In present day California a Caribbean American woman dies leaving a voice recording for her two estranged children to listen to. How would you feel if someone you knew your whole life is not who you thought they were. The past and present are interwoven as we learn about Elanor Bennett's life. The traditional Caribbean Black cake plays an important role in the story. Elanor left the island in the 60's. We see the choices both good and bad she has made in her life and how they have affected future generations and these relationships within them. Her directive is "Share the black cake when the time is right."
The book is very unique and multi generational . It also had very short chapters and many points of view.

Published February 1st 2022 .
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

What a debut novel! Charmaine Wilkerson transports us across continents and decades as Eleanor (deceased mother of Benny and Bryan) tells her children the truth about their family's history, from the grave.
Benny hasn't seen her family in 8 years, after an argument with her father about following a different path for her personal and professional lives. She's stubborn, to say the least, and while she came back to California for her father's funeral, she didn't see her brother or her mother. Meanwhile, Bryan has been the good child and stayed in California to support his mother through the death of her husband, a serious accident and then illness.
Though Eleanor's death does bring Benny home for her funeral, her reconciliation with her brother is not an easy one.
Black Cake tackles so many issues - racism, discrimination, sexuality, abandonment, rape, climate change and more. They're generally not focused on but cleverly woven into the story lines. We don't learn about Eleanor while she's alive, but she was the most fully developed character for me. I could see Eleanor swimming and surfing over the years and then, home in California, making the titular Black Cake with Benny. I didn't find the other characters to be as fully developed.
Ms. Wilkerson's writing is beautiful and the overall story is unique. I look forward to her next book! Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine for the opportunity to read Black Cake in exchange for an honest review.

What a beautiful novel. There was so much going on that it was sometimes hard to keep up! But once I was able to get acquainted with each storyline, it was hard to put this book down. Beautiful writing, so descriptive. Highly recommend!

This book unravels the secrets from a mother's past after her death, as read to her children via a recording she put together in her final days. I love how they used black cake as a string that tied everyone together over the last 60 years and how the tradition will continue to live on. Ultimately, what spoke to me most in this book was the story of friendship between Bunny and Eleanor and I wish we got to see more of that play out in modern today. While it did pick up in the second half, the overall pace of this book read a little slow for me and I found it to be predictable in the end.

Thank you Ballantine Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The nerd in me always wonders why an author chose the title of a book because to me, a title should sum up what the book is about as efficiently as possible.
Although this story isn’t simply about Black Cake, I think that this title encompasses everything that is Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel. Black Cake is a story about home, family, belonging, loss, and deep love, and within this story, Black Cake represents all of those things.
Siblings, Byron and his younger sister, Benny are both back in their childhood home listening to their mother’s voice on a tape recorder because she, Eleanor Bennett, recently passed away. However, there’s something she needs to tell her children, B and B, before she can rest in the afterlife.
As Byron and Benny try to make sense of what they are hearing, they are also trying to make peace with each other.
Wilkerson tells this story from the perspective lives of different characters in different places and times but all are connected. While reading, I kept getting anxious to know what the big reveal would be because this honestly felt like a soap opera. There was SO MUCH going on in the lives of all of the characters between both their private and professional lives.
If you’ve been following my reviews you know I love to learn new things. Until reading this book, I was not aware that there was a community of Chinese immigrants in the Caribbean in the 1800’s, nor did I know about the relations between them and the Black Islanders. I absolutely love when I’m able to learn about things in the real world through fiction because it lends more perspective.
As with a lot of books, the ending wasn’t the greatest, but it didn’t take away from the rest of the story. We really don’t get to see how things work out for the family but we can see that the relationships have done a 180 degree turn since the first parts of the book and that is as close to a happy ending as we are going to get.
I’m quite impressed with how Wilkerson was able to create such perfectly flawed and relatable characters without being boring or over the top.
Overall it was an enjoyable read, and I would definitely pick up her next book

