Some secrets you hide from your children as you think it is better that way. Eleanor Bennett passes away and leaves her children a black cake in the freezer with a note saying they will know when it is time to share it. Then a video message to them explaining that they have a sister.

Charles will help the children learn all that their mother and father went through to build a life together. They will learn all the secrets of the past and discover a family they never knew they had.

A very heartfelt story of love, loss, friendship, and family.

I'm an incredibly picky reader. Most descriptions of books don't really suck me in so I end up trying and stopping a lot of fiction books. Black Cake wasn't one of those books. This story had many twists and turns and kept me engaged for several days. Some days, I had to force myself to stop reading so I could get sleep. I enjoyed the narrative pace that jumped back and forth through time to tell one complete story. Black Cake is easily one of my favorite books that I've read in a very long time.

When Elenor Bennett passes away her two kids are left a recording that will change their lives forever. She wasn’t at all who they thought she was and they are left to put together pieces of the secrets she left behind.
The will also be left to examine their own lives and what they mean to one another.

This is a great story about family and that sometimes there are real struggles with those we love the most. Sometimes those closest to us don’t understand us and the walls we build are hard to overcome. In this family drama story the theme centralizes around black cake…a recipe passed down from a heritage these siblings didn’t even know they had. Through open eyes, open hearts and a slice of black cake maybe they can overcome these high walls that have been built around them.

The publishing world might as well take the rest of 2022 off, because I don’t see how anything could possibly top Black Cake. It’s perfect. It’s a dream. It’s incredible. It’s a DEBUT?! Are you kidding me?! Charmaine Wilkerson is absolutely brilliant and I want ten more novels from her immediately. This was such a rich and layered story and I loved the slow burn of it all. Deep and complex family sagas are kind of my kryptonite and this one almost took me all the way out. I really don’t know of anyone who doesn’t somehow fall into the audience for this book—there’s something for everyone. I’m calling now that this will be on every “best of” list this year. It will certainly be on mine!

Thank you for this ARC! I enjoyed this debut novel! The characters were people you rooted for and the story was a bit of a page turner. However, it did feel too long at times, like the story could have been told much quicker. This does not take away from the overall charm and I think this is an important story to tell and to read. It would be great for a book club or even a culinary club. The references to food and culture were one of the best parts! I am excited to see how this book is adapted for TV, especially since Oprah's name is attached to it!

A decent story that is really bogged down by it's length and lack of direction. It starts off pretty strong, but eventually meanders all over the place and tries to fit 500 different story lines into one. It also doesn't help that the last third of the book is pretty much revealed in earlier chapters and you just have to slog through them to get to an end you already know is going to happen. I also felt it a little hard to like any of the characters and thus couldn't really get invested in their stories. If only it ended at the half way point it could have been a lot stronger.

I’m feeling a little out of sorts with this one… I thought I would love it based on other reviews I read, but it was not my favorite. I thought the story dragged at times, and was quite long. I struggled to keep up because I felt like the story jumped around more than I would like. The characters were just okay… I don’t think this one was for me.

The story telling is just wonderful.
The book explores family relationships and buried secrets. It teaches us that life is too short for disagreements and resentments.
I absolutely loved this book.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books for the copy of this book. This is a beautiful story of secrets, determination, love, race, the oceans, and identity. The first thing that drew me in was the beautiful writing. The words flowed so well I had a hard time putting this book down. Even as more characters and stories appeared I kept reading because of the writing. Not a word was wasted because everything came together in the end. I am not sure I ever really connected to any of the characters until later in the book. When I did connect, I loved Benny, Eleanor, and Byron as well as many of the other assortment of people we met. I loved how each story intertwined. The story was intriguing and multi-faceted. This is a fascinating debut book that you should read if you are looking for an immersive reading experience.

**Many thanks to NetGalley, Kathleen Quinlan at Ballantine, and Charmaine Wilkerson for an ARC of this book!**

Black Cake at its core is the story of Eleanor Bennett as related to her children, estranged siblings Byron and Benny. But Eleanor’s story comes in a strange package: a voice recording, left to her children upon her death. As the tape plays, what unfolds is the story of an extraordinary life. Island dreams and family rupture. Lost friendship and found identity. As Byron and Benny hear their mother’s tales for the first time, they discover not only who Eleanor was, but how they’ve come to their current places in the world—and how they might thaw the coldness that had grown between them.

A beautifully written book about family and how we can tear each other apart by protecting those closest to us and come back together if we are lucky enough. In this debut novel, Charmaine Wilkerson weaves a story of love, loss and the traditions that hold us together. A wonderful book club pick with many discussions to be had.

HOW IS THIS A DEBUT?! I love a novel rooted in family conflict and Black Cake is a masterclass in it. Definitely not a fast read by any stretch of the imagination, this book is best savored when you can really dedicate the time to it.

Siblings Byron and Benny Bennett are brought together to listen to the eight hour audio that their mother, Eleanor Bennett, recorded before she passed. As their mother begins to speak, Byron and Benny realize that they didn't know their mother at all as she had many secrets leaving them to wonder about their own lives. Their mother's story is sad and shocking and Byron and Benny struggle to accept the new information. Black Cake is a constant through their lives. Their mother carried the recipe from her youth in the Caribbean and made Black Cake many times through the years, Byron and Benny understood the significance of Black Cake and the love and comfort it brought to their mother in sharing the cake with them. Although Bryon and Benny were grateful to learn their mother's secrets, they were left with many questions that left them reeling. Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson began slowly, but as the Eleanor Bennet's story unfolded, I was entranced. Thank you to Kathleen Quinlan at Penguin Random House and Net Galley for an ARC of Black Cake.

This debut novel is stunning. A blend of historical and literary fiction, this intergeneration story follows (mostly) two timelines: the 1960s in the Caribbean, and present day California. We start in present day, meeting estranged siblings Byron and Benny, who are forced together after eight years of not speaking when their mother dies and leaves a recording she's required them to listen to together. In it, she shares her history, a history her children never knew, flashing us back to the other timeline and how it intersects with the present. While the overarching story is about their mother and her life, listening to her recording is also interspersed with getting Benny and Byron's perspectives, learning more about their lives and what led them to not speak for the better part of a decade.

In my reading tracker spreadsheet, I often add short notes about how I'm feeling immediately after finishing a book, and for this one I wrote, "Not me sobbing at 1am again." Honestly, intergenerational family drama is always going to pique my interest, but the structure, pacing, and craft of this story especially worked for me. The emotional beats, of when to bounce from timeline to timeline, when to reveal certain aspects or histories of a particular character, were spot on. Most importantly for me, though, is that I didn't feel intentionally or needlessly emotionally manipulated, which is a challenging balance to strike. (And why I will likely never read things like A Little Life.) It made me think about family and memory and sacrifice and regret and reconciliation and hope. And those last few hit me right when I needed it.

I've seen a couple of reviews calling this an "issues" book or that the approach was "kitchen sink." I have to say I completely disagree. Just because there are plot points that deal with sticky, challenging subjects, that doesn't make it unbelievable or unrealistic or less impactful as a book. There are people who DO deal with sexual assault and with racism and with family neglect and with being coerced into decisions they regret, who have friends who were persecute for being queer, who have parents who were derided for marrying interracially. Just because those concepts happening all to one person feels unlikely TO YOU doesn't mean the book is at fault. The thing that's most unrealistic to me is the murder charge, and that doesn't seem to be what anyone takes issue with.

My one critique would be that I found it a little bit confusing tracking what of the "then" information was included in the recording from Eleanor to Benny and Byron, and what was included for the reader. But that didn't bother me enough to rate it less than five stars, because it is just that impactful.

I can't wait to see what more we get from Charmaine Wilkerson.

CW: parent death, chronic illness, murder, family separation, queerphobia/biphobia, domestic violence, rape, racism

Black Cake was a unique and beautiful account of a woman's life in all its painful and brutal honesty. When Eleanor Bennett dies she leaves behind two children, Byron and Benny and their broken relationship. She also leaves them all her secrets and they are plentiful. Their mother wasn't exactly who they thought she was. There was a great deal more to her story than they ever knew.

Eleanor Bennett's story is told in flashbacks from varying points in time. In addition, we get different perspectives on the story by being given different viewpoints from several characters throughout the book. This lends to a rich and thorough flow of information. Even though I liked and enjoyed this about the book, many people may not. It is a lot to keep up with and can frustrate some readers. It's all about preferences. I did find that due to the number of characters involved, it was difficult to truly feel invested.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

Family secrets, mystery, tragedy, betrayals, and traditional blake cake.

This is a multi-generational story told in different timelines that mainly focuses on the life of Eleanor Bennett. The chapters are short and even though different characters get introduced a lot, the author is good at weaving together everyone in the story.

The only reason why I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 is because it dragged a little bit for me. It was still a highly enjoyable read and I loved it, I just felt that it could have been a smidge shorter.

Thank you Ballantine and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I can see why this was not only one of this month's Book of the Month choices but also Reese Witherspoon's Book Club as well! I really enjoyed this family saga - and I am really grateful that the publisher directly invited me to read the one! The book opens with the death of Byron and Benny's mother. Her lawyer reveals that he has an audio recording from her- all of the secrets that she could't bring herself to share while she was alive - including the existence of an older sister that neither of them ever suspected anything at all about. Spanning decades, the story unfolds in a way that makes it impossible to put down! The short chapters make it easy to justify just one more. And though I didn't listen to this one on audio, I imagine that the audio version would be just as great.

Having spent the last forty years in Southern California, Byron and Benny's parents are from the Caribbean - but they have never returned. The recording reveals the reasons why. Going back to the 1960s, all the way to 2018 (a year that I think a lot of recent fiction is stuck in as "the present"), the story takes the reader to multiple continents and explores relationships, the legacy of home and family. The characters all fully come to life here and while readers may correctly guess some aspects of the plot, there are still surprises, here. It's a satisfying story that rather neatly comes together. And it's certainly an impressive debut novel - though I must admit, I wish that the recipe for the famous titular cake was included here! I am curious to see what Wilkerson will write next!

Thanks to Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion, Black Cake had me hooked from beginning to end. The way the author wrote the siblings made me really connect to each of them. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone who loves to read!!

I’ve seen Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel Black Cake on several lists of the most-anticipated releases of 2022 and, after reading the description, I jumped to add it to my own TBR pile. Delving into the repercussions of family secrets on family relationships and personal identity, Black Cake also looks at the societal influences that create the conditions that start and perpetuate such impactful secrets. Having spent so much time in 2021 catching up on listening to the Family Secrets podcast, I was primed to appreciate this novel (and for the most part, I thoroughly did).

It’s been eight years since Benedetta “Benny” Bennet has been home to see her family and now it looks like it’s too late. Her father died a few years earlier, now her mother is gone too and Byron clearly wants nothing to do with her. But their mother’s lawyer explains that she had some final wishes for the two of them to carry out together. First, listen to a recording she made before her death that will reveal the completely unexpected truth about who she was (and who they are) and second, to share the final, traditional black cake she baked them ‘when the time is right.’ Their mother’s revelations about how she came to be Eleanor Bennet send both Benny and Byron spinning, questioning their interactions with their parents, with each other, and how they’ve come to see themselves and their place in the world.

The ocean holds a significant symbolic role in the novel and the way Wilkerson sets up the narrative structure plays into that symbolism well too. Time and perspective ebb and flow, shifting, rising and falling as they carry the reader along. It keeps the story moving at a steady clip but also forces the reader to actively engage with the action, especially early in the novel, as it takes a little while for the pieces to start falling into place. And while there are a lot of horrifying and tragic events in the lives of the characters, the narrative doesn’t tend to dwell on the details of the events as much as their repercussions and the joy that the characters managed to find even in the midst of what happened. Wilkerson’s approach makes the story about survival, about growing and evolving, rather than getting caught up too much in the negative without glossing over, ignoring or erasing the negative.

Because there are so many characters and so many perspectives, Wilkerson is able to touch upon a wide range of social and political topics – colonialism and slavery, structural racism, sexual identity, even environmental issues – in a way that shows how much they’re woven into everyday life. For some, they’re a main focus – part of their life’s work. For others with different backgrounds and experiences, certain things go completely unnoticed – and situations that scream out to those more aware may not just be missed by those who are more unaware, but misinterpreted contributing to rifts in personal relationships.

If I have one criticism, it’s that I think the novel went a little too long and wrapped things up a little too neatly. Everything in that extended ending was clearly set up along the way – certain threads of the story were clearly going to come up again later. At the same time though, there was a place where, to me at least, things felt like they came to a very natural and comfortable conclusion… but then there was another fifty pages. It was like watching The Return of the King the first time with all those fades to black that you thought were the end but then there was a little more and then a little more. It made the final, true ending a little underwhelming (and some of the threads that were brought back to get fully wrapped up just didn’t feel important enough by that point and it started to get too conveniently neat given just how realistically messy everything else had been along the way).

I wanted to like this more than I did and I’m glad I waited for the audiobook version or I would not have finished it. Lord knows I love a mystery and a dual time period novel. Had a hard time getting my footing in the story with all of the back and forth. I skipped around from 50% to the end to find out what happened. Black Cake is well-written but long and rambling for my taste.

I included this title in Apartment Therapy's monthly new book listicle! You can find it here: https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/best-book-february-2022-37031440