This story was very relevant and timely to the current climate of the world, especially when it comes to racial injustice and women’s health inadequacy. I thought the past and present sections, with international experiences was nicely done.

I loved Charlene Carr's Hold My Girl, so I knew that We Rip the World Apart would be full of emotion and dynamic characters. It met my expectations and took me on a gripping emotional journey with Kareela as she navigates a surprise pregnancy at 24 years old.

Through Kareela's experience, Carr guides us through the generations of her family experiencing the oppression of people of color in Canada. This book is very heavy and very well written. I encourage you to look at content warnings before jumping in.

I truly enjoy how multi-dimensional Carr's characters are and how believably they handle trauma, grief, and difficult decisions. This book does such an excellent job of putting the reader into the emotions of a family torn apart by racism and violence, while ending with a strong thread of hope.

OVERALL RATING: 3.75 STARS
I may have enjoyed this book more if I had read it instead of listening to the audiobook. There is one narrator, and while she did an excellent job switching between no accent and a Jamaican accent, there was little narrating difference for the other characters. That did take away from my enjoyment of the audiobook.

The overall story was timely and interesting. I am not from Canada, so it was interesting to read a book about racism in a country different from my own.
The story covers several different timelines. All dealing with racism, assimilation, sexism, and loss and grief, for 3 generations of women. The story also explores the complexities of being bi-racial and self-identity and blackness.
It is a multi-generational story (Kareela, Evelyn and Violet) and we watch these women struggle with choices many women face in motherhood, dating and marriage.
At times, I think this book tries to do to much and incorporate too many themes, which results in part of the book falling flat.
I would recommend the book, over the audiobook.

We Rip the World Apart is a multigenerational story told from different perspectives and timelines. Kareela is 24 years old and just found out she’s pregnant. Unsure if she wants to have a baby, she’s also trying to understand her identity and her family history. We also get the perspectives of her mother and grandmother and learn more of their family history.

This is a story about coming of age, understanding where you fit in and how to be fully yourself, decisions on motherhood, how race impacts your identity, the things we don’t know about the people we are closest to - it’s very difficult to summarize in a brief review but this was a compelling read. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free audiobook.

One of those multigenerational novels that teaches you a lot about the human experience and rips your heart out in the process.
Beautifully written.
Follows different women in the same family to paint a story of generational trauma and how it manifests in everyone.
Definitely character driven and slower paced but easily binge able and unforgettable

Thank to netgalley for an eARC.

When Evelyn and her husband fled to Canada from Jamaica in the 1980s, they were to find that their new country did not quite live up to expectations. At least, not in terms of how black men and their families were perceived.

Suppressed pain and family secrets flavour the complex environment in which Evelyn's daughter, Kareela, grows up. And while their family circumstances eventually provide her with an opportunity to explore her origins, she struggles with her identity and the decisions she must make.

This is a multigenerational tale of what family ties mean, the power of memory, and the strength of the women who are the keepers of family legacies.

WE RIP THE WORLD APART by Charlene Carr

Thank you @recordedbooks for my #gifted copy.

📖 We Rip the World Apart is a sweeping, multi-generational novel, spanning from the 1980s to the present day, focusing on the experiences of three women, each grappling with the pervasive impact of racism.

💭 Powerful, wise, and emotionally charged, We Rip the World Apart is a thought-provoking, multilayered novel that explores themes of motherhood, generational trauma, racism, colorism, interracial relationships, politics, activism, and social justice. Perfect for fans of Charmaine Wilkerson and Brit Bennett!

🎧 The narrator, Tebby Fisher, breaths life into these characters and this story, and was a pleasure to listen to. While I did have to pay close attention to the change in perspectives as it wasn't always clear by the narration, this is not uncommon with single-narrator stories. That said, it may have benefited from multiple narrators.

All in all, this was a deeply moving novel that I'd absolutely recommend!

📌 Available now!

I just finished We Rip the World Apart by Charlene Carr and here are my musings. I listened to the audiobook and read the e-version.

