In my opinion, the perfect book needs to make you laugh, cry and you’ll never forget it. Fortunately, I cry very easily so most books fulfil at least one of my requirements. On this page I’ll post my honest reviews of all the books I’m currently reading. From young adult to historical fiction, latest releases to classics, I’ll share my unfiltered opinion in 500 words or less.
Àbíké-Íyímídé, Faridah – Ace of Spades
Acevedo, Elizabeth – Clap When You Land
Adebayo, Ayobami – Stay With Me
Adegoke, Yomi & Uviebinené, Elizabeth – The Offline Diaries
Adeyemi, Tomi – Children of Virtue and Vengeance
Alammar, Layla – The Pact We Made
Alderton, Dolly – Ghosts
Alvarez, Julia – How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Alvarez, Julia – In the Time of the Butterflies
Angelou, Maya – Letter to my Daughter
Amaka, Rosanna – The Book of Echoes
Arthurs, Alexia – How to Love a Jamaican
Ashour, Radwa – Granada
Atta, Dean – The Black Flamingo
Atwood, Margaret – The Testaments
Azumah-Nelson, Caleb – Open Water
Babalola, Bolu – Love In Colour
Barker, Pat – The Silence of the Girls
Beard, Mary – Women & Power
Benary, Margot – Castle on the Border
Bennett, Brit – The Vanishing Half
Benson, Jendella – Hope & Glory
Blackburn, Lizzie Damilola – Yinka, Where is your Huzband?
Bourne, Holly – Am I Normal Yet?
Bourne, Holly – The Places I’ve Cried in Public
Bracken, Alexandra – Lore
Braithwaite, Oyinkan – My Sister, The Serial Killer
Brathwaite, Candice – Sista Sister
Brooks, Geraldine – People of the Book
Brown, Rita Mae – Rubyfruit Jungle
Bsharat, Ahlam – Trees for the Absentees
Buchanan, Cathy Marie – Daughter of Black Lake
Burns, Anna – Milkman
Burton, Jessie – The Miniaturist
Carty-Williams, Candice – Empress & Aniya
Castillo, Elaine – America is Not the Heart
Chadwick, Elizabeth – The Summer Queen
Chadwick, Elizabeth – The Winter Crown
Channing-Brown, Austin – I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
Clark, C.L. – The Unbroken
Clarke, Diana – Thin Girls
Coel, Michaela – Misfits
Cole, Teju – Every Day is For the Thief
Cruz, Angie – Dominicana
Dalcher, Christina – Vox
Dangarembga, Tsitsi – Nervous Conditions
Daré, Abi – The Girl with the Louding Voice
Dawson, Juno – Clean
Dawson, Juno – Meat Market
Dillsworth, Lianne – Theatre of Marvels
Diop, David – At Night All Blood is Black
Domingo, Sareeta – Who’s Loving You
Edim, Glory – Well-Read Black Girl
Ephron, Nora – Heartburn
Ephron, Nora – I Feel Bad About My Neck
Evaristo, Bernadine – Girl, Woman, Other
Evaristo, Bernadine – Hello Mum
Evaristo, Bernadine – Mr Loverman
Galgut, Damon – The Promise
Garcia, Gabriela – Of Women and Salt
Garthwaite, Annie – Cecily
Garza, Alicia – The Purpose of Power
Gill, Amber Rose – Until I Met You
Gregory, Philippa – Tidelands
Gyasi, Yaa – Homegoing
Gyasi, Yaa – Transcendent Kingdom
Harris, Kai – What the Fireflies Knew
Haynes, Natalie – A Thousand Ships
Haynes, Natalie – Pandora’s Jar
Haynes, Natalie – Stone Blind
Healey, Jane – The Animals at Lockwood Manor
Herbert, Adrienne – Power Hour
Honeyman, Gail – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Hosseini, Khaled – A Thousand Splendid Suns
Jackson, Naomi – The Star Side of Bird Hill
Jackson, Tiffany D. – Grown
Jenkins-Reid, Taylor – Malibu Rising
Jenkins-Reid, Taylor – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Johnson, Daisy – Sisters
Kent, Hannah – Burial Rites
King, Stephen – On Writing
Lahens, Yanick – Moonbath
Lawton, Georgina – Raceless
Larsen, Nella – Passing
LB, Jade – Keisha the Sket
Lefteri, Christy – The Beekeeper of Aleppo
Lee, Jing Jing – How We Disappeared
Lee, Min Jin – Pachinko
Loupas, Elizabeth – The Red Lily Crown
Lupton, Rosamund – Three Hours
Machado, Carmen Maria – Her Body & Other Parties
Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga – Manchester Happened
Mantel, Hilary – The Mirror & the Light
Mas, Victoria – The Mad Women’s Ball
Mason, Meg – Sorrow and Bliss
May, Nikki – Wahala
McDaniel, Tiffany – Betty
Mengiste, Maaza – The Shadow King
Miller, Kei – The Last Warner Woman
Millwood-Hargrave, Kiran – The Mercies
Morgenstern, Erin – The Starless Sea
Morris, Brittney – The Cost of Knowing
Morris, Stephen – Black Tea
Morrison, Toni – The Bluest Eye
Murata, Sayaka – Convenience Store Woman
Murata, Sayaka – Earthlings
Mustapha, Sahar – The Beauty of Your Face
Nawras, Nofel – Brighton Funk
Nealon, Louise – Snowflake
Nichols, Grace – The Fat Black Woman’s Poems
Ng, Celeste – Our Missing Hearts
Nwelue, Onyeka – The Strangers of Braamfontein
O’Donoghue, Carloline – Promising Young Women
O’Farrell, Maggie – Hamnet
O’Farrell, Maggie – The Marriage Portrait
Okechukwu, Nzelu – The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney
Onuzo, Chibundu – Sankofa
Osman, Richard – The Thursday Murder Club
O’Porter, Dawn – So Lucky
Owens, Delia – Where The Crawdads Sing
Park, Sang Young – Love In the Big City
Parker, Morgan – Who Put This Song On?
