Jhordanne > Recent Status Updates

I live the way this author writes and weaves her story. She writes as though she’s speaking directly to you and in person.

This book is hard to read. Not because its written poorly (it isn’t), but because it describes so very vividly how uncomfortable growing up female in Jamaica is. There is no female character in this book (save for some of Safiya’s affluent school friends) that is spared a violent, judgmental and predatory male gaze.

This memoir has been hitting so close to home. It’s amazing that so many Jamaican men have such similar behavioral patterns.

I had similar childhood experiences growing up.

“He despised Babylon while yearning for its trappings” -pg. 141

“ ‘Jah will provide,’ Dad would say when food was short, and Mom would walk out into the yard and find something astonishing for us to feast on.” -pg. 145

I’m really liking this book. Its a book about the female experience. Many of these experiences are all too familiar. The writing is interesting, switching from one perspective to another.

Mossi is my favorite character.

The frequent arguments or points of contention between the protagonist and everyone else often distract me from the plot. Why is there so much arguing?

This Leopard and his companion are annoying.

I’m not even halfway through this book and so much has already happened 😅

This book reminds me of the movie, Gladiator. Also, some of these outrageous characters made me laugh.

A slow start, but I’m starting to see how this book has been organized and written. Not really as a far-flung other-worldly sci-fi future, but a naturally consequential futurama heavily modeled on our present and continued failures to check a flawed system. Author also includes current statistics and studies of the American justice and incarceration system.