Imagine being 24 and pregnant and not knowing if you want to bring your child into a world that has taken so much from you. This is Kareela, she doesn’t feel black enough and she doesn’t feel white enough. She feels like she has straddled two worlds but is a part of neither. After her brother was murdered by the police as a child, her family was never the same again. Her Canadian mother never got over the loss and her Jamaican father hit the bottle. Her grandmother was the person who was there for her… Her heart and her family are in shatters and trying to find any path to take a first step on, is the scariest thing she has ever had to do.

This book follows two timelines and POV. We get Kareela in the present and her mother Evelyn in the past.

Firstly, the audiobook was amazing. The narration was top notch.

This book hit me in a way I can’t really articulate. I could never imagine this kind of loss and the feeling of not belonging. Kareela not only doesn’t know who she is in the world but she has the added sadness of feeling like she doesn’t have a family that sees her. Her family fractured the day her brother was killed and she had to grow up fast. Both of her parents may as well have died too considering they basically forgot they had a living child. My heart aches so much. The trouble with me is the whole pregnancy and whether she wants the child purely because the man she is with is white. She allowed his skin color to prejudice her own feelings, well thats how it felt for a good portion of the book but finding out that she didn’t know who she was because she had spent her time bending to make him more comfortable, I had a major lightbulb moment. I understand that it was done for a reason but I felt a little annoyed with her for a majority of the book then I felt really guilty.

This book shows you that your side of what you are feeling based on a situation isn’t always the same as the other person. All 3 women had their own reasons for doing what they did but it had negative effects on others. Honestly I was really drawn into Evelyn’s story and it helped me to understand Kareela more.

This book highlights the fears that POC had then and how those fears are still here today. It’s horrible. I cannot imagine what that must be like to have these kinds of fears on a daily basis. Fear of someone making assumptions over the color of someone else's skin.

This book hit me in a really profound way. It was beautifully written and did a wonderful job of weaving the kind of story that needs to be said loud enough for the people in the back to hear.

4.5 stars
Thank you @netgalley @sourcebooks @recordedbooks for my gifted copies

A beautiful, heartbreaking story about three generations of Caribbean-Canadian women struggling with racism and tragedy while navigating motherhood and finding their place in the world. It's an emotional read, gorgeously told, and the narrator has perfect delivery.

We Rip The World Apart is a complicated, winding story that follows one family as they try and come to terms with terrible loss and the impact it has on all of their lives.

24-year-old Kareela is pregnant. She isn't sure if she wants to keep the baby, and she also isn't sure if she wants to stay with her boyfriend. To add to all of this, she's never really felt like she belongs. Too black to be white and too white to be black, she has struggled to find a place where she fits without compromising an aspect of her identity. Then there is her relationship with her mother, or the lack of one.

In the past, we get the story of Kareela's mother Evelyn. Originally from Canada, she moved to Jamaica to start a new life, meeting the man who would become her husband and having a child with him. But when violence grows, her young family decide to move back to Canada, believing they will be safe there. Except they aren't, because her husband and son are black and treated with suspicion.

This book is desperately sad. Hopeless, at times. Because as a reader you know in part where it is heading and no matter how much you wish it wouldn't, it does. An aspect that worked well was the overwhelming sense of loss and pain. This family went through too much, and the worst part is they are hardly the only family to go through experiences like this. All of the characters were imperfect and their actions frustrated me at times. I think that's what makes them human. They aren't either all good or all bad. They are people who sometimes made bad choices with awful consequences. And sometimes they did nothing wrong at all, but horrible things still happened because that is life. It is not always kind.

Having said all of this, there was something missing with this book. I found Evelyn's actions particularly frustrating and I could never quite decide if her actions were justified or not. There was a part of me that wasn't sure if she deserved forgiveness, and particularly towards the end I felt like the author threw in a dramatic twist so that we had to feel sorry for her. I can't help feeling that the book would have been better without it. More complex. More nuanced. Less intentional regarding who was right and who was wrong. It almost felt like one thing too many, and without spoilers, it was a fairly significant event that either deserved more attention than it received and to be the centre of a story, or it shouldn't have been included, because it took something away from the story that we already had.

