I am confused by In Every Mirror She's Black by Lola Akinmade Akerstrom. This book is a lot to digest, at the onset I thought I understood where this book was going, but by the end the book lost me a bit.

The story, set primarily in Sweden follows three women: 1) Brittany Rae, a Jamaican-American flight attendant, who is dating Jonny, a wealthy business man. 2) Kemi, a Nigerian-American marketing executive, who moves to Sweden to take the role of director of Diversity and Inclusion at Jonny's marketing company. 3) Muna, a bright Somalian refuge, who has experienced tremendous loss and is transitioning from living at the refuge center sponsored by Jonny to living in an apartment with other two other Somalian refugees.

The book splits each chapter between the three loosely connected characters as they settle into Sweden and learn firsthand about the racism in their new country. Choosing to have three characters of various backgrounds, religions, ages, class, and body types enables the story to explore the different ways the characters face racism and adversity in the homogenous Swedish society. However, I felt like each of the characters could have had their own books, and it is a bit of disservice to the characters stories to cram them all together.

There are parts of this book that I really enjoyed and there is some good drama embedded in this book that had me gasping out loud. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but there are some twists in the story that I think are meant to add nuances to some of the characters, but really left me scratching my head. At the end of the book I felt like the book decided it wanted to be the Get Out of Sweden, but the ending just didn't work for me for two of the three characters. With all that being said, I think this book is a great book club pick because there is a lot to dissect and discuss.

It took me a bit to get into to this book, but once I did, I was completely invested in the lives of Kemi, Brittany and Muna. Will definitely be recommending to patrons who want a detailed novel that will make them think.

What a book! Can you say rollercoaster?

In every mirror she's black is a beautiful, well-written debut that explores the complexities of being Black and female in a globalized world while seeking a better life.

The story centers around three Black women whose lives intersect in Sweden. As it unfolds it explores race, privilege, and class while following the pursuit of finding a place of belonging.

We meet Kemi, Brittany and Muna who all have very different backstories, but their common thread is a white man named Jonny, they’re all also on the verge of major life changes. Kemi is a successful marketing pro from the US hired to lead a diversity team at a top firm in Sweden. Brittany is a flight attendant who was is swept off her feet by a wealthy Swedish executive who wants to marry her and have her move to Sweden. Muna is a refugee from Somalia who arrives in Sweden and is determined to love this new country but is fighting demons from a traumatic experience that happened in her past. The book is told from the perspectives of all three women, each chapter moving between them to weave their stories together.

I found many moments insightful and others were shocking as the women navigated the ins and outs of a society where they clearly didn't fit. Throw in a dash of love and family expectations, and you have a recipe for a thought-provoking and gripping read.

Loved it!

In Every Mirror She’s Black
by Löla Ákínmádé Åkerström

This story is about three women of the black African diaspora, Kemi, Brittany-Rae and Muna, whose lives intersect in small ways because of their relationship to the wealthy Swedish corporate scion, Johnny, head of Von Lundin marketing.

Two of the women are children born in the United States to immigrants. At the outset, we learn that Brittany, a Jamaican American, had been a fashion model, but left her profession because of sexual assault by her manager, gave up her dream of becoming a designer and is now employed as a flight attendant to first class passengers. Brittany is in a relationship with a loving parter who wants to marry her, but she makes excuses for not being ready for that commitment . Kemi, a Ghanaian American, is an award winning advertising executive at a top U. S. firm who, despite the accolades, is facing a glass ceiling, a leering friend-boss and is desirous of moving on to another company to get away from a dead-end job situation. The third woman is Muna, a Somalian refugee who has suffered traumatic loss fleeing her home country. Muna is starting a new life in Sweden and must navigate existing in a strange country, learn the language, understand the culture, and establish community while feeling hopelessly alone and depressed.

All three women are in search of something to fulfill a deep seated need and in a way, they believe they have found it through their connection with Johnny and Von Lundin marketing. But Johnny is not what he seems. While some dismiss his eccentricities as quirks of a privileged spoiled rich kid, there is a well hidden explanation for his behavior that will change the life of one of the women forever.

