I received a digital e-arc from the publisher via Netgalley though all thoughts are my own.
This was an interesting collection of stories centered around various people who were born in Jamaica. Some chose to move away, some moved away then came back occasionally or to retire and others chose to stay. It's fascinating learning the dynamics of a different culture who I don't know a lot about and the importance of being true to yourself no matter how much the world tries to change you.
I also enjoyed the perspective of seeing the world through the eyes of people who weren't born in the U.S. and to gain a deeper understanding of the importance in trying to be open-minded as well as understanding of people no matter their skin color.

How To Love A Jamaican, a compilation of short stories, speaks to various experiences and issues being grappled with by both the Jamaican Diaspora and Jamaicans still on the island. These stories explore sexuality, fidelity, success and what that looks like for different individuals, gentrification, travel, where to build roots, body image, love, self- love, self-discovery, motherhood, fatherhood, the immigrant experience, one foot here and one foot there.

I recommend the audiobook. It was narrated by different voices and that along with the actual story being told kept me engaged.

I received a digital copy via the publisher via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. At the time of this review, I audiobooked this from my library and is based on that copy.

Arthurs has put together a great collection of short stories centered around characters living in Jamaica, as well as Jamaican immigrants in the US. I felt like she was able to authentically capture a person of color's experiences from a wide range of perspectives (everything from a young Jamaican girl to a Jamaican man in his 60's living in the US). Arthurs was able to include important details (such as types of Jamaican food her characters crave) to create a well-rounded and culturally accurate depiction of island life. My fave story was probably the last one in the collection, which is about a young, female pop star going back to Jamaica after finding massive success in the US. It's pretty obvious it's loosely inspired on Rihanna (who was born in Barbados), but it definitely held my attention the most because of her ability to truly crawl behind the scenes of someone you've seen in music videos and in magazines. I'll be really curious to see where Arthurs' writing goes from here. Most of her stories left me wanting more, so I'd certainly be interested in reading a full-length novel from her in the future. So many of her stylistic strengths and her unique perspective were represented in these short stories, so obviously this format works well for her too!

If this author ever writes a novel I might give it a try, but I thought this collection of short stories was just ok. I liked the title story, but most of the other stories felt shallow and unresolved to me. However, I’m not really a fan of short stories, so other readers might have a better reaction to this book. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

This collection of stories is stunning, moving, and intensely thought-provoking. I loved that each story had a person of Jamaican descent as the main character and found them all to be relatable in ways I hadn't expected. I felt this was due to the focus on self-discovery woven throughout. Many of these characters will stick with me for a long time and I will be recommending this to everyone!

One of my best friends had a blowout of a wedding in Jamaica and it was one of the most chaotic and fun events of my life. She recommended this book to all of her wedding party and because it was on my Netgalley list of books to read, I owed her a little review.

First of all, my best friend may have a connection to the author. I don't know and haven't had the chance to ask yet - they are still on honeymoon in France (lucky dog). It doesn't really matter, but she thought we could have a cheat sheet of immersion into the Jamaican culture through this book.

The author has some strong writing chops. I was engaged in the stories immediately (and short story format isn't my favorite). They are stories of life with a little flair. The highs and lows of everyday life. Actually, this could have been about African Americans both boomers or millennials. The stories transcend national boundaries. I know the author wanted it to be honestly about Jamaican culture and the effort shows. However, I kept remarking throughout the book, this scenario reminds me of "so and so" (and they would inevitably be African American). I think that's a good thing. It shows we are not as separated as we think.

I wish more people of other cultures would read this tome. This is a tome about the tales and surprising complexities of life. I was searching for the best adjective to summarize all of the stories and "charming" comes to mind. I am easily rating this book a 4 on a one to five scale. If you get a chance, please pick it up - you won't regret it.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

An excellent debut short story collection that delves into the experiences of the Jamaican diaspora. Tightly written, Arthurs offers glimpses into the multifaceted nature of immigrant Jamaicans in American, delving into issues of displacement, longing for home, coming to terms with race in the US, and negotiating distinct gender pressures across borders (to name just a few). Although no story rises to the level of outstanding, they are all consistently strong and the collection does end off with a particularly strong story about a famous Jamaican American pop star and her mother coming to terms with how wealth and stardom has transformed their identity and their relationships with back home.

