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Brown Girl in the Ring
The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways-farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother.
She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends.
She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends.
250 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1998
About the author
Nalo Hopkinson
154 books1,888 followersNalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican-born writer and editor who lives in Canada. Her science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 912 reviews
June 4, 2018
A story so original, Brown Girl In the Ring is hard to classify. I have never heard of Caribbean magic realism. To me this is more sci-fi with a twist of magic. The bleak Toronto hellscape of the future is completely believable, as are the characters who have a complex outer and inner life. None are more complicated than our heroine, Ti-Jeanne. She is a strong girl, devoted to her new baby and her grandmother, but also resentful of them some times. The made up language flows and sounds right to the ear. It is as if you can hear its cadence and musicality. Family ties are important to the story, and also family cruelty.
There is quite a bit of brutal violence, so I would not recommend this for young teens.
There is quite a bit of brutal violence, so I would not recommend this for young teens.
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February 7, 2022"I can't keep giving my will into other people's hands no more, ain't? I have to decide what I want to do for myself."
This is a review of Nalo Hopkinson's 1998 fantasy Brown Girl in the Ring. Spoilers follow, and a discussion of abuse.
So What's It About? (from Goodreads)
"The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways--farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother.
She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends."
What I Thought
I'm so glad that I read Baptiste's The Jumbies before reading Brown Girl In the Ring, because it actually served as a great primer and introduction for a lot of the Afro-Carribean mythology that characterize this story as well. The jumbies that featured in the former story are also present in the latter, from La Diablesse to the Soucouyants, and the fascinating and vivid lore is certainly one of the book's greatest strengths. I loved learning about all of the spirits, and I was particularly struck by the ceremony where Ti-Jeanne gets possessed by a god/spirit known as Prince of Cemetery:
"Beside him, Ti-Jeanne giggled, a manic, breathy sound that made Tony’s scalp prickle. She rose smoothly to her feet and began to dance with an eerie, stalking motion that made her legs seem longer than they were, thin and bony. Shadows clung to the hollows of her eyes and cheekbones, turning her face into a cruel mask. She laughed again. Her voice was deep, too deep for her woman’s body. Her lips skinned back from her teeth in a death’s-head grin. “Prince of Cemetery!” Mami hissed, her eyes wide. She kept her rhythm going, but even softer. “You know so, old lady,” Ti-Jeanne rumbled. She pranced on long legs over to Mami, bent down, down, down; ran a bony forefinger over the old woman's cheek."
I do have some questions about the way that the story was resolved with magic. The duppy that is Ti-Jeanne's imprisoned mother ends up being able to help Ti-Jeanne because of a loophole in the villain Rudy's instructions for her. What I don't understand is why an evil mastermind like Rudy would be so lax in his instructions, allowing for a loophole in the duppy's behavior towards Ti-Jeanne.
In addition to its rich cultural heritage, another of this book's strengths is its post-apocalyptic vision. I've read a couple of reviews stating that her depiction of Toronto post-economic collapse would never actually come to be, but I think the worldbuilding is a kind of thought exercise demonstrating the lengths of abandonment and irresponsible behavior that city leaders could potentially go to if the management of a city was no longer profitable to them. It's a class and race based dystopia, to be sure, where the rich escape to the suburbs while the poor (largely people of color) are stuck in a city that has collapsed in on itself.
Even though it's a bleak world, there is a lot of hope in Hopkinson's vision, shown in the ways that people continue to try to do good and help each other in spite of how desperate their lives are. Ultimately, Hopkinson ties this sense of community back to the book's themes of religion and spirituality:
"Anybody who try to live good, who try to help people who need it, who try to have respect for life, and age, and those who go before, them all doing the same thing: serving the spirits.”
I wasn't totally sold on Ti-Jeanne as a protagonist, mostly because she spends so much of the early book pining after her loser ex Tony. This is particularly hard to swallow because we also get Tony's point of view and know the evil that he is planning towards Ti-Jeanne and her family. Eventually Ti-Jeanne grows past this and comes into her own as a character, and I appreciated the book's emphasis on the struggles of being a young mother who is ambivalent about the thought of motherhood.
Mami Gros-Jeanne is the most dynamic character in the story - she is gruff and terse and strict but fiercely loving and protective of her family. There is some discussion of the way that cycles of abuse may be perpetuated: Mami was abused by Rudy and went on to perpetuate the same wrongs against her daughter and granddaughter. Ultimately, she realizes the error of her ways:
"You ain’t worthless.” Then she said the words she’d welled up inside herself all these years. “I do wrong to ever tell you so. You hear me? I do wrong.”
