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!

“I’d rip the world apart to keep her safe.”

A heart-wrenchingly raw and beautiful generational novel about women, family, and race, Carr writes with nuance and depth creating a story that I will think about long after the final page has been read. Moving between the past and the present, Carr adeptly covers the topics of race, discrimination, violence, identity, grief, family, unplanned pregnancy, and parenthood as we see first hand what Evelyn, Kareela, and Violet have overcome and the ripple effects of the tragedies they’ve faced. Each of these three women are paragons of strength and resilience as they struggle to survive to live another day.

“We Rip the World Apart” is necessary and oh-so-important. It is meant to be savoured, absorbed, pondered, and shared.

I alternated between the ebook and audiobook. Narrator Tebby Fisher brought the characters to life giving each character a distinctive voice including a Jamaican accent which I loved. I have to confess I mainly listened to the audio, only occasionally switching to the ebook because I found Tebby’s narration so compelling.

Thank you @bookmarked for the ebook and @rbmedia.groupvc for the audiobook which I read on @netgalley The ebook contains a reading guide and bibliography for further reading, which I really liked.

This was an interesting story on race, identity, grief, and trauma.
The book takes place in Jamaica and Canada and transitions between the present and the past in a way that’s seamless and engaging!
I wish that there was a little bit more character development for Kareela. I feel like she was getting there towards the end but I found myself wanting more.
Overall, I think the book is a heartbreaking reflection on racism and the dangers of standing up for what’s right.

A heart wrenching look at racial injustice through the lives of 3 generations of women. The story is seamlessly woven through dual timelines an multiple POV's. Friends, please read this book.

What a book! What a journey! What an adventure.

This was my first book by the author, and I can confidently say I’m eager to read her other works.

One thing about this book: it WILL move you. It will make you question things. It will immerse you in its world and you will feel their longings, pain, and hopelessness.

This book stirred so many emotions and challenged my preconceptions so deeply. I had to pace my reading to reflect on the story being told and draw parallels to real life—about people who are hurt and, as a result, inadvertently, end up hurting others. About how much these wounds and traumatic events shape who we become and the choices we make.

I loved that the book emphasizes that we don’t have to be defined by what happens to us. That understanding is not easy to come by and/or achieve this sense of freedom. Especially when the characters mostly wanted to find a place to... belong.

I was moved to tears several times. The depth of each character is incredible. You love them in one chapter, question their decisions in the next, and detest them in another—only to later understand the true reasons behind their choices. The book masterfully reveals the motivations that drive their actions.

What struck me the most in the beginning was the hopelessness in Kareela’s perspective, which reminded me of a Brazilian song called “Como Nossos Pais” by Elis Regina. The lyric says, “My pain is realizing that despite all we’ve done, we’re still the same and live just like our parents”, especially when she questions herself about the lack of change in societal views of the Black community: "Will it ever?"

Thank you to RBmedia and NetGalley for the ARC.

I love this. I love the narration and the story. It is a heavy book but I like the bonds between people. I learned a lot too.

An extremely moving and at times heartbreaking, intergenerational family story told from the POV of three Caribbean-Canadian women, their complicated relationships and the way their lives are differently affected by motherhood, loss, immigration, racism (institutional, covert and overt), grief and trauma.

Perfect for book club discussions and extremely relevant to Black lives in America AND Canada today. This is good on audio too narrated by Tebby Fisher and highly recommended for fans of books like The skin we're in by Desmond Cole. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

CW: abortion discussion/consideration, rape, loss of a child from gun violence

“Words are great. But action, systemic change, is what’s needed.”

When my son was nine months old - three months after the killing of George Floyd - an officer in my city shot a Black man in the back seven times in front of his children. It sparked several nights of protests, and the murder of two innocent people. Buildings burned down, an entire strip of a city block. And it was all we could talk about. Our city made national news. There were helicopters at all times. You couldn’t see the sky through the smoke from the burning buildings. It felt like the apocalypse had come to our small corner.

And I remember panicking. I always knew life would look different as a mom to biracial children. I knew I had to listen. To unlearn and relearn. To prep myself for The Talk with my boys well before parents prepare for the other kind of talk with their teens. I felt fear and outrage. A friend of mine said something to me that changed my entire trajectory: “Being the wife of a Black man and a mom of Black kids is not enough.”

It isn’t. It isn’t enough. And so I kept unlearning and relearning. That means reading and educating myself, learning about hair care, heritage, history, systemic racism and how it trickles into every facet of life.

I saw myself in this book if I hadn’t taken my friend’s words to heart and instead chose to be offended by them. But I realized quickly that this isn’t about me. This isn’t about my feelings. And I’m glad for her, glad for her words, because I cannot imagine feeling the loss of self that our main character was feeling because her mother let her fear force her to bury her head in the sand.

This book shattered me. I had to step away several times to just collect myself. It hurt. It was the reality of every day life as a Black person. It is a point of view that we as white people need to be quiet and listen to. Because surprisingly, Black people can share their story and white people will still dispute it. This book needs to be required reading. It has left me hollow, cold, empty, despairing. Hopeful, educated, informed, uplifted. It was beautiful in all its pain and harsh reality.

I thought I was going to enjoy this book way more than I did. The narrator made it very uninteresting from the very beginning. I find the author was constantly retelling the same story over and over again even with the dual POV which made the book a lot longer than it needed to be. I understand grief is like that in real life, but it was extremely drawn out as a reader. Over the course of the book the author did do a great job at speaking to how grief related to all of the characters identity.
Pub Date: 1/28/2025
Thank you RBmedia and NetGalley for this digital ARC

I really wanted to enjoy this book and couldn't get past the monotone of the narrator. I also felt that this book was longer than it should have been. I did enjoy the mixing of the two timelines and how they were perceived in each time. To me, it was a struggle to get through the book. This is the type of stories where one has to connect with the characters and unfortunately I never did.

Carr is officially an auto-read author for me. Her books are timely and important commentary on race and womanhood. Told through the perspectives of 3 generations of women, this book hooked me right from the start. The intergenerational trauma and healing is poignant, and the depiction of the biracial experience is powerful. I loved the layers and complexities to this one, and the way it all came together. Highly recommend on audio-- narration was stellar.