What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster is a poignant, intergenerational saga set in North Carolina. It explores the intertwined lives of two families amid racial tensions and personal struggles. Coster’s rich character development and emotional depth make this novel a compelling read.

What's Mine and Yours by Naima Coster is a poignant and absorbing novel that is a perfect fit for readers who appreciate complex, character-driven stories that explore the intricacies of family dynamics, identity, and the ways in which race and tragedy shape our lives, and who are looking for a rich and emotional reading experience that will linger long after the final page is turned.

I had high expectations for this book as it span multiple decades and two families and how their lives intersect. It ended up being a bit boring. The plot wasn’t super engaging and took too long to get exciting. Very much a slow burn kind of book.

Not much really happens in this book. It’s a study in coming of age with flawed parents who are trying to do their best. I will admit that there is a reveal toward the end of the book that perhaps I should have figured out earlier. I usually just enjoy the journey though, instead of trying to guess what’s going to happen. This is not a book that gives an expected ending. Props for that. Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

This was well-written, and a compelling story, but it didn't stand out for me. That said, I did enjoy it while I was reading it.

I had high expectations for this book that is told in alternating stories that span multiple decades about two families in North Carolina and how their lives intersect. It ended up just being okay for me. The set-up took much too long so I was fairly bored for the first half of the book. It got better by the second half but it never lived up to the hype.

3..5/5

Overall this is a solid novel and I enjoyed reading it, but I don't think it's one that will really stick with me. It's well-written, follows a large, interesting cast of characters, and covers a lot of time and subject matter - all of which makes for a good reading experience. However, because there are so many characters and so much going on, I didn't really connect with any of them in particular and wasn't that invested in the outcome.

This book was very busy. A host of characters. Not all fully developed. I like the way she built the story and snuck in the back story of Noelle that explains her marriage to Gee. Who we don’t realize he is THE husband until the young parts of Noelle are revealed. The book is really centered on two families and their different paths to life’s crossroads.

You have Gee and his Mama as one thread and the other thread is Lacey May and her three daughters. The drama trio. I enjoyed the story and her prose was heady and the pacing was stable. The families tie in was quite clever and you must read to understand. Not a bad way to spend a few days.

I found it hard to connect with the characters in this book. This story is about two families, in the same town, both broken and dysfunctional in some way, with the mother’s being the strong ones trying to raise their kids. We have many characters, with their own point of view, along with different timelines. This created a fractured tale that was difficult to get into to fully understand the people and their stories.

It isn’t until nearly half-way through the book the major plot event happens, with the local high school wanting to combine both sides of town to give all the kids an equal chance. Some families don’t want the “bad kids” really people of color, to lower their white kids chances at a good college. The parents seem more upset about this than the kids, who come together, new and old students, by producing a Shakespeare play.

In addition to the plot there's plenty of individual family drama, within the different timelines, marriages not working out, and such. It’s not that long of a book for all these different narrations going on. However, in the end it does seem to pull together, although for me, not very satisfying.

There are a few things in books that will hook me every time: multigenerational stories, multiple perspectives, family dramas, and back-forth time jumps. This book had ALL of this and more. The characters were flawed & made bad decisions. They were cruel to each other, they were self destructive, and they were an absolute mess. But it all felt so, so very real to me. What a beautiful & unsettling novel.

An interesting, compulsively readable story. A good choice for lovers of family sagas, stories of communities, and exploration of race, feminism and belonging.

What a powerful book. I have put this under consideration for inclusion in the 11th grade English curriculum.

I was amazed to find that all of the characters, with interconnected storylines and jumping forward and backward in time, grabbed me. This is an ambitious book and I can't wait to read more by Coster.

This story started out so strong, following members for two families over two decades. I loved the issues it focused on and felt like they made the story so much more intriguing. I was just expecting a bit more from it.

A beautiful book with delicate layers and distinct characterization. I loved the storyline and the intersections of characters, and the overall discussions about race, community, and mental health.

While this book was not for me, I can see why others may like it. The writing and the arc of the story, from an objective standpoint, were effortlessly executed. This book just wasn't my cup of 'T'. With that being said, as I mentioned. it's definitely worthy of being read.

I had a hard time with this one. I don't know what it is. I enjoy this authors writing but not the stories?? In this book I wish we could have focused more on other characters. The book starts with a literal bang then we can less about how that effected the character who witnessed and lived it. Focusing on LM took away alot for me. I didn't care for her or what she was going through. While the twist at the end really shocked me that didn't make up for the long boring ride I took before getting there. i both liked and disliked it which for me was a little sad because I was really looking forward to it

This is one of those novels that it’s kind of hard to give a summary of, but I’ll try. Although it jumps in time, to help give us context for the characters, the primary conflict is within a central NC community that is dealing with a sort of school-rezoning. Essentially, Black students from one side of town and being integrated into a primarily white high school on the other side of town. On one side, Jade is fighting to overcome a deep tragedy in the past and give her son, Gee, the very best possible life, knowing the challenges he’ll face as a young Black man in America. On the other side, Lacey Mae sees herself as defending the life she’s built for her daughters, refusing to acknowledge their half-Latina heritage. When Gee and Noelle, Lacey Mae’s oldest daughter, meet and start spending time together as part of a school production, their relationship flies in the face of their mothers’ wishes and hopes for them and sets up their turbulent and interconnected future.

WHOA. What a stunner. Like, in the sense that I am stunned after finishing this book. I am struggling to remember the last book I read with characters this…real. They were complicated and difficult and just so pure in their individual efforts and ugliness and motivations and I couldn’t get enough. I was also slightly overwhelmed by how recognizable these characters were. Like seriously, I live in the exact area that this novel takes place (the references were all very euphemistic, but I live in the Piedmont of North Carolina and let me tell you, I could see through a number of them…always kinda cool to read about your real life in fiction). Anyways, not just that, but having lived and taught here for going on 10 years, and having married into an NC family for a similar length of time, there were quite a few comments and observations about attitudes and reactions that were real not just in that they were written so authentically, but real as in I have personally lived/seen them. And it was amazing. So well done. But also, really intense to read sometimes because of it.

Getting a little more specific, just for a bit. I know that description of this novel makes it seem like the full focus is on school district changes and a battle over that and, in part, it is. That is the sort of central linchpin event that redefines many of the characters relationships with each other. However, the story is told across time in with focus on different people, to really give that one defining moment the depth and meaning it needs to make it so powerful. The book opens with the tragic event that leaves Jade and Gee with just each other. And from there we jump forward and back in time to Noelle’s (and her sisters’) adult lives (their relationships, successes and failures), Lacey Mae’s “origin story” – the husband who left her and the husband she chose for stability, and the school events that bring Noelle and Gee together. There’s a bit of a character twist that I guessed pretty early on, but that still held weight when the truth came out, because by then I was so invested in the characters and their development that the more “click into place” than “full on surprise” and felt more right anyways. Overall, fantastically paced and gorgeously brought together.

To close out my review, it’s absolutely necessary to highlight the insidious affects of racism on these characters and this story. At times more obvious and at times more subtle, Coster demonstrated with absolute skill the way nothing, from societal structure to interpersonal relationship, is free from the shadow of racism. Addressing everything from passing young love to internal identity to parenting (oh, the “parents doing the best they can” over and over was a focal and devastating theme), the nuanced legacy of racism for each and every person and community in these pages, connecting and undergirding the entire novel, is something truly special (as far as writing ability is concerned).

@readwithjenna nearly always picks books I love, with a couple of exceptions (ahem, Leave the World Behind 🙄), so I couldn’t figure out why I had been ambivalent about reading What’s Mine and Yours, the March 2021 pick.
I read it this week and now that I’ve finished it, I think I wish I had just let it lie. I didn’t love it.

I really wanted to love this more then I did. The time jumps got a little hard to follow and there were so many characters. I know some people loved this but it just didn’t hit the mark for me.