I was so excited to start this one, but unfortunately, it fell a bit flat for me. I'm not sure if it was the writing or the characters, but I found my mind wandering often while reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review~

Jade is a Twisted Green follows Jade Brown, a woman trying to figure out where she belongs in the world following the mysterious death of her sister. Throughout her journey of healing we are shown her experiences with her lovers and friends. Starting the story as a 24 year old, we see her come into her own as a first-generation Jamaican woman.

This coming of age story was enjoyable and deeply personal. My main complaint is while I normally like a mixed POV in a story, I think I would have preferred this one from only Jade's point of view. I think not knowing who you are is an incredibly terrifying way to feel and having us pulled away from her POV pulled me out of it. I'm not the biggest fan of the polyamory portrayal either. I think there could have been better ways to go about it.

I still think this is a solid read though!

This book gutted me. I was absolutely floored by the story. I hadn't read any of Turton's previous work and incredibly excited to read more. Hearing reviews of friends who I recommended this to, this book has made a lasting impression.

There are many varieties of three-star read for me. This is the ‘some things were great and others weren’t’ variety, which is definitely my preferred sub-category!

So first, what worked for me. The strongest element of this book was Jade’s character arc. There was a real sense of fulfilment and growth by the end, and while I didn’t necessarily like the actions she took to get there, she had a very real, very vivid presence and a satisfying arc. I also really liked the switching perspectives. Each voice felt very distinct, and allowed us to see the characters from different angles and at different points in their lives.

The writing style was hit-and-miss for me. At the start especially, there were some really beautiful, evocative passages. As the book progressed, however, the writing often felt quite repetitive and the ending was a little bit of a let-down for me stylistically. I would be intrigued to read other books by the author though, as it was very readable and at its best was absolutely stunning.

The main thing that didn’t work for me was the relationships between the characters, particularly the romantic relationships. At the end, I realised that I wasn’t sure why Jade wanted to be with either of her love interests, besides the fact that she would tell us how in love she was, or how special she felt. As a reader I didn’t pick up on much, if any, of the emotion behind those relationships, which meant that aspect of the character arcs fell flat for me.

Overall this was an enjoyable read, with a few frustrations here and there, but enough heart for a satisfying conclusion.

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.

2.5

Jade Is a Twisted Green follows Jade, a black queer woman from Toronto, as she deals with grief in the wake of her twin sister's death. Jade is trying to find herself again while processing this grief after she put her entire life on pause. We see her through an array of situations, reconnecting with friends, old lovers, and most importantly herself.

I really enjoyed some aspects of Jade's story. It was very interesting in the beginning, the setting was interesting and the writing flowed beautifully. Jade's grief was also very well written initially, the numbness that follows a loved one's passing was written very well. The first third of the book had me convinced this book would be something I would love. As Jade reconnects with her high school girlfriend, I thought I knew where the story was going, in terms of Jade healing and processing her sorrow.

However, what didn't really work for me was the switching POVs. As I said I thought the beginning was great, but as soon as multiple points of view were added, the story became somewhat choppy. The additional POVs did provide some insight but also were to the detriment of the overall story as the story was supposed to follow Jade's grief and healing and the different POVs didn't add much to it. It also messed a bit with the overall flow of the story, there were too many pauses and switches for it to be seamless. It made Jade's journey a bit detached, a bit distant as the story went on.

Also, I'm not sure how I feel about the way polyamory was handled here. I feel like good communication and mutual consent is the key to a good poly relationship, but I feel both were lacking here. What Jade does was cheating in the name of finding herself, and her partner was obviously not into that which was talked about briefly, but mostly brushed off. And it didn't really get more developed by the end of the book, it stayed pretty surface-level.

Overall, I think I expected something different from this book, but I still think there were some good moments of Jade's journey to healing and finding herself.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me an ARC.

A great book about coming of age in Toronto as a queer Black woman, dealing with grief from losing her twin sister.

JADE IS A TWISTED GREEN is a coming of age story about Jade Brown, who is rediscovering herself after the loss of her twin sister. I loved the overall premise, I just wish it stayed on track with Jade’s journey, instead of switching POVs. While the other POVs were interesting, it made me feel like we didn’t really get to know anyone super well and by the end I didn’t feel especially connected to anyone.
Thank you Dundurn Press, Rare Machines, for the digital copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What a great book and a good one for everyone that wants to read a twisted and actual plot for our modern times.
To me, it was a really surprise plot full of twisted cut lines.
I highly recommend if you want a history so well done written and with so many characters rich constructed.

This was a novel with an ntriguing concept that failed at the execution.

My main issue was with the way the POVs bounced around between people and time - it was confusing and hard to follow at times. (This wasn't helped by the slightly wonky formatting of the ARC, so it might be better in the final published version). I think this story might have worked better if we had stuck with Jade's POV and focused on her, as she did make for an interesting MC.

I also thought the handling of polyamory was clumsily done. Though it does fit Jade as a character, I don't think it was well introduced, as she basically cheats on her partner who believed them to be in a monogamous relationship.

Overall, whilst there were a few parts of the story that truly shined, I was left feeling like it could have been so much better.

I’m not giving this book a star rating because I couldn’t finish it. I tried picking this book up on 4 different occasions, telling myself I’ll come back to it. With each pickup I liked it even less. The story jumped all of the place, had too many POVs (that weren’t labeled or anything when there was a switch) and the writing style felt very disjointed and confusing.

The premise sounded incredible and the cover is gorgeous, but the writing style made this incredibly difficult to grasp.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC to review. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved the storytelling, narrative voice, and the characters felt so real and full.

I stopped reading at about halfway through. I really liked the main character and the story. I just didn't like the writing and I think this book deserves a higher rating than I would have given it.

Oh how I wish I would have enjoyed this more! With such an interesting premise, I thought I was sure to love the book but sadly the writing style often took me right out of the story and I always had a hard time finding the "way back in," so to speak. There were also a few switches between POVs that I didn't quite see as necessary.
While I liked how this book dived deep into grief and queerness, I think that there could have been a bit more depth to it. Really enjoyed the characters, though!
Overall, while this had a great premise, I found the execution a tad lacking.

such a great book about coming of age in toronto as a queer black woman, dealing with grief from losing her twin sister. the characters were truly amazing, jade especially, and the writing style was just superb.

Loved this so so much. It was perfect. This author will be a new auto buy for me. Love love loved it.

I didn't really have any expectation when I started this book, which is how I like it because I don't like to be affected by the opinions of others.

Yet somehow, I felt like it somehow wasn't really what I expected anyway. I just couldn't get into the writing style. I could appreciate that there was some really good explorations of different topics and that it should be a solid coming-of-age and more, but I struggled with the writing style too much to enjoy that. I feel like I might try again with this some other time. Maybe the mood wasn't quite right, I'm not sure.

This book had me somewhat conflicted. I liked the premise, the writing, and the characters, but for the first half of the book I felt adrift, unsure if the story had really started yet. My dilemma is, am I okay with feeling adrift in a book about a character who is adrift on her grief? I’m still not sure.
The reason I felt confused was that the title and blurb focused on Jade, but I found myself spending equal time with Amethyst, Tayja and Morgan. They were all likeable, interesting characters, but none of them had a clear story arrow to direct the book forward, and I didn’t quite feel that I ‘got’ how their stories influenced Jade’s in the same way I have for other books with an ensemble cast like this.
Then half way through, big events suddenly happen. Events that had me shouting at Jade, even though they were shown as positive. Thing is, I had nothing to root for but the Jade/Tayja relationship and that seemed to be going down the pan.
Jade’s story kept me pulled in after that, because I had direct questions I wanted answered about how it would turn out for her. I don’t want to give too much away, but I read the second half much faster than the first, and the ending felt fitting.

I requested this because it felt like my jam and would be something I’d enjoy. This story had a good message, unfortunately I didn’t like the execution much. It took long for me to get used to the writing style, most jarring were the sudden change in POVs that I’m not entirely sure were relevant. If the goal was to give more background to a character, it didn’t help much. The characters weren’t that bad per se, though they were more one dimensional than anything. They didn’t have much depth, neither did the themes which could have been explored better. I wasn’t able to connect to the story the way I wanted to, everything I’ve mentioned had a factor to that but the extremely quick way things progressed with superficial narration probably played the biggest factor to my indifference; it was just something I could not ignore or let slide.

I don’t hate this book, I think the writing style and prose just wasn’t for me.

I'm not going to lie I requested this book mostly because of the comp to [book:Honey Girl|49362138] which I adored when I read it last year and it might have made me go in with too high of expectations.

This is a coming of age book and it grapples with grief and queerness and identity and being a first generation Canadian. I liked the thematic work and I really liked Jade; however, I do not really understand why there were multiple POVs. The summary makes it seem like this book will be about Jade and it is. She is the main character but throughout the book we get perspectives from other people that are important to her and I think the coming of age narrative would have been more successful if it was 100% from her perspective.

That being said, I did overall enjoy this. I liked the patois and the way we saw Jade's relationships with Amethyst and Tay and Morgan change throughout the book. I also liked watching Jade come to terms with her sister's death and come out of the rut that so many millennials seem to find themselves in post-university.

Overall, I loved the concept which was sort of Honey Girl meets [book:You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty|59232998] (I have not yet read Queen which is the other comp in the summary) but the writing was not nearly as lyrical as either Morgan Rogers or Akwaeki Emezi. I would be interested to see how Tanya Turton's prose evolves in her sophomore novel though!

You should know two things:
1) I didn't have any pre-existing expectations going into reading this book.
2) While reading it, I felt like this book came into my life at the right moment, so this review will be very subjective.

A coming-of-age story about Jamaican Canadian identity, love, passion, chosen family, and rediscovering life’s pleasures after loss.

That's actually a pretty good summary for the story. But it is also so much more.
As someone who moved to another country with her mother when she was young, coming to terms with one's identity is still a prevalent topic for me and most definitely will remain so. Reading about the struggles of the characters in this book was as upsetting as it was comforting.

This book is not perfect by any means, but it's entertaining, heart-breaking, thought-provoking, surprising... and just real. I swear, the amount of times I had tears in my eyes...
Initially, I was sceptical, because it's not written just from Jade's perspective—which is important to know—and it kind of threw me off, but after a while I understood why the decision has been made and supported it. The past of some characters wouldn't have had the impact they did if they were told from Jade's POV.
And I underlined so many beautifully written passages, it's crazy.
Also essential to know: Some characters speak in the patois language, which can be hard to read at first, but you can get used to it. Don't let that put you off.

Some random thoughts:
⇝ I wonder if Rose's fascination with crystals came from Jade's name, or if Jade was also re-named by Roze, and we never found out?
⇝ The spiritual elements in the book... let's just say it wasn't for me. I just... don't believe in it, I'm sorry. But I get that it's defining for the characters and maybe for their culture, so, in the end, it was fine. As readers, we don't have to agree with everything the characters do, or think, or believe in, but we can accept.
⇝ Thank god, the temperature was written in degree Celsius!
⇝ Sometimes the book felt like a mindfulness training because of the topics it covered, or because of the way it was written. I actually really liked it.
⇝ I loved that the question of identity as a bisexual person was part of the story. It was wonderful to read about it. And I think it was handled beautifully.

Definitely recommend!
But you should read over the trigger warnings first, just in case you don't want to stumble over some sensitive topics.