Worth picking up and looking forward to a novel that explore these themes more deeply.

Short stories which are so engrossing you will lose track of time. Highly recommended. This books is addicting, you will not want to stop reading. Kudos to the author. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book. Although I received the book in this manner, it did not affect my opinion of this book nor my review.

How to Love a Jamaican is a wonderful, visceral set of unconnected short stories. I don't usually gravitate towards collections like this, but Arthurs made each of her characters fantastically human. I loved the breadth of stories and the recurring themes of family spread between America and Jamaica, and the immediacy and intimacy of the voice really drew me in. I was able to totally immerse myself in the stories and not feel repeatedly bombarded by the trap some collections fall into (same character, different names).
Of the eleven short stories contained in this book, "The Ghost of Jia Yi" and "We Eat Our Daughters" will stay with me for some time. The vibrancy and vitality of these stories especially stuck with me, and I will be looking towards Arthurs in the future for good work. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fiction, short stories, dialects portrayed seamlessly in dialogue, and beautiful writing.

I received a free advanced copy of this book through NetGalley

Thank you to Randomhouse Publishing - Ballantine and NetGalley for this free E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed listening to this collection of stories, two in particular, “we eat our daughters” and “ the ghost of Gia Yi”. There are reoccurring themes of the embedded Jamaican culture, being proud of who you are and where you came from and the pull of it all when wanting to make your own decisions, some of which go against all that you’ve been taught and exposed to.

I will say that while I thought it made great for leisurely reading, I wasn’t overly impressed or committed to any of the stories.

I would recommend this book to readers that love short story collections and those that enjoy stories deeply rooted in culture.

For all that I put off starting this, I powered through it so fast; read it in less than a week and really enjoyed it. Overall, it was a fascinating glimpse into Jamaican (and a little bit general Caribbean) life, culture, language and beliefs from a great variety of perspectives, experiences and relationships with the island. From frustration to nostalgia, lifelong residents to vacation visitors, Arthurs paints an incredibly vivid image of Jamaica. Knowing that the author herself is Jamaican, grew up partially there and partially in the United States, this book felt, to me, like an exploration of all the paths her life (and the lives of people she knows) *could* have taken…and some, perhaps, that it did take. That may not actually be accurate at all, but it’s what reading these stories felt like to me. And I was into it. One other general thing I want to mention is that I liked the idea of the mermaid theme-ing throughout the collection. But in the end, it fell a little flat to me. It needed to be either more present, or less so, but the in-between that it hit was not the right spot. On the other hand, I loved the mother-daughter dynamics represented throughout – they were complex and thorough, foreign yet familiar, and entirely authentic.

And now, as always for my collection reviews, I’ll give a little snippet of thought on each short story:

Light Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowland: This was an interesting look at differences within a race, based on upbringing and background (just as with any people), and how that plays out/the strife it can cause…even though the root issue is something beyond the control of, and decided on years ago and by others, the people who are actual involved. It is particularly insightful and educational for those of other races, so, me. A really straightforward but wonderfully meaningful story to start the collection. “I wonder if white people are as good at reading us. Probably not. We’ve spent our whole lives observing them. It makes sense that we’d be good at it.”

Mash Up Love: Ahhhhh the age-old saga of sibling rivalry. This was basically on theme with the idea of the prodigal son. Well written, but nothing special.

Slack: Wow. The little details are what make this one, the way you get just enough background to see how each little moment played together to lead, inevitably, to creating the moment of tragedy. And the seduction of the idea of mermaids, especially for imaginative youth, is used so well here. “No one would wonder at the stories they were whispering to themselves until they were gone.”

Bad Behavior: A lovely and quick meditation on motherhood, the relationships between grandmother/mother/daughter/granddaughter, and the way reactions to each change the course of interactions for the others.