In Every Mirror She’s Black examines the constraints, insecurities and challenges faced by black women all over the globe. Each woman’s story builds momentum and we witness their loss of control as they are buffeted by their new circumstances. The plot is well paced and suspenseful, although one character’s story seems more disconnected from the central themes of ambition, feminism and fetishization than the others. I would like to thank NetGalley for an advance reading copy.

I really enjoyed this book! It's basically three stories in one as readers learn about the lives of three black women connected in different ways to the same white man. The book touches on various struggles Black women face such as in the workplace, in interracial relationships, as refugees in America, and being a fetish.

I understand the switching pov's for story like this, but the quick jumps to a new character is something I'm not a huge fan of as a reader. It makes it difficult to settle into the story, but I still loved this book. The characters are well developed and each of the three women and their lives are very different. I loved the progression of the story because at first the women's stories are very separate, but as the story goes along, their lives intermingle which adds a new dynamic to the plot. I suspected the twist, but the actual reveal was still a surprise that made everything make sense.

I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from Lolá!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance eARC!

Wow this was so powerful. It took me a bit to get into this one but it definitely hooked me once I got to know these very nuanced characters.
The story is of three black women tied together in Sweden by a man named Jonny. Jonny is Swedish and owns a successful company that hires Kemi from America to help dog them out of a PR disaster. Jonny also courts Brittany, a former model and flight attendant who joins him in Sweden. Refugee Muna has lost her family and comes to Sweden for a new life and works at Jonnys company as a janitor. All three women are complex and I loved getting to know them, their struggles as Black women and the issues they face with dating, work and life in general. This book was touching, frustrating, heartbreaking and well told. This is going to be one people talk about and I’m so glad I was able to read it in advance of the praise that is surely coming.

4.25 stars.

Thanks to #netGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

This novel shares insight into what it means to be a black woman today, following three distinct POCs who are in some way linked to the same influential Swedish white man in Stockholm. Kemi is a workaholic marketing executive who moves to Sweden to head up diversity for CEO Jonny's company after a tone-deaf incident and partially looking to reclaim her social life in the process. Meanwhile, Brittany-Rae is a flight attendant who meets wealthy Jonny on a flight and suddenly thrust into his luxury world. Then, there's a Mena who's a refuge struggling to establish residency in a new country while working as a janitor for his company. The book aims to tackle racism, classism, sexism, tokenism, and fetishization as these three women come to terms with what it means to be a black woman in a white-dominated society. Told in three point-of-views, this book reads quite quickly and is well-written, engaging, and difficult to put down with many complex characters sharing their stories and journeys.

One white man in Stockholm and three black women make for this provocative, modern tale of what it means to truly be able to call a place home and the prices one might pay!

This book blew me away. It is fast paced, unique, thought provoking, and extremely relevant. We meet Kemi, our high-climbing marketing executive, Brittany, our gorgeous flight attendant, and Muna, our brave refugee. The book is their three stories, told across the span of three years, and each story shares a raw and unedited view of their lives and the decisions that shape them and their connections with each other and with Jonny. No hesitation to recommend.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This was an ambitious, wide-ranging work, that showed multiple dimensions of Blackness around the world while also telling a specific story of the layers to Blackness in Sweden. The book's interwoven storylines consistently reflect its title, "In Every Mirror She's Black"--that no matter whether an East African refugee working as a janitor, a West African first generation immigrant to America working as a corporate executive, or an African-American marrying into a wealthy white family, the Blackness of each of these three protagonists is eventually the primary shaper of their experiences, not just in Sweden but globally. It was a challenging read at times, which is a good thing, but it was engaging and thoughtful, and I appreciated the window into how Blackness and whiteness in Scandinavia can manifest, knowledge I had never actively sought out or, honestly, considered in great depth in this past year's events. I look forward to this author's future works!

