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Brown Girl in the Ring

Nalo Hopkinson

3.85 · Rating details · 3,251 Ratings · 385 Reviews

"She's a powerful writer with an imagination that most of us would kill for. I have read everything she has written and am in awe of her many gifts. And her protagonists are unforgettable--formidable haunted women drawn with an almost unbearable honesty." --Junot Diaz

BROWN GIRL IN THE RING

The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left ...more

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Paperback, 256 pages

Published July 1st 1998 by Grand Central Publishing (first published January 1st 1998)

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Lists with This Book

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Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

Non-Caucasian Protagonists in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Paranormal Romance

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Speculative Fiction by Authors of Color

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Jun 03, 2018 Beverly rated it really liked it

A story so original, Brown Girl In the Ring is hard to classify. I have never heard of Caribbean magic realism. To me this is more sci-fi with a twist of magic. The bleak Toronto hellscape of the future is completely believable, as are the characters who have a complex outer and inner life. None are more complicated than our heroine, Ti-Jeanne. She is a strong girl, devoted to her new baby and her grandmother, but also resentful of them some times. The made up language flows and sounds right to ...more

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Apr 26, 2018 Lata rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-fantasy, 2018-read, auth-f, canlit, poc-actor, poc-author

Sometimes, it’s a good idea to revisit a book you haven’t read in years. I originally read this book many years ago because the story premise intrigued me: a dystopian Toronto with a young, black woman as its protagonist. This was the first speculative fiction story I had found actually situated in a Canadian city, naming buildings and things I knew of. I was excited, and began reading, then I ran up against my stupid assumptions for speculative fiction at that time, with the biggest bias being, ...more

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Feb 09, 2014 Joe Valdez rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-apocalyptic, paranormal-psychics, paranormal-general

The next stop in my end-of-the-world reading marathon was Brown Girl in the Ring, the 1998 debut novel by Nalo Hopkinson, a Jamaican born and Canadian bred author. The book doesn't fit in among the doomsday thrillers I've been reading and to even call this "science fiction" would be false advertising on my part. I was in the mood for something different, a blast of fresh air among the abandoned post-apocalyptic streets, but even by its own standards, the novel really disappointed me.

The story ta ...more

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Sep 25, 2017 K.J. Charles added it

Shelves: dystopia, fantasy

This was amazing. Such a fantastic exciting SFF read. In a future Canada Toronto has collapsed--no food, no electricity, the city a no go zone of survivors just getting by, and ruled by a malevolent crime lord who uses dark magic to get his way. The story centres on one young woman from a Caribbean family whose grandmother is a healer and communicator with the old spirits, plus and the motivating plot driver is the Canadian PM's need for a donor human heart for a transplant. The modern/futuristi ...more

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Dec 23, 2015 Book Riot Community added it

Shelves: fantasy, swords-and-spaceships-recs

After reading Falling In Love with Hominids, I was determined to go back and read every book Hopkinson has ever written. Brown Girl In the Ring is her first novel, and it’s a powerful beginning to a body of work. It takes place in dystopian Toronto, but it is just as much about the complicated relationships the women in this family have with each other as it is about organ farms. That’s not even mentioning the pantheon of gods that keep trying to force themselves into Ti-Jeanne’s life, while she ...more

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Dec 21, 2012 Stephanie Spines rated it really liked it

Shelves: own

Brown Girl in the Ring is set in a future dystopian Toronto, where the wealthy have fled to the suburbs following a large-scale economic collapse fuelled by failed negotiations with local First Nations communities. Infused with magical realism, it follows Ti-Jeanne as she reconnects with her Caribbean culture, largely via her grandmother, Gros-Jeane (who is, as one may call her, an obeah woman) to take down a local gang lord, Rudy.

At first, I really connected with Ti-Jeanne, a single mother with Brown Girl in the Ring is set in a future dystopian Toronto, where the wealthy have fled to the suburbs following a large-scale economic collapse fuelled by failed negotiations with local First Nations communities. Infused with magical realism, it follows Ti-Jeanne as she reconnects with her Caribbean culture, largely via her grandmother, Gros-Jeane (who is, as one may call her, an obeah woman) to take down a local gang lord, Rudy.