Island: Yes. Just yes. I loved the themes of this story, the feelings it conveyed. Also, I just get really absorbed into discussions of and emotions around sexuality (the realization and self-discovery of) and coming out. This one is particularly interesting as it addresses these themes within the very strict and specific Jamaican culture. “What, I asked myself, if we built islands around ourselves, because it’s no sin to be self-sufficient?”

Mermaid River: Such a sweet story about the memories of a boy and his grandmother. The color of nostalgia here is strong and permeating – it makes you stop and think back on your own moments with your own grandparents. And there is a wonderful little message about how even small and oft overlooked places are chock full of so much life. “But guilt often loses its flavor, I’ve found.”

The Ghost of Jia Yi: This is definitely one of the most layered stories in the collection. Exploring a girl far from home and depressed, dealing with being an outsider and making questionable decisions that haunt her because of it…and looking at it all through the lens of another foreigner as an incarnation of what could happen to her as a result (even though all those” bad” decisions are really just normal decisions for a person her age, but the consequences and expectations seem, and truly are, so much higher for her). I really felt a vibe from this story, deep and vibrating, that I hadn’t felt from another story in the collection to here and I liked it. Also, those last lines are really affecting. “America, the land of diversity, where people talk to who they think it’s safest to talk to.” “She isn’t the first and she won’t be the last woman to baptize her sorrows in the arms of a man.”

How to Love a Jamaican: I don’t know how I felt about this one. I mean, I liked the reading of it. And the theme of “this is all one needs to be happy,” but then not being fully satisfied with it, and possibly ruining it, even after finding it…that’s universal and well rendered here. But to read it this way, in such a large secret between a long-settled couple – it hurts me to imagine it happening to me, is all. This is a perfectly told tale of that situation though. “If someone could bottle a smell for all the feelings in the market, it would be as sweet as the sweetest-smelling mango and as bad smelling as the market madman who walks around picking up fruit that rolled off somebody’s heap.”

On Shelf: Whoa that was depressing. This was like a one-stop shop for all the possible judgement a women could get for her choices: education/work over family, late/no marriage or children, having standards for a partner that are “too high,” and more. And then when she caves, choosing someone for no better reason than she feels like her clock is ticking (someone that she’s not actually interested in and can’t share her full self with and definitely doesn’t love and who isn’t honest with her at all)…it almost physically hurt me. And thought I guess it’s ok for her, in the end, because she feels that the daughter the situation gave her was worth it…it was just a depressing story to read. Well written though. “When she really thought about it, what was marriage besides a savior from lifelong loneliness? And one could marry and still remain lonely.”

We Eat Our Daughters: Loved this collection of vignettes on mother-daughter relationships. They explore issues and pressures that are specific to Jamaican culture but are also, achingly, universally recognizable. “Maybe beginnings aren’t beginnings, maybe they are harder to pin down, like waves pulling off the shore at different moments, waves of all sizes and strengths, but eventually and ultimately they are all the same wide expanse of sea.”

Shirley from a Small Place: Just a really well developed look at the idea of yearning for a place and time when things were “worse,” even though you’ve “made it.” It really speaks to the power of memory and nostalgia. And again, this is one with a great depiction of a mother-daughter relationship. “It was like looking at the sky to see that something as eternal as the stars was no longer there.”

Chock full of cultural insight, capable writing and at least one mother-daughter relationship that you are sure to identify with (that is, if you have even been a mother or daughter yourself), this is a great debut collection. Incredibly solid short stories across the board that, though I do have some favorites, do not fall into the trap of a few star stories mixed with a number of duds. Thematically on point throughout, I look forward to seeing what Arthurs writes next.

Be still my heart! This book was so deeply imaginative and I could not put it down. I loved how different this book was from others in its genres. The writing blew me away!

How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs is a collection of short stories with characters from Jamaica. None of the stories intersect at all. On the surface, no one has much of anything in common, except that they are from Jamaica.

The characters are gay, straight, educated, uneducated, poor, rich and so on. Some of the stories are hilarious, while others are tragic.

I think that the commonalities of many of the stories are food and family. Most of the characters talk about their love of Jamaican food. They also discuss their relationships with family members, especially their mothers and siblings.

It’s difficult to pick a favorite story. There was so much variety that I don’t think anyone would get bored with this book.

I did like the story about Shirley, the pop star. There are some similarities to Rihanna, except that Rihanna is not from Jamaica. She’s from Barbados. FYI: Jamaica is about 1228 miles from Barbados. Did you know that Cuba is only 238 miles from Cuba? Now we all know.

I can honestly say the first part of the book was pretty phenomenal. It started off so strong with the first few stories. It was both entertaining and interesting, but then trailed off, seemed to become repetitive, and lost some of my interest. There was also a bit of content that I didn't expect but this didn't influence my rating. Overall, a good debut work by an author who clearly knows how to write a vivid short story and craft complex characters.

I loved every minute of this story collection. It's a pleasure to read the work of a writer where every word means something and no character feels flat.

Thankful that I received this ARC from Netgalley. I may not have picked it up on own. I am not a big "short story" reader and for no good reason! Each and every story kept my interest and I felt I got a glimpse into the Island of Jamaica, it's customs and people. The cultural differences are clear through stories of Jamaicans navigating cities in New York and the Mid West. The writing was beautiful, I could feel the emotions and struggles of bouncing between cultures and picture the beauty of the island. The Love, strength and guidance of mothers was central to the stories. I look forward to Alexia Arthurs next book and more short stories! All opinions are my own.

Thanks to Net Galley and Random House for a chance to read this (ARC) debut collection of short stories covers the Jamaican soul both in its native country as well as the diaspora. Like many other collections I've read there are strong stories, like the author's short called "Slack" in which two young children drown in a neighbor's water tank. The story then wraps back around to tell us how this came to happen.

There are stories of young college students studying in America ("Light-skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands") that highlight the differences between native Jamaicans and their first-generation immigrant counterparts. There are gay Jamaicans ("Islands"), and one of my favorites concerns daughters and how they feel about their mothers ("We Eat Our Daughters"). Some of the stories were not as strong as others, but the whole is a beautiful ode to the country and its people.

Beautiful and complex, Arthurs is a gifted storyteller. Her characters are people you know or want to know, people struggling to make sense of the world, to find love, to find enough of the things we all need. And she writes so brilliantly about place, situating her characters so thoroughly in their world whether that place is the countryside of Jamaica, or the cold streets of Queens. A knockout.

I received an advanced reviewer copy from the Publisher (Random House) through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: This is a collection of short stories with the uniting theme that all the characters are Jamaican. The short stories cover issues involving family, sexuality, and definition of success. There is a short story covering a whole breadth of issues.

What I loved: I felt I learned a lot about a culture that I hadn't known really anything about before. However, despite the fact that these stories are about characters with different backgrounds than myself, but there are elements of the story that I connect with because they are part of human nature. Feeling out of place among people who grew up more privileged than yourself (and recognizing how to recognize yourself as the privilege from others eyes), focusing on your career when everyone else is getting married and having babies, losing a grandparent or a parent, recognizing the challenges your parents faced raising you only as an adult, and more. A few of my favorite short stories were: Light Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands, Mash Up Love, Island, Mermaid River, and On-Shelf.

What I didn’t like so much: Like any short story collection, there were stories I did not love. I got frustrated at times because I struggled a bit with the language. This isn't a problem with the book, it makes the stories authentic, but it can be challenging to understand from an outside perspective (also if you can't understand some of the language it is not necessary to understand it.

Who Should Read It: People who want to learn more about a culture they don't know a lot about. People who love short stories. People who want to read diverse books. Jamaicans who want to read literature where there culture is (finally) represented.

General Summary: A short story collection that sheds a light on Jamaican culture.

All the stories in this collection of short stories deal with characters living between the two worlds of Jamaica and the US. At least one character in each story has either immigrated to the US from Jamaica, or Immigrated and returned to Jamaica. The stories show the contrast between cultures, and the conflicts immigrants experience being caught between the two cultures, experiencing the US with Jamaican eyes, and then seeing Jamaica through the eyes a new immigrant in America. Well written characters and engaging stories.