Status Updates From The Concubine & the Slave-C...

**edits**
Last Train To Krakow should be 8) and then The Journey should be 9)

10) The Concubine ⭐️⭐️.5
Too long a story. A bit like a history lesson in places. It was alright.

The Journey ⭐️⭐️.5

A bit rushed at the end there, but a good enough story.

A nice touch to have the Muslim ceremony for the wedding as well but I feel that was more for Raju's birth parents than for Raju himself.

Tahira - I like that name. :)

7) Last Train To Krakow ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Harrowing.

7) An Elopement ⭐️⭐️

I like that this was short. I will celebrate when his whole thing is over.

Pg 150 - "...her heart had begun to beat a tattoo again". I think I get what QS meant here, but that's still a weird sentence.

6) Our Angel ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sounds like it should be set in Liverpool with that title.

5) An Evil Shadow ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Finally, a 3 star! That was actually a good story.

Faiza, you lying bitch!

5) An Evil Shadow

Is someone going to put juju on this pregnancy?

Or going from the title, the woman isn't pregnant but is ill?

4) The Slave-Catcher ⭐️⭐️

Pg 82 - "Coloured people" ????

Really?! It's 1839! I don't think a slave catcher would be so polite as to call a black person "coloured". Was the author afraid to use "nigger" despite that being contextually correct. Jesus. This book is trash.

Also, Gwen is trash.

Only six shitty stories left. 🙄

- Would she, Gwen, for the sake of her beloved mistress, have to get the local midwife to poke Ayanna's shame out of her?

Well. That's one way to do it. God this book is such a disappointment. The stories are boring af. How could a story set in 1839 with black people, abolitionists and the threat of slave catchers be boring?!

3) A Pair of Jeans ⭐️⭐️

Slightly less boring than No.2.

Maryam defies culture and tradition by wearing western clothing deemed too revealing by her potential in-laws.

I'm glad this book is giving me viewpoints of cultures I've never really read about before but I'm slightly disappointed in it so far. Oh well, seven more stories to go. Surely they can't all be terrible.

2) The Malay Host ⭐️
Well that was boring.

1) The Escape: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Loneliness, displacement and a lack of belonging. Where is home for those who spent their youth in the country of their birth but lived their adult lives elsewhere? What about the disconnect your children feel?

Although tinged with sadness, the ending provides hope as Samir found a new friend and a new life.