At first, I really connected with Ti-Jeanne, a single mother with a young baby. I thought she was strong and flawed and thus, quite human. I connected very much to the dialect, being Caribbean-Canadian myself. The setting was also great, as a current Torontonian. I was able to picture the ruins of the places that Ti-Jeanne visited and actually that made it quite scary! Plot-wise, it was quite gritty and intense at some points. (view spoiler) Speaking of which, my main issue with the plot was (view spoiler)

I thought the writing was quite disjointed and at times difficult to follow. I struggled through some of it, but where this novel fails in prose, it definitely makes up for in its inclusion of cultural ceremonies, language and folklore. I cannot praise this book enough for its references to Caribbean folklore and myth, as well as things like obeah. It was an enlightening experience to read in this sense, particularly for me, a Caribbean-descended woman living in Toronto. Further, we could spend some time interrogating and unpacking what it means for these Caribbean cultural references to have permeated a largely white-, male-dominated genre and industry and how powerful an act of resistance has been created in this work. But I'll save that for an essay.

Brilliant. ...more

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Jul 23, 2009 Julia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, magical-realism, science-fiction, best-book-i-read-in-2009

This book is by a Canadian- Caribbean writer and it’s creative, fresh and *new* for being eleven years old. So I’ve got another new to me favorite writer. The ring of the title is the suburbs that the wealthy and middle class fled Toronto to and have taken with them the police, government and left it in the hands of an organized drug lord. Rudy calls on Caribbean dark spirits (obeah) to consolidate his power, but his ex-wife Mami Gros- Jeanne, her daughter Mi-Jeanne and granddaughter Ti-Jeanne w ...more

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Sep 11, 2011 Lila rated it really liked it

Shelves: mythic-fiction, canadian-lit, into-the-forest-2017-challenge

Even though some of the SciFi/Dystopian aspects did not make sense to me, it not prevent me from enjoying the novel.The magical elements and the use of Afro-Caribbean folklore and spiritual beliefs made it a compelling read. This was a reread for me and I enjoyed it every much as I did the first time around. Nalo Hopkinson is a gifted writer and I've loved everything I've read from her!

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Feb 15, 2018 Lata rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-fantasy, auth-f, canlit, poc-actor, poc-author

I read this and didn’t understand some of what was going on. Have to reread.

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Feb 15, 2009 Dan rated it liked it

Shelves: 2009

i think i responded to this more on account of what i learned from it than on the merits of its prose... which isn't to say it's not an enjoyable novel. it's just a bit flat in a few areas, story-wise (atmosphere, characterizations).

the premise is an interesting one. brown girl in the ring concerns a post-apocalyptic toronto, in which a young mother learns to use her caribbean spiritual roots to bring down a local drug dealer. as sci-fi, it's not terribly concerned with alternate realities. in f ...more

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Jun 09, 2010 Althea Ann rated it it was ok

I think I was mostly disappointed by this book because I came to it with really high expectations - I'd read some great reviews of it, comparing Hopkinson favorably to Octavia Butler, etc.
Well, both writers are black and tend to write about black characters, but there the similarity ends.
This is a reasonably entertaining voodoo adventure story... a young Canadian woman of Caribbean descent, Ti-Jeanne, must take care of her baby, ditch the loser drug-addict boyfriend she's in love with, learn to ...more

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Oct 04, 2014 Carmen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I enjoyed the folk religion blended with the use of magic. She drew on a vast culture but never info dumped and kept the pace moving. The worldbuilding and political commentary were subtle and on point. She effectively skewers white privilege and makes her case for a very real and disturbing future. A novel of redemption for some and despair for others. But her skill as a novelist keeps you guessing who the saved and who the damned will be.

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Jan 29, 2013 Tiara rated it liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy, science-fantasy, spec-fic-by-authors-of-color, features-protagonists-of-color

Been on hiatus because of work and things, but hoping to get more reviews back out. :-) If I owe you an email, I'm getting there. Promise. Anyhow.

3.5 stars. I know this book is classified as science fiction, but honestly, it felt more like urban fantasy to me. At best, it was science-fantasy because it does have some science fiction elements. However, those things aren't nearly as pronounced to me as the fantasy portion of the novel.

Downtown Toronto has abandoned by the Canadian government afte Been on hiatus because of work and things, but hoping to get more reviews back out. :-) If I owe you an email, I'm getting there. Promise. Anyhow.

3.5 stars. I know this book is classified as science fiction, but honestly, it felt more like urban fantasy to me. At best, it was science-fantasy because it does have some science fiction elements. However, those things aren't nearly as pronounced to me as the fantasy portion of the novel.

Downtown Toronto has abandoned by the Canadian government after a series of financial disasters that lead to an economic depression. They've blocked the people from leaving the hellhole its become, but those who have money move to the suburbs are allowed to keep their illusion of safety while those who don't are forced to stay in Toronto and fend for themselves, which is largely made of a society of people of color.

Depending on the ways of their ancestors, despite their ugly surroundings and reality, they've built up this society that focuses on bartering and relying on the old ideas of their people ranging from India to the Caribbean. That could come in the form of food or knowledge of the land or that can come in the form of more fantastic elements.

Ti-Jeanne is a new mother who hasn't named her baby. She's recently moved back in with her grandmother, Gros-Jeanne, due to the baby's father being an addict and needing support that she knows her grandmother can provide. Despite that, Ti-Jeanne fears her grandmother's herbalism and spiritualism powers. She also fears that they may be manifesting in her as her dreams begin to plague her, and she is reluctant to give into that side of her family, especially since her grandmother said the visions made her mother mad before she disappeared. However, there are evils in their city that Ti-Jeanne will eventually have to find the courage to face as she learns not to fear who she is.

This is one of the books that I choose from the 2014 Speculative Fiction by Authors of Color Challenge because I wanted to read more spec fic by authors of color. This was a beautifully written book that incorporated so much cultural character to the story. Quotes like this just made my whole reading experience:

"Tony could give sweet, sweet talk. Words so nice, they would charm the money from your pocket, the caution from your heart, the clothes from your body. Words so sweet and soothing, they sounded like love, like let me hold you the way your mama never held you, like come and be my only special one, my doux-doux darling. Words that promised heaven."

So lyrical and full of flavor and culture, exactly what I've been wanting and looking for in my science fiction and fantasy. Words that speak to me. Words that feel genuine. Words that I can hear people I know in my life saying. Hopkinson created a very scarred, scary, abandoned society, but at the same time, she's made it this diverse place full of colorful characters who are just trying to survive.

Now, for the main character, Ti-Jeanne. We had a torrid relationship for a moment. While I appreciated and even empathized with Ti-Jeanne's struggles with being a mother, loving a man that's "no good" for her, and trying to assert herself as a woman to her grandmother, it took me a while to connect with her character. I understood her selfishness and her anger at not only her personal situation but the situation of her city. However, that may have been part of the point to all this. Ti-Jeanne needed to learn to respect, compassion, and selflessness. She needed to learn that, while selfishness is part of human nature, one has to temper it with respect for others.

It's one of those books where you want to tell the character you are no more special than anyone else in respect to your needs or wants. Your needs do not outweigh the needs of others. Many of your needs and wants are only different from anyone else's. Many first mothers have troubles. Many of us don't have enough to feed ourselves much less others. Of course, your problems, these problems, seem worst than the next person because they're yours. However, the next person feels the same way about their problems. You are special because you are you, and no one else can say that.

However, as Ti-Jeanne grew as a character, I grew to love her much more. Her transformation from this almost girl-child pretending to be a woman to a woman who is not afraid of what power she holds, not just as her grandmother's child, but as her tragic mother's child and as a woman of power herself, is beautifully done. Her grandmother reminded me so much of my own great-grandmother who could be a curmudgeonly soul, but this is how she imparted wisdom and love. Parts of the book like that just made me so nostalgic.

I have to say I didn't quite know if I'd come out of this one loving it. I appreciated it, but it took me so long to warm to Ti-Jeanne that I was afraid I was going to like it, but it wasn't going to be that story for me. I'm grateful that I was wrong, and I look forward to more of Hopkinson's wonderfully magic books. ...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Sunil rated it really liked it

Shelves: own, 2014

The first sentence of Brown Girl in the Ring contains the line of dialogue, "We want you to find us a viable human heart, fast." It is a white man coming to a black man for help, and it sets into motion a chain of events that will change the lives of many people in the ruins of Toronto.

Brown Girl in the Ring runs a scant 250 pages, but it packs a hell of a lot into those pages. Ti-Jeanne, Our Heroine, has her hands full with a new baby, but her former lover, Tony, gets embroiled in the dealings The first sentence of Brown Girl in the Ring contains the line of dialogue, "We want you to find us a viable human heart, fast." It is a white man coming to a black man for help, and it sets into motion a chain of events that will change the lives of many people in the ruins of Toronto.

Brown Girl in the Ring runs a scant 250 pages, but it packs a hell of a lot into those pages. Ti-Jeanne, Our Heroine, has her hands full with a new baby, but her former lover, Tony, gets embroiled in the dealings of a ruthless drug lord (is there any other kind?), who needs a viable human heart, fast. Complicating matters are Ti-Jeanne's incessant, cryptic visions, which threaten to drive her mad as they did her mother. But she must have some connection the old gods, says her grandmother, Gros-Jeanne, or Mami. So it's time to use magic to solve some problems, and we all know that always goes well.

I admit to having some trouble following everything because I'm not familiar with Caribbean lore, and Caribbean English grammar treats pronouns and verbs very differently, which makes the dialogue hard to understand until you get the hang of it. But I loved learning more about this culture, its gods, its food, its magic. What I found particularly interesting was how evocative the language was, such that the sections about the rich, white people felt like they belonged in a completely different book, despite that they were part of the same world. It's done so skillfully that it's not jarring, but I loved how the feel changed. While she never directly makes comparisons between the two classes, it's an inherent part of the story, and it's seen not only in the language but in the contrast between magic and science, each described in precise detail.

The heart of the story, however, lies in the relationship between Ti-Jeanne and her grandmother, now her magical tutor. It's a story about family, and about three generations of women and their connection to the spiritual world and what it's done to their family. It's a story about a young mother learning what it means to be a mother. It's also a story in which someone is skinned alive, so there's something for everyone.

Brown Girl in the Ring starts off with a bang, slows down a bit, and then unleashes a relentless stream of plot twists and fantastical horror that makes it hard to truly classify this book in one genre, as it has elements of several. I may overuse the phrase "it's like nothing I've ever read," but as I continue to expand my horizons and read more diversely, I expect to be saying it a lot more. And that's awesome. ...more

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May 10, 2016 Megan Baxter rated it really liked it

I sat down to read Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring because it is on a CBC Books List of 100 Novels That Make You Proud To Be A Canadian. I'm working my way through it, slowly, although it is annoying that it skews so heavily towards the recent. And there are certain other themes that I am less than happy about.

Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read ...more

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Jun 26, 2012 CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian rated it liked it

Shelves: black, canadian, caribbean, feminism, fiction, queer, science-fiction, toronto, class, own

Many writers and other literary types have been concerned as of late with the idea of queering science fiction, fantasy, and other kinds of speculative fiction, which have an unfortunate but not entirely undeserved reputation of glorifying certain kinds of white homophobic masculinity. Being a fairly recent convert to these kinds of non-realist writing, I picked up Jamaican-born Torontonian Nalo Hopkinson’s first novel Brown Girl in the Ring (1998) eagerly. It comes recommended by Octavia Butler ...more

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Oct 01, 2010 Melissa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 50-books-in-2011, fantasy, speculative-ficition, 25-sci-fi-fantasy-books-in-2011

So this book kind of reminds me of a short story I read by Hopkinson in the Dark Matter anthology as far as the relationship between grandmother and granddaughter. Like most of the books I read by her, I got sucked into the world and finished a great deal of the book in one sitting. The hero of the book, Ti-Jeanne is realistically written with faults and blindsides. There is an interesting twist I didn't see coming and a bittersweet ending.
Loved it.

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Mar 16, 2014 Alexa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fab-14

A bit of a mixed bag. Delightful in places, but overall it has a slightly unfinished feel; I’m willing to chalk it up to debut novel rough edges and try another one of hers. Love the breastfeeding mother protagonist, taking time out from saving the city to put her baby to breast, simultaneously figuring out the new mother hurdles along with the fighting evil hurdles.

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Sep 05, 2015 fromcouchtomoon rated it liked it

Afro-Caribbean magic, combined with near-future urban decay and sketchy organ donation practices, turns traditional SFF conventions into something unique. Fans of magic systems will delight in something different, fans of scifi will appreciate the magi-tech elements. Labeled magic realism, it is definitely not, but it is fresher than the usual genre-wank, though not a true departure.

