjointed. Let's see if it'll make sense to me in the end.