I read another review that mentioned how the black characters, particularly the black men, were sidelined in this story. It is a story where what happens to them shapes everything, and yet we spend very little time with them. On the one hand I understand that this was a story about the women in this family, but I also understand this perspective and definitely felt it at times. I described this book as complicated and it certainly is, as are my feelings about it. Once I'd started reading it I didn't want to put it down, and I picked it up to read a little more whenever I could. So I would definitely read another book by this author.

Special thanks to the author, @bookmarked for my gifted copy, & @recordedbooks for my ALC‼️

I have to give it to Ms.Carr she is without a doubt an amazing writer. If you’ve read Hold My Girl then you’ll understand why I say that after reading this book. She knows how to craft a story that will pull you in and fiddle with your emotions and make you think. Her stories and characters are always so complex to the point you don’t know if you should be angry with them for their choices or sympathize with them because certain things are out of their control.

The novel follows Kareela as she struggles to find her place in the world. Born half-Black and half-white she doesn’t feel she belongs or fits into either ethnic group. Then coming from a family who raised her to conform to society in order to make others comfortable. Kareela has lost her sense of identity and now being pregnant with a child she doesn’t know if she wants this kind of life for her baby.

When I first started reading this I literally had to restart the book out of confusion not realizing that all of the characters were connected. I did not agree with many of Evelyn’s choices for most of the book but in the end I found myself sympathizing with her a little. I felt she turned a blind eye to the experiences lived by her son Antony and daughter Kareela way too much.

It’s like she wanted to make the racism and discrimination they encountered less than what it was. Always making an excuse or having a reason for why someone may have stereotyped them. She couldn’t teach them what it meant to be Black (Jamaican) or how to carry themselves only how to blend in and not draw unwanted attention. Then their father Kingsley was a different story smh!!!

Overall, I did enjoy this book just not as much as Hold My Girl but it’s still a very thought-provoking read. The author delved deep into themes of motherhood, race, police brutality, self-identity, and generational trauma. If you’re looking for a good multigenerational story add this to your TBR.

Rating: 4.5/5⭐️

This book was phenomenal I went into it knowings very little, if any, of the crime that was happening in Jamaica during the time of this book. The back and forth between time and the 3 main characters was perfect. So heartbreaking in parts but the character growth from it was so good. Truly an eye opening experience.

Kareela Jackson is the daughter of a white Canadian mom and a black Jamaican father. We Rip the World Apart looks deeply into her identity - the challenges and traumas her family experienced that shaped her upbringing and her current 24-year-old self. Part coming of age story, part family drama, with deep dives into race, identity, and culture, We Rip the World Apart makes you step into the characters’ lives, building empathy and understanding for one family’s experience over the decades.

Thank you Sourcebooks for my #gifted copy and thank you Recorded Books for my #gifted listening copy of We Rip The World Apart! #sourcebooks #bookmarked #sourcebookslandmark #WeRipTheWorldApart #CharleneCarr #RecordedBooks #rbmedia

𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: 𝗪𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝗽 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗿
𝗡𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿: 𝗧𝗲𝗯𝗯𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿
𝗣𝘂𝗯 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: 𝗝𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟴, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 - 𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝗡𝗼𝘄!

𝟱★

This book left me speechless. It is an extremely emotional and powerful multi-generational story about motherhood, race, family dynamics, and secrets. We Rip The World Apart is told in multiple timelines, with multiple POVs. Kareela, a 24 year old biracial woman who is pregnant and unsure if she wants to keep the baby. She has just learned more about the death of her brother, who was shot by the police a long time ago, and is unsure of how she fits in with those around her. Her mother, Evelyn, has many secrets of her own. She fled to Canada with her husband and their first born child from Jamaica during the politically charged exodus in the 1980s. Violet, Evelyn’s mother-in-law, moved in after the murder to help the family and served as a link between Kareela and her Jamaican heritage. In the present day, Kareela must determine if she is going to keep her baby, after everything she finds out about family and the past.

This is an emotionally charged read. There is so much grief and trauma packed into this book. It is so heartbreaking at times. It is not an easy read. It’s not meant to be. But it’s the type of book that you can still find hope in. Carr is a beautiful storyteller and I loved watching this one unfold. You will not want to miss this one.

This book would make an excellent book club pick, with dynamic discussions. If you enjoyed Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson, I think you will enjoy this book too!

🎧I read this book both with my ears and my eyes. Tebby Fisher was so dynamic in her role as narrator. In this multiple POV book, she did an excellent job distinguishing each character and I loved my time listening to her bring each character to life. Fisher made me fall even more in love with this book, and I cannot recommend the audio enough!

Posted on Goodreads on January 28, 2025: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram - Full Review- on or around January 28, 2025: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on January 28, 2025
**-will post on designated date

𝑊𝑒 𝑅𝑖𝑝 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝐴𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 is a story of race, identity, acceptance, grief, and trauma. What I can say about Charlene Carr is that she knows how to tell a story and weave the past and present together to engage her readers, keeping them in the story. I absolutely loved her novel 𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑀𝑦 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙 last year, and while this one read a bit differently, I loved it too. Told from multiple POVs from Kareela, a biracial girl in search of her place in the world while dealing with a huge decision, her mother Evelyn who is dealing with grief and trauma past and present. It also sprinkles in the POV of Violet who brings added depth to the story as well.

I paired this one with the audiobook of course and loved that version as well. I enjoyed the Jamaican accent of Violet and what it brought to the story’s past. The audio was an added piece to hear Kareela and Evelyn’s voices as they make the most difficult decisions and deal with the hardships. I will say I had a love hate relationship with Evelyn’s character given some of the choices she made in the story, but I also have a slight understanding for her decisions by the end. I was a little conflicted.

I read 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐌𝐲 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥 by @charlenecarr back in 2023. It is a powerful and heartbreaking story about infertility and a life-changing mistake. After I finished the book, I couldn’t wait to see what she wrote next.

Wow! To say she did not disappoint is an understatement! In 𝐖𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐀𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭, through her beautiful and raw storytelling, Charlene Carr gives us the perspective of multiple generations of women.

It is about motherhood, about loss, and love. But other themes explored run much deeper and darker such as racism, trauma, and fear - both of choices and their consequences.

This story is about heartbreak, anger, grief, and injustice, but also about hope. It may make some people uncomfortable; it may challenge our perceptions or beliefs. Written with such passion and insight, I was struck by the nuggets of wisdom —such as the fact that our best intentions do not always equal truth — that will stay with me.


🎧 Listening to the audiobook narrated by Tebby Fisher was incredibly moving and emotional.

Thank you @bookmarked for these gifted books #weriptheworldapart #holdmygirl #sourcebooksinfluencer
Thank you @recordedbooks #RBmedia for the gifted audiobook. #audiobook

Haunting, complex, and relevant.

4.5 stars rounded up.

Happy publication day to this gem of a novel!

Poignant and moving, heartbreaking and thought-provoking, infuriating and undeniably relevant, this novel about motherhood, trauma - both generational and acute -, race, identity, secrets, and grief tells the story of three generations of women trying to find their place - and their voice - in an unjust world.

Kareela, the biracial daughter of a Black Jamaican father and a white Canadian mother, suspects she might be expecting, and her feelings about the pregnancy are complicated at best. Her mother, Evelyn, fled the violence of Jamaica in the 1980s and escaped to Canada with her husband Kingsley and their son Anthony, only to find that injustice is the same everywhere. And Evelyn’s Jamaican mother-in-law, Violet, came to Kareela’s rescue when Evelyn - and her whole world - fell apart.

“We Rip the World Apart“ moves seamlessly between the three women’s points of view and timelines in the 1980s, 1990s and present-day Canada. The writing is both flawless and haunting, and I found myself deeply engrossed by the complex and compelling stories of these women.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Tebby Fisher, who did an outstanding job of voicing the three women and their stories.

Many thanks to NetGalley and RBmedia | Recorded Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

„We Rip the World Apart“ releases on January 28, 2025.

This book is set across the lives of two women set in the 80's, 90's and modern day and tells the story of these bi-racial women and their lives as they try to figure out where they belong, in a world with so many struggles and racism still being so prevalent.

This is abeautifully written book, that is thoughtful, considered and raw.

The book is about motherhood, family, belonging, grief, trauma, healing in the face of adversity and systemic racism.

Charlene Carr is an amazing story teller, who gets to the heart of the characters instantly and had me hooked, with the wonderful narration by Tebby Fisher, who really bought the book alive.

Go read / listen to this wonderful story that will Rip your heart out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

I found this a bit melodramatic but good with multiple respeactability politics style viewpoints. This is told in alternating timelines and with alternating point of view chapter characters.

Evelyn's story opens in the mid 80's in Toronto but bounces back into her childhood in Nova Scotia and time as a newly married woman in Jamaica. Her chapters move forward until the late '00s. She's white, married to a Black man, Kinglsey, and has 2 kids: Antony & Kareela.

Kareela's story is set in 2022. During the summer the Black Lives Matter protests for George Floyd became global. Her brother and father are dead. She is estranged from her mother and desperately misses her paternal grandmother, Violet, who helped raise her.

I loved the audiobook as it is beautifully narrated by Tebby Fisher. Her Jamaican accents are delightful. As is her ability to hold emotion in her voice. She was the perfect choice for this story.

This story dealt with race in a very shallow way. It felt like Evelyn's story was being weighted down with trauma, so her story and feelings could be centered in a story about Black trauma. Evelyn's voice felt much more central to the story than her daughter's voice. We see Evelyn's flawed view of racism but her Black husband, son, and mother-in-law don't get full agency or even fully fleshed out storylines. They exist so that the character of the white woman can grow. I'm not interested in how white folks feel about the trauma of police violence in Black communities unless we're gonna truly deal with race, and this simply doesn't. Evelyn's experiences are harrowing but feel like they may have happened in the 50's or 60's. Her shunning by the Black Community doesn't fit with my experiences, and I'm older than Antony. So, I just find this experience odd in Toronto. I'm currently living in Canada, and this seems a bit much for my biracial Black friends from Toronto and of similar age. Evelyn's story felt unrealistically harrowing. As if to balance the Black characters' struggles with racism.

Kareela just felt two-dimensional. Partially because her story is a tragic mulatto story in many ways. All of which would've been acceptable for me if this had dealt with race in a real way. Instead the reader is consistently shown racial violence through the eyes of a white woman. Which could've been profound but wasn't.

I was deeply engrossed in this narrative, but this story ultimately felt somewhat superficial. I think because it deals with weighty Black community matters but mostly based on the emotional impact of the narrative on a white mom. If Evelyn had looked at her internalized racism and its impact on her husband, son, and daughter, this could've been deeply relevant. Instead, this is mostly about Evelyn's trauma and pain, when she was the character I was the least interested in in this story. This needed Violet, Antony, or Kingsley to also be point of view characters.

Thank you to Charlene Carr, RBmedia/Recorded Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

Charlene Carr’s bestselling novel, HOLD MY GIRL was one of my favorites of 2023, so naturally, I’ll be reading everything she writes from here on out. Her latest, WE RIP THE WORLD APART releases tomorrow, and trust me, you’re gonna want to grab a copy.

It’s told from the perspective of three different women: Twenty-four-year-old Kareela, her mother, Evelyn, and Kareela’s grandmother, Violet. Their story is an emotional and heavy one that deals with some deep-rooted generational trauma involving some of their male family members.

Spanning decades, the reader learns how racism and prejudice has impacted the family for years. Through past and current events, we see firsthand the injustice inflicted upon Kareela’s brother and father. I truly appreciated the insight and history lesson on the Jamaican exodus in the 1980s, which I admittedly knew very little about. It made for a heartbreaking, yet informative and eye-opening read.

READ THIS IF YOU ENJOY:

- Multiple POVs and timelines
- Multigenerational stories
- Reflections on motherhood
- Mother/daughter relationships
- Complex family dynamics
- Dealing with loss and grief
- Social justice activism
- Politically-charged novels
- Themes of race, identity, and belonging

If you found THE HATE U GIVE and CONCRETE ROSE by Angie Thomas impactful, then you don’t want to miss this one. It’s powerful, timely, and I can’t recommend it enough. 4/5 solid stars for WE RIP THE WORLD APART! Out tomorrow, January 28th!