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Jan 17, 2018 Kenya Wright rated it really liked it

Shelves: diverse-books, fantasy

It was fun to enter an entirely fresh new setting filled with fantasy and folk magic. This was down in sci-fi for I guess. . .the dystopian qualities, but this is totally a futuristic folk urban fantasy. The prose was breathtaking. I would say my biggest problem was stumbling around some of the characters who spoke in the culture's heavy dialect. Other than that, I'll be reading more of Nalo Hopkinson!

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Dec 17, 2017 Alison rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-read-2017, female-writers, writers-of-colour

Loved this book. It has flaws, but they are easily overlooked in favour of the cracking premise and writing. Afro-Caribbean magical realism in a dystopian future Toronto? So great, and the plot was heartbreaking and satisfying.

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Jun 28, 2014 Bobby Bermea rated it really liked it

Shelves: visions-of-tomorrow, the-god-in-the-bowl, blues-people

In many ways, what Nalo Hopkinson achieves is akin to Tolkien. She takes the myths, history and language of a people and turns them into a rich literary tapestry that has a new resonance for readers today. Tolkien "remembered" stories from his communal past and retold them in a context he had created, re-introducing the world to goblins and trolls and elves and wizards, among others. Hopkinson does the same with Brown Girl. Instead of Middle Earth we have a Toronto of the future that has been de In many ways, what Nalo Hopkinson achieves is akin to Tolkien. She takes the myths, history and language of a people and turns them into a rich literary tapestry that has a new resonance for readers today. Tolkien "remembered" stories from his communal past and retold them in a context he had created, re-introducing the world to goblins and trolls and elves and wizards, among others. Hopkinson does the same with Brown Girl. Instead of Middle Earth we have a Toronto of the future that has been decimated by urban blight and abandoned by the white and the monied, left to turn into a hybrid culture/city state of its own that incorporates African and West Indian spirituality with a New World sensibility. Instead of elves and trolls, "the Burn" as it is called is populated with women and men, yes, but also duppies, obeahs, and orishas. Hopkinson further upsets the cultural apple-cart by centering the story in a pre-dominantly feminine paradigm. The hero is a young woman and mother, who is not at all convinced that she her child is her destiny. It is the women in her life that give her strength, wisdom and the tools to confront and re-shape the world around her. Hopkinson's Ti-jeane is as fully realized and human a protagonist as you are likely to come across and her trials, her weaknesses and her towering strengths are fundamentally recognizable. It is an absolutely intoxicating experience.

Sex, in this book, is as powerful a natural force as hunger or a hurricane. It is fraught with its own perils and, of course, rewards because of the very vibrancy of its impact on our lives. Ti-jeane can no more resist its pull than she can stop breathing. Not that Hopkinson goes in for long passages of mechanical descriptions, quite the opposite, but the book is infused with a sensibility that allows itself to be profoundly affected by this spiritual, tangible energy. Sex is the active ingredient between the two poles of life and death that carries us on our path through fate.

Hopkinson's characters speak in an arresting West Indian patois that carries you along with its energy and rhythm and is as much a part of the narrative as the events that happen in the plot. The book would be entirely different -- less than -- without it. We learn something about the people, their history and who they are because of how they talk. It's a dialect rich in music and wit and it's the medium that carries the reader into and through the spell she has created. By itself, it is own achievement.

This was my first Nalo Hopkinson book and shame on me (though thank you to the ladies at VONA who suggested her). Hopkinson's audience won't be as wide as Tolkien's because she's not white, frankly, nor are the people she writes so eloquently about, but it should be. Brown Girl in the Ring fairly beats with a heart of its own while you hold it in your hand. ...more

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Mar 11, 2015 Jennifer rated it really liked it

I can just imagine how stunning this book was when it first hit the scene. Even now the twisting of urban fantasy and the oral story-telling tradition is like a splash of cold water on a hot day, refreshingly unexpected. I loved that the heroine, Ti-Jeanne, carried a baby on her chest through most of the action. The fact that the events center around a grandmother and granddaughter is already unusual but in an action-adventure story it's unheard of. It is also equally rare to find the ghetto rep ...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction, fantasy

Brown Girl in the Ring starts with a vision of a dangerous, walled off near future Toronto; as a once and future Torontonian I'll admit I found this disturbing. It's a dangerous and disturbing book, full of death and gore, but also gods and magic and a culture I know very little about, and a wonderfully flawed protagonist. I love that even though it contains all of those things, the scope of the story is small. There's one big-picture subplot that felt a little shoehorned in, though it did feed ...more

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Oct 26, 2017 Jherane Patmore rated it really liked it

Shelves: rebelwomenlit

This book is awesome! Reading this was so easy and Nalo packs in HUGE themes of ethics, Afro-spirituality, immigration, aging, motherhood, poverty, and exploitation. I learned so much about my own Caribbean culture from reading this book based in Toronto, how sway?

I would recommend this book for anyone with an interest in seeing a dystopian world where the spirits and gang lords contend and Afro-Caribbean single mothers are the victors.

P.S.: I hated all the human men in the book :)

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Jan 08, 2016 Danielle rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: readsoullit, black-girl-magic, 2016, own

I loved the language but unfortunately, I didn't really like the story. My expectations were super high so maybe that had something to do with it.

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Feb 20, 2012 Danika at The Lesbrary rated it really liked it

Shelves: year-of-reading-in-colour

Except for a few transphobic moments, I really loved this. Nalo Hopkinson is definitely one of my favourite writers, and I can't wait to read her whole back list.

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Sep 05, 2016 Sable rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Read for the Women of Genre Fiction challenge, the 12 Awards in 12 Months challenge, the LGBTQ Speculative Fiction challengeand the Vernon Library Summer Reading challenge. I was going to read this for the Apocalypse Now! Challenge, but the world was not destroyed and therefore, it does not qualify.

I loved this book. I loved everything about it! I have encountered some of Nalo Hopkinson’s short fiction before and was intrigued, but this novel received a lot of awards and a lot of critical acclai Read for the Women of Genre Fiction challenge, the 12 Awards in 12 Months challenge, the LGBTQ Speculative Fiction challengeand the Vernon Library Summer Reading challenge. I was going to read this for the Apocalypse Now! Challenge, but the world was not destroyed and therefore, it does not qualify.

I loved this book. I loved everything about it! I have encountered some of Nalo Hopkinson’s short fiction before and was intrigued, but this novel received a lot of awards and a lot of critical acclaim, and was her first explosion on the scene. One of those awards was the Aurora Award, which is Canada’s tribute to our science fiction and fantasy writers, so naturally I was honour-bound to read it eventually anyway, but what a pleasure!

In this novel of magical realism, which takes place in a dystopian Toronto that has been abandoned by the Canadian and Ontario governments after an economic collapse, Ti-Jeanne has just recently left the father of her baby to live with her grandmother because he is a drug addict who has gotten mixed up with the local organized crime syndicate who runs the inner city, called the Posse, and she realizes that as much as she loves him, he’s no good for her and less good for the baby. There is no police force in operation in the urban remains, none of the city’s infrastructure is supported, and economy has gone back to bartering and growing what one can in the remains of the city’s many iconic parks, so there is little consequence for participating in crime and the Posse has a free rein in the city. The leader of the Posse, Rudy, has made a deal with a shady hospital to provide a human heart for a transplant to the Premier of the Province (for you Americans, that’s like the state governor.) Rudy has learned that Tony, the father of Ti-Jeanne’s baby, has been skimming off the top of the drugs he has been selling for Rudy to support his own habit, and has blackmailed him into fetching the heart from one of the local urban residents – by force. Tony was once a nurse before his habit got him fired.

What makes this scenario really interesting is that Ti-Jeanne’s grandmother, Gros-Jeanne (yes, for those of you who speak French, the names are deliberately symbolic) is a Caribbean immigrant who is a priestess of a Caribbean Afro-Diasporic tradition. The Afro-Diasporic traditions are syncretic faiths such as Voodoo and Santeria; Gros-Jeanne never specifies her tradition and actually says that they are all essentially the same. This turns the sordid scenario into an epic spirit quest in the Caribbean spiritual tradition, taking place partially in the physical world and partially in the spirit world. Much of the magic, until near the end of the book, might only be happening in the minds of the characters, and best of all, the Voodoo is real. I am a Wiccan priestess and have had the opportunity to learn just enough about Voodoo from practitioners that I have met to recognize the rituals, the symbolism, the magical practices and the spirits themselves.

The overall effect is an exercise in surrealism, told with a masterful hand. The language is simple but the characters and the story are deep. I don’t dare tell you anymore for risk of spoiling the story. I will say that I loved everything about it, from the story itself, to the mythic themes of Caribbean culture that were mined to create the story structure, to the evocative descriptions, to the use of modern iconic places to create a sense of realism, to the theme, which, ultimately, is a complex examination of what “family” actually is. I find myself beaming with Canadian pride in Nalo Hopkinson, and I highly recommend this novel to pretty much anyone. ...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Fangs for the Fantasy rated it it was ok

oronto has become a ruin, a dystopian city of extreme poverty. After the riots it was largely abandoned by the government - wealthy Torontonians fled to the outer ring, leaving the inner city core to descend into poverty and lawlessness

Ti-Jeane lives in Toronto with her baby and her grandmother, who makes a living from her herb-lore and healing. Trying to get by in the torn city, her life is complicated as the father of her child gets in over his head with the criminal boss, who all but rules d oronto has become a ruin, a dystopian city of extreme poverty. After the riots it was largely abandoned by the government - wealthy Torontonians fled to the outer ring, leaving the inner city core to descend into poverty and lawlessness

Ti-Jeane lives in Toronto with her baby and her grandmother, who makes a living from her herb-lore and healing. Trying to get by in the torn city, her life is complicated as the father of her child gets in over his head with the criminal boss, who all but rules downtown Toronto. Unsurprisingly not only is he addicted to drugs, he sells them for a living - that is when he can stop skimming off the top. Ti-Jean comes face to face with illegal organ harvesters (note we aren’t even certain why the organs are an issue), her grandmother’s magical legacy, menacing dark magic, a neurological atypical mother, and through it all she must somehow save herself and protect the family she has left.

This was very different from a lot of Urban Fantasy in that we focused on Caribbean mythologies, cultures and belief systems, which meant a departure from the standard witches, vampires, and werewolves, of European mythology. This imbued Dark Girl in the Ring with a world that was fairly unique, compared to many books in the genre.

And in an extremely erased genre it is unusual and refreshing to see a cast that is nearly entirely made up of POC. It’s all to rare and nice to see. Though it is worth nothing that since the author is herself a Black woman inclusion in this case was expected and therefore did not amount to the surprise and wonder when characters of color appear in a book written by a White person.

Character wise, I wasn’t engaged by Ti-Jeane. I found her to be a very passive person, generally following around events rather than driving them. I wasn’t particularly engaged with any of the family and, frankly, didn’t especially care if any of them lived or died. Which is a shame, because I feel they had the potential to be decent characters - but they never really got the chance. Ti-Jeane’s boyfriend is grossly unlikeable, her grandmother we don’t see enough of to develop a character beyond grumpy - there’s not a lot to engage with here.

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Sep 23, 2013 Ingrid rated it really liked it

Part Caribbean folk story, part good old dystopian science fiction, "Brown Girl in the Ring" is a vibrant and wonderful novel. Near-future Toronto has been gutted by economic disparity and corrupt government policy, and everyone who could afford to move have long since fled to the suburbs. Those who are left struggle to survive in an inner city with limited resources, high crime rates, and no assistance from outside. (Sound like modern day Detroit? The Atlantic thought so, too. Read the article ...more

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About Nalo Hopkinson

Nalo Hopkinson

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Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican-born writer and editor who lives in Canada. Her science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.

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“The heaviness of loss in her heart hadn't eased, but there was room there for humour, too.” — 1019 likes

“The African powers, child. The spirits. The loas. The orishas. The oldest ancestors. You will hear people from Haiti and Cuba and Brazil and so call them different names. You will even hear some names I ain’t tell you, but we all mean the same thing. Them is the ones who does carry we prayers to God Father, for he too busy to listen to every single one of we on earth talking at he all the time. Each of we have a special one who is we father or mother, and no matter what we call it, whether Shango or Santeria or Voudun or what, we all doing the same thing. Serving the spirits.” — 3 likes

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