Black Cake is an excellent family drama with deep topics: lessons in identity, what family means to who we are and how heritage can define us.
Byron and Benny are brother and sister who were happily best buds growing up but circumstances led them out of each other's lives. Benny's life choices have led her pretty far from her family. Byron was the proverbial "good child" staying within the "correct" path as looked at by the family. When their mother dies, the two are summoned to listen to their mother's audio recording left for them in her death. They expect a traditional will, but what they find are her life-altering secrets!
There are multiple POV's which are done really well. The two have new choices to make. It's a story about culture and heritage and the traditions that tether us to family. 3.5 stars! Also a BOTM choice!

3.5 rounded up

Thanks @netgalley for the advanced copy of this beautiful book! I’m very surprised this is a debut and look forward to more by this author.

Estranged siblings Benny and Byron reunite at the death of their Mother Eleanor and are shocked when her lawyer plays them a recording she made for them before she passed. They never knew of their mother’s brave and terrifying history, fleeing her home island when she was suspected of murder. The two learn more about their mother, their family, and each other as this recording unfurls.

The short chapters and multiple POVs of this book worked well and kept me engaged. I loved Eleanor’s past and enjoyed the first half of the book immensely. It lost some stars for me because Wilkerson packs so much in this book (particularly in the second half), and is not able to fully delve into the complexities of all of the themes addressed like bisexuality, police brutality, and ocean conservation. New perspectives are also added late in the book and it became a little much for me. This book is all over Instagram right now and I do think most readers would enjoy this tale of survival and I look forward to Oprah’s Hulu adaptation.

⚠️Trigger Warning: Death of a Parent, Sexual Assault, Racism, Suicide Attempt, Bullying, Homophobia

Let me start by saying that I can't believe this is a debut novel. This is a beautifully evocative story which just sucks you in.

Eleanor Bennett has died, and her two adult children come together to listen to her final recording. Eleanor has a desire for her children to share a black cake when the moment is right. And therein begins this beautiful tale which has you laughing, crying, it fills your heart and mind and blows you away.

I loved the short chapters with multiple POVs of Eleanor Bennet interspersed with her children - Benny and Byron.

The book deals with multiple themes. Family issues, relationships, secrets, resentments, loss, cultural diaspora, regrets, sexuality, freedom, child abandonment, lies, motherhood, racism, interracial marriage, climate change, and of course the recipe of black cake. This book deals with all these so sensitively without preaching. They are woven in so well that it's seamless.

What a brilliant debut!

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the way this was written! I often enjoy books that go back and forth between the past and the present. However, I do think I enjoyed the first half more than the latter half - there were so many POVs by the end that it felt a bit…messy. However, if you like stories that dip into someone’s past or stories about family secrets, this is one you should check out!

TW: sexual assault

“I was not the first person to go through the world living two separate lives, one out in the open and the other locked up inside a box.”

Elly Bennett dies and leaves a detailed recording for her children. Wilkerson’s novel is about Elly’s life, but more than that, it’s about secrets. Everyone in this book has one or has been impacted by one in a major way, and for most, both are true. Elly and her late husband had a whopper, and they built their lives and their family around it. Their two children are Byron and Benny, and Benny’s secret is all consuming for much of her life; it has had a role in estranging her from her once-adoring older brother and parents. Meanwhile, there’s a child—now grown to middle age—in Europe that is herself a secret, and whose very identity has been obscured by one. Elly’s closest childhood friend carries a particularly potent secret, and so does the nanny that raised her. Even the lawyer that handles the estate has one.

When is it safe to let go of a secret?

I was invited to read Wilkerson’s debut novel by Random House Ballantine and Net Galley, and I thank them for the review copy. This book is for sale now, and everyone is talking about it. You’ll want to get in on it.

