Black Cake by debut writer Charmaine Wilkerson..wow, what a great read! It’s the Read With Jenna’s February 2022 book pick. I found a hardcover copy for something crazy like $3 at a book sale and swooped it up.
It’s easily categorized as a family drama. Two estranged siblings, sister Benny, and brother, Byron, come together when their mother passes away. They sit in front of a lawyer who makes it clear that the 8-hour audio message they are about to hear will change their lives forever…and boy is that the truth!
The book spans from the 1960s in the Caribbean to present-day California and focuses on the premise of relationships between siblings, parents, husbands and wives, and friends. The characters are plentiful but easy to manage. Then, there’s the notion of betrayal, love, trust, murder, and lies. In the center is the common denominator of the recipe of Caribbean Black Cake and the devotion to the water around the island.
I enjoy the Read With Jenna Book Club because her choices take me out of my usual genre. Many take me to an unfamiliar place and explore race, and situations from a book I normally wouldn’t gravitate to without her recommendation.
Most of the novel is told in the third person with varying characters, in different periods in short increments. The short chapters kept me engaged and simultaneously gave me a convenient place to stop, especially since this book was 385 pages. Books with lengthy chapters are not my favorite.
I was relieved when a particular unresolved plotline was finally solved! Toward the end of the book I was feeling a little unsettled so thank you, Charmaine Wilkerson, for wrapping up the question that was floating around in my head!
I would recommend this title! It checked off all the boxes for me including character development, storyline, and a little bit of mystery…and my favorite quote that stuck with me was, “Question yourself, yes, but don’t doubt yourself. There’s a difference.” Enjoy!