Parker-Chan, Shelley – She Who Became the Sun
Papillon, Buki – An Ordinary Wonder
Peters, Torrey – Detransition, Baby
Quế Mai, Nguyễn Phan – The Mountains Sing
Rahman, Khurrum – East of Hounslow
Rahman, Yasmin – All The Things We Never Said
Ratinon, Claire – Unearthed
Reid, Kiley – Such a Fun Age
Rhys, Jean – Wide Sargasso Sea
Rice, Eva – The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp
Rooney, Sally – Normal People
Roy, Arundhati – The God of Small Things
Rushdie, Salman – Midnight’s Children
Russell, Kate Elizabeth – My Dark Vanessa
Ryan, Madeleine – A Room Called Earth
Saint, Jennifer – Ariadne
Sebald, W.G. – The Rings of Saturn
Selmi, Habib – The Scents of Marie Claire
Shamsie, Kamila – A God in Every Stone
Shamsie, Kamila – Home Fire
Shafak, Elif – 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World
Shreeves – Lee, Jac – Broadwater
Shukla, Nikesh – Brown Baby
Slimani, Leïla – Lullaby
Smart, Ciannon – Witches Steeped in Gold
Smith, Ali – Girl Meets Boy
Smith, Zadie – Intimations
Söderberg, Hjalmar – Doctor Glas
Straub, Emma – All Adults Here
Stringfellow, Tara M. – Memphis
Stuart, Douglas – Shuggie Bain
Taddeo, Lisa – Three Women
Tartt, Donna – The Goldfinch
Taylor, Brandon – Real Life
Taylor, Sharma – What A Mother’s Love Don’t Teach You
Thomas, Angie – The Hate You Give
Thomas, Angie – Concrete Rose
Villada, Camilla Sosa – The Queens of Sarmiento Park
Ward, Jesmyn – Men We Reaped
Washington, Bryan – Lot
Washington, Bryan – Memorial
Weir, Alison – Katherine of Aragon
Weir, Alison – Anne Boleyn
Weir, Alison – Jane Seymour
Weir, Alison – Anna of Kleve
Weir, Alison – Katheryn Howard
West, A.J – The Spirit Engineer
West, Dorothy – The Wedding
Whitehead, Colson – The Nickel Boys
Wilkerson, Charmaine – Black Cake
Wilkinson, Lauren – American Spy
Williams, Alicia.D – Genesis Begins Again
Williams, Tia – Seven Days in June
Winman, Sarah – Still Life
Winn, Raynor – The Salt Path
Woodson, Jacqueline – Red At The Bone
Yorke, John – Into the Woods
Yousafzai, Malala – We Are Displaced
Zafón, Carlos Ruiz – The Shadow of the Wind
Zayyan, Hafsa – We Are All Birds of Uganda
Zoboi, Ibi – American Street
Multiple authors – The Haunting Season
Here’s my rating system:
***** = I hold this book in my heart everywhere I go. I will mention it in every conversation until I die. The characters will haunt me throughout my days.
**** = I will recommend this book to everyone I come into contact with for the next three months. Several of my friends and family will receive it for their birthday presents.
*** = I will forget the details of the plot after a couple of weeks but I will smile when I see it on my bookshelf.
** = I will cry with disappointment at the time wasted trying to finish this book.
* = I stopped reading before my soul was crushed.