Our story unfolds with seventeen year old Coventina Brown, known as Covey, quietly launching a plan to join her boyfriend, Gibbs, in London. He’s gone there to go to school, and when she’s done with school, she will join him. That is, until her father, who has raised her alone, gets into big trouble with a loan shark, a local thug who now holds title to her father’s store and his home, and now wants the one thing this father has left: Covey. If Covey marries this nasty old man, the debt will be squared. Most fathers would send their daughters to safety, and then square their shoulders and solve their problem, even when their own lives hang in the balance. But alas, Johnny Lyncook is not most fathers. He’s not a particularly nice man. As one of our characters will observe later, “A shit is a shit, young or old.”

Covey escapes on her wedding day (at which Black Cake, similar to fruitcake, is traditionally served), and her experiences from that time forward will form the foundation of her own life, her (future) husband’s, and their children and other loved ones.

The story is told in the third person omniscient, with the point of view changing by chapter, along with the time period. Readers will find themselves wretchedly confused if they fail to note the chapter titles, which are the key to everything that follows. The result is a story that is assembled like building blocks, and although it works out in the end, with everything coming together for a satisfactory resolution, I am frustrated at times, because just as a character begins to take shape for me, we leave them and join someone else.

I would have enjoyed more integration and perhaps a wee bit of streamlining. For example: we learn that Johnny, Elly/Covey’s father, is ethnically Chinese, and that there are a lot of them in the Caribbean, but there appears to be no reason whatsoever to include this. It is as if Wilkerson wants to include every interesting fact about life in the Caribbean, and so there are components her that add nothing to the narrative. It’s a distraction. The story is complex enough without tidbits thrown in for no benefit. There are some small credibility issues as well. Two people within the story become famous enough to be recognized on the street, and receive breaks that they ordinarily wouldn’t; one is a distance swimmer, and the other an oceanographer. I can imagine how one or the other might be charismatic and photogenic enough to achieve this, but two? Name a famous oceanographer. Name a famous distance swimmer. See what I mean?

Nevertheless, this is in many ways a story for our time, and as such, it will make meaty discussion material in book clubs and in classrooms. When is a person black enough, and must a biracial person choose one side of their heritage over the other? How much information do adoptive parents owe their child, and when should they provide it? What about biological parents? When is it acceptable to keep secrets related to their children’s heritage, and when not? There are MeToo and other women’s issues at play, and there are issues of race. You could probably read this thing three or four times and still come away with observations, ideas, and questions that you hadn’t found the other times.

I am grateful that this story never devolves into a cookbook.

As debuts go, this is a strong one, and I look forward to seeing what else Wilkerson publishes. I recommend this novel as a welcome distraction from the stormy months ahead.

This is a novel full of intrigue, family, and secrets. When their mother dies, Byron and Benny, are left with more questions than answers. They are left with a story, an mystery, and a black cake. They must unravel the mystery and figure out what the traditional black cake is for.

This book was absolutely beautiful. I loved the way the stories were interconnected- how each person was connected to one center. The writers style was very poetic in her introduction of each new person and repetition of important words or facts to hammer the point.

The conversation presented here about cultural foods really resonated with me. I sometimes struggled with my own cultural identity growing up because I was “just white” but I’ve learned to appreciate the foods and traditions that are special to my family and draw us together even if they didn’t start with us.

While I found the story and plot well written as a family drama, I struggled at the end with some supporting characters. A couple weren’t really well connected to the family so they felt a little forced in and didn’t add to the central plot. However, I still think this is a stunning debut and I just couldn’t get enough of the vivid descriptions of the scenery as well as each characters relationship with themselves and the family.

The history of the Caribbean isn’t something I’m very familiar with but I learned a lot of new things from this book and look forward to reading more about it and maybe eating some of that yummy food!

Black Cake is already in the running for my favorite book of 2022 and it is only March.This was such a fantastic read. With multiple points of view, short chapters, and a little mystery Black Cake had everything I love in a book! I would read it for 20 minutes and then put it down because I didn’t want it to end!

Black Cakes opens with two siblings in a lawyers office listening to a recording of their mother’s story. She has recently passed away and wanted her son and daughter to know about her past and the heartbreaking decisions that she had to make along the way.

I encourage you to read Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. This first novel by a new author is outstanding.

Although the story of Covey, a young West Indies girl, certainly is interesting, it is so much more than about her life. Ms. Wilkerson layers in life long friends, family, and the bad things that can happen to people who are perceived as different due to race, gender, choice of life partners, lack of power, or from another country. Whether this happened many years ago, or is still occurring today, it is real and often is not even be recognized or understood by others not in the same situation. Ms. Wilkerson raises awareness in an intriguing, non confrontational way that increases the desire to learn more.

I am thankful to have read Black Cake, and look forward to reading more novels from Ms. Wilkerson in the future.

I honestly didn't think I would love the novel Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson as much as I did. Black Cake begins telling the story of two children who have lost their path, or so they thought. Byron is struggling to bring the family back together but Benny has her own struggles as does Byron. That's okay, because mom knows exactly how to pull them back together and reveal a life that their family has been hiding for decades. Eleanor, through a series of stories reveals her life and struggles her kids knew nothing about. The kids only know what life is now left in memories and photos from their childhood. Kids sometimes forget, parents had lives before they were born.
With giving nothing other than that away, this story had me saddened, crying, cheering, smiling, and so many other feelings. The book itself is divided into 4 parts. The story goes between the past and the present, but each chapter is clearly labeled. The overall narrator of the book is Eleanor but the kids and some of the characters have their voice mixed in the story as well. The chapters are short, some just one page, but the words pack a powerful statement.
I will definitely be recommending Black Cake to others and will be looking for other works by Charmaine Wilkerson. Special thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group and Ballantine Books, and Charmaine Wilkerson for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion. 5 HUGE STARs for me!
#BlackCake #NetGalley

I absolutely fell in love with this novel. Full of so many secrets, twists, love, heart break, and the true meaning of home.

Initially intrigued by the book's premise, I hoped to be pulled into this book. Because of the tragic books I'd read earlier in the month, I found myself without the patience to make it through this family trauma.

Book review: Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Black Cake is a fictional family saga surrounding a Caribbean woman who lives an extraordinary life full of love, loss and secrets and her children that discover exactly who their mother was after her death.

Covey is a young girl abandoned by her mother and raised by her hard gambling Chinese immigrant father on a West Indies island (never named) in the 1960’s. When her father’s gambling debts force her into a corner Covey flees the island and starts over on a new continent. Sixty years later her adult children will find out everything her mother risked to carve out an existence for herself and to give them their privileged lives.

Black Cake is a beautiful human story about the love and culture we pass on to our children even when we don’t tell them everything about ourselves. The Black Cake recipe in both the title and the center of the book belongs to no single place but instead is shaped by the women that embrace it and pass it on to their children. Covey and her children are much the same with ties across the world and to each other. Although this is a story about family there is also a lot of rich historical detail about life on the islands for Chinese immigrants, the men and women who left their tropical paradise for more opportunities, the struggles they faced once there and what it’s like to be the children of high achieving parents.

This is a beautiful novel and I highly recommend it for readers that enjoy stories about complicated families and chasing your dreams.

4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What an incredibly beautiful, well-written story. One could have told this same story from start to finish and it wouldn't have had near the magic. Charmaine Wilderson tells this story in a non-linear fashion, jumping around from character to character, and place to place, letting the story slowly unfold and reveal itself. This telling allowed me to be open and curious, to feel grief and love, and to be totally immersed in Eleanor Bennett’s life. By the time the book was over I felt like a member of the family, and I really wanted to celebrate with some black cake.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books for the digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

First - the cover is gorgeous.
Second- the characters were three dimensional and I cared
Third- the story was transporting and I was fully invested.

I loved this story!!