I think the story's dichotomous understanding of male vs female power is a little too simplified for my taste, with all of the women in the story being nurturing, spiritual and long-suffering while all of the men are destructive, controlling and exploitative. There are ways to make statements about masculinity and femininity that feel a little more nuanced, I think. Overall, though, I'm extremely impressed that this was Hopkinson's first novel and I'm looking forward to reading more of her books.
This is a review of Nalo Hopkinson's 1998 fantasy Brown Girl in the Ring. Spoilers follow, and a discussion of abuse.
So What's It About? (from Goodreads)
"The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways--farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother.
She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends."
What I Thought
I'm so glad that I read Baptiste's The Jumbies before reading Brown Girl In the Ring, because it actually served as a great primer and introduction for a lot of the Afro-Carribean mythology that characterize this story as well. The jumbies that featured in the former story are also present in the latter, from La Diablesse to the Soucouyants, and the fascinating and vivid lore is certainly one of the book's greatest strengths. I loved learning about all of the spirits, and I was particularly struck by the ceremony where Ti-Jeanne gets possessed by a god/spirit known as Prince of Cemetery:
"Beside him, Ti-Jeanne giggled, a manic, breathy sound that made Tony’s scalp prickle. She rose smoothly to her feet and began to dance with an eerie, stalking motion that made her legs seem longer than they were, thin and bony. Shadows clung to the hollows of her eyes and cheekbones, turning her face into a cruel mask. She laughed again. Her voice was deep, too deep for her woman’s body. Her lips skinned back from her teeth in a death’s-head grin. “Prince of Cemetery!” Mami hissed, her eyes wide. She kept her rhythm going, but even softer. “You know so, old lady,” Ti-Jeanne rumbled. She pranced on long legs over to Mami, bent down, down, down; ran a bony forefinger over the old woman's cheek."
I do have some questions about the way that the story was resolved with magic. The duppy that is Ti-Jeanne's imprisoned mother ends up being able to help Ti-Jeanne because of a loophole in the villain Rudy's instructions for her. What I don't understand is why an evil mastermind like Rudy would be so lax in his instructions, allowing for a loophole in the duppy's behavior towards Ti-Jeanne.
In addition to its rich cultural heritage, another of this book's strengths is its post-apocalyptic vision. I've read a couple of reviews stating that her depiction of Toronto post-economic collapse would never actually come to be, but I think the worldbuilding is a kind of thought exercise demonstrating the lengths of abandonment and irresponsible behavior that city leaders could potentially go to if the management of a city was no longer profitable to them. It's a class and race based dystopia, to be sure, where the rich escape to the suburbs while the poor (largely people of color) are stuck in a city that has collapsed in on itself.
Even though it's a bleak world, there is a lot of hope in Hopkinson's vision, shown in the ways that people continue to try to do good and help each other in spite of how desperate their lives are. Ultimately, Hopkinson ties this sense of community back to the book's themes of religion and spirituality:
"Anybody who try to live good, who try to help people who need it, who try to have respect for life, and age, and those who go before, them all doing the same thing: serving the spirits.”
I wasn't totally sold on Ti-Jeanne as a protagonist, mostly because she spends so much of the early book pining after her loser ex Tony. This is particularly hard to swallow because we also get Tony's point of view and know the evil that he is planning towards Ti-Jeanne and her family. Eventually Ti-Jeanne grows past this and comes into her own as a character, and I appreciated the book's emphasis on the struggles of being a young mother who is ambivalent about the thought of motherhood.
Mami Gros-Jeanne is the most dynamic character in the story - she is gruff and terse and strict but fiercely loving and protective of her family. There is some discussion of the way that cycles of abuse may be perpetuated: Mami was abused by Rudy and went on to perpetuate the same wrongs against her daughter and granddaughter. Ultimately, she realizes the error of her ways:
"You ain’t worthless.” Then she said the words she’d welled up inside herself all these years. “I do wrong to ever tell you so. You hear me? I do wrong.”
I think the story's dichotomous understanding of male vs female power is a little too simplified for my taste, with all of the women in the story being nurturing, spiritual and long-suffering while all of the men are destructive, controlling and exploitative. There are ways to make statements about masculinity and femininity that feel a little more nuanced, I think. Overall, though, I'm extremely impressed that this was Hopkinson's first novel and I'm looking forward to reading more of her books.
April 27, 2018
Sometimes, it’s a good idea to revisit a book you haven’t read in years. I originally read this book many years ago because the story premise intrigued me: a dystopian Toronto with a young, black woman as its protagonist. This was the first speculative fiction story I had found actually situated in a Canadian city, naming buildings and things I knew of. I was excited, and began reading, then I ran up against my stupid assumptions for speculative fiction at that time, with the biggest bias being, “Hey! This isn’t some period drama taking place in an alt-