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Ishpreet Kaur

Reviewed on Jun 14, 2021

Must read 🏆

The hype around this book has been unquestionable and, admittedly, that made me both eager to get my hands on it and terrified to read it.

Synopsis

When the Great Storm of 1893 leaves fifteen-year-old Gabbie homeless, the only place she can go is to New Orleans to live with strange relatives. On her only other visit there, she heard voices no one else heard. She saw things no one else saw. She pierced the veil that separates the living from the dead. The thought of returning there terrifies her.

Now, she must navigate in a world of superstition, conjure, mystery, and magic. It’s a world where free Creoles of Color with their own high society, elegant young ladies, and dashing young men in uniforms are part of the culture. It's here she learns her paranormal power is a Gift passed down from mother to daughter. The only problem is - she doesn’t want it.

Will that change she when she finds an unexpected love? Or, will it take a malevolent spirit threatening the lives of those she loves? What will propel Gabbie to embrace her Gift and become the person she was born to be?

This is a really interesting play about a Scottish girl who goes to Zimbabwe more or less following in the footsteps of her missionary grandmother, whose story is told in a parallel plot. The way the two plot lines mirror one another is interesting and important because it gives us two different Scottish relationships with southern Africa in two very different generations. And ultimately the play is about exploring how Scotland relates to Africa, Scotland's role in colonizing Africa, and Scotland's own experience as an English colony. It is about Scotland coming to terms with itself as simultaneously a colonized and exploited nation and an imperial and exploitative force. The play takes on specific issues like religion--the divergence between the missionaries who try to convert the Shona, and the granddaughter who is an agnostic--labor relations--between the missionary who enforces strict rules for his workers and the granddaughter who judges an African man for hiring a refugee from Mozambique.

I'm looking forward to read more in this series. Even I put off my some important works to read this. I don't want to stop reading this book, that's a good sign that someone is getting interest in reading. The authors have done a great job of pulling me into the story.


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