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Jackson’s debut novel is rich with realistically complex characters and subtle wit and wisdom as the characters understand the love of family and the ties that bind them.
Two sisters, Dionne age 16 and Phaedra age 10, are sent by their mother to visit their grandmother Hyacinth in Barbados for the summer. Their mother will remain in Brooklyn to “get herself together” before the start of the new school year. Upon arriving the two sisters have a different reaction to Bird Hill, a rural and close-kn ...more
Two sisters, Dionne age 16 and Phaedra age 10, are sent by their mother to visit their grandmother Hyacinth in Barbados for the summer. Their mother will remain in Brooklyn to “get herself together” before the start of the new school year. Upon arriving the two sisters have a different reaction to Bird Hill, a rural and close-kn ...more

At once a Caribbean literature classic. Seems not quite sufficient to call it a coming of age story but that is there. But underneath that, it's a story about love and loss and triumph and perseverance. About family and women and navigating one's own way simultaneously embracing, and even despite, one's own past.
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This is a beautiful story (why I gave it four stars) but the audio version was pretty much ruined for me by the narrator. To me, she sounded like someone reading a children's book to children and she made it sound like a mythical tale which I don't it is at all.
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Apr 23, 2015
Ching-In
marked it as to-read

May 03, 2015
Jayme Pendergraft
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Jun 23, 2015
Rachel
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Jun 28, 2015
Rakisha
marked it as curiousity-piquers

Oct 15, 2016
Julie Griffin
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Jan 22, 2017
Stacey
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Jul 19, 2019
Nikki Morse
marked it as to-read