Kemi, Brittany-Rae, and Muna all come to Stockholm for different reasons however, at some point their lives all converge and intersect due to one commonality, Johan (Jonny) von Lundin.
This book has left me with a lot to think about. Being a Black woman in Kentucky, I’ve never really contemplated life for Black people in places like Sweden until now. While the novel is about the experiences of 3 Black women in Stockholm, it’s also about isolation and it’s affects on our lives. It’s also about how we as Black people across the diaspora share common feelings of otherness and loneliness when we are isolated from our loved ones in predominantly white spaces. We have the same fears, the same hurt, the same anger, and the same intuition when it comes to racism It also shows how we cleave to or run from each other in these spaces out of fear, out of ignorance, or just out of (dis)comfort. This story also touches on topics such as the fetishization of Black women, autism, sex trafficking, and sexual harassment.

Kemi has it all- beauty, brains, the expensive home, and the successful career, however, for her those things aren’t enough.
If I had to compare her to a relatable character I would say she is Toni from Girlfriends or Molly from Insecure. Kemi wants more out of her life. She wants to advance in her career and she wants to have a loving relationship in her personal life. But how can she without having to sacrifice something or everything? Constantly questioning whether she is good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, Kemi is presented with what she sees as the opportunity of a lifetime by Johnny. Unsure of where her new position within Jonny’s company will take her, she takes the leap and relocates by herself to Sweden. Away from her family, friends, a culture she knows well, and people who look like her, her feelings of insecurity and inadequacy are only amplified. Things that she used to take for granted like going to get her hair done or meeting (Black) men (or people for that matter) on dating apps and at bars become a challenge. She is surrounded by people who speak another language, have personalities that seem as cold as the winter, and on top of that is the only Black person at her new job. Kemi wants more from her career and more from life but she is struggling to see the importance of family and stability over money and power.

After a tragedy that killed her already ill father,
Muna, along with her mother and brother, escape their home in Mogadishu, Somalia. Unfortunately, while on the boat fleeing to safety, tragedy befalls her family yet again this time taking the lives of her brother and mother. Now she is all alone without any known family left in the world, passing time at a facility for Refugee’s awaiting their chance for citizenship. Muna spends her days thinking about the people she’s lost and worrying that she will never have another chance at family or love as the isolation seems unending and unbearable. Along the way she meets friends and gets new opportunities but she just can’t stop losing people and it hurts her deeply.

Brittany-Rae had high hopes and dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Her goal was to be successful and rich so that she could afford all of the luxury and financial stability that her family never had. However, her trajectory changed from designer to model after meeting a big time fashion designer that quickly becomes her mentor. Years working for and under this man left Brittany traumatized so much so that she completely quit the fashion scene. Now at 38 she’s a flight attendant, has a very successful boyfriend who loves and adores her, but her head is still in the clouds wondering what her life would have been like if she were rich and her idea of successful. Then she met Jonny on one of her flights and her life changes forever.

There was so much to treasure in this book, from a standpoint of admiring fiction and from a place of recognizing the real issues that infuse this story. A book to enjoy, be challenged by, and share, and one of intricate and well-developed portraits of characters.

An engaging read that kept me engrossed. I was fascinated by Johny and his relationship with Brittany. I was equally intrigued with Kemi’s story and I looked forward to positive things happening in her life. They had interesting stories to tell. I couldn’t connect as much with Muna. Her story did not interest me that much. Overall a good story.

In Every Mirror She’s Black by Lola Akinmade Ankerstrom is a stunning fictional novel that gives the reader a real, raw, and unique perspective into the lives of three women in Stockholm, Sweden.

At first, the reader thinks that the lives and story lines between the three main female characters:
Kemi, Brittany-Rae, and Muna can have nothing whatsoever in common, however as the three separate stories are interweaved through the common character of Jonny, one finds many similarities.

This book is so unique. Through the eyes of these three women, one can see how brutal, imperfect, flawed, and raw society is in Sweden in this book. One can see, feel, and experience along with them the prejudices, the obstacles, and the inherent difficulties that are presented to not just women, but women of color, and women of different backgrounds, ethnicities, and financial backings. Yes, there were lighter elements of romance and passion, but it is balanced out nicely with the honest and clear lenses that are used to see the darker aspect of humanity and society.

The ending left me sad, but satisfied, and thankful I was able to read this stunning narrative.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Sourcebooks Landmark for this wonderful arc in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication.