I don't usually go for books written in prose, just because I don't really "click" with the format. The description of this one, though, made me decide to take a chance on it, and I am so glad I did.
The story is captivating and beautiful and heartbreaking, all at once. The prose is lyrical and haunting. I know next to nothing about Caribbean folklore, so this was such a treat to discover.
3.5 stars, rounded up
Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Imagine you are a creature of Caribbean folklore - a soucouyant or lougarou, a shape-shifting witch who sheds her skin every new moon and hunts the souls of those who have wronged you during the month. Imagine being that - but also an undocumented migrant in Brooklyn? Or the mixed-race daughter of an anthropology professor who made it his life's work to put those legends to the scientific test? Your skin problems must be eczema, you think. Or gluten intolerance, what else could it be?

This story follows two teenage girls who are just that. Marisol, who has just arrived in New York with her mother from the islands, and who has yet to decide which prejudice she "prefers" to suffer from: that of the magic-believing people back home (where both were shunned as "witches") or that of the racialized hierarchy in the U.S. (where what is available to them is very much defined by the markers society has placed on them: "black", "immigrant", "poor", "undocumented"). Genevieve, on the other hand, seems to live a life of privilege, the daughter of a college professor, but she never knew her mother and grew up as the only half-black person in her father's and stepmother's family, which now includes two baby half-siblings, lacking any connection to the culture that would help her make sense of herself.

What comes to mind when you think of novels in verse? I have to admit that I imagine something from the time of Lord Byron, which I appreciate for its historical value, but which I hardly reach for out of personal interest. It turns out that a novel in verse can even take the form of a contemporary YA fantasy, and to quite a powerful effect! Where prose would be too concrete of a medium, free verse here allows for half-capturing, half-hinting at what should never be put into a fully defined form, but should remain in-com-pro-hen-sible.

As good poetry can do, this novel touches on so much more than its main fantasy plot about magic. It is also about motherhood and generational dynamics, about displacement and belonging... "We have left the place where we make sense," the heroine muses, and (as someone who has been thinking a lot about various displacement narratives lately) I think this is such a great way to capture the feeling that many of them share.

However, there is one question that I would like to raise here, not as a criticism, but out of pure curiosity: why does the author choose to present Caribbean cultures as a homogeneous continuum, and to list the ways in which, for example, the folklore of Haiti, Trinidad, and Jamaica refers to the mythical creature in question as a list of synonyms, rather than locating the story in the specificity of one culture? All the events "back home" are referred to as having taken place somewhere on the islands, again without any geographical specificity. As the author is a native of Haiti and not an outsider prone to generalizations out of ignorance, I am sure there were good reasons for this choice, but what are they, other than greater accessibility for those ignorant outsiders among the readers (like myself), I really wonder.

4,5 stars.

Publication date Feb 11, 2025.

I am grateful to HarperCollins for providing me with a free eARC of this title through NetGalley; the opinions expressed are entirely my own.

This book was so many things all at the same time until I can’t quite put into words how I was feeling as I read it. I’m so glad I decided to read this one. Great read!!

Well, what the fuck… that ending is a trip and I don’t know how I feel about it. I really loved the mythology and the stories and so many good-interesting things happening with the storytelling. I really liked the way the third part was such a mash-up of Marisol and Genevieve. Absolutely giving me thinky-thoughts and really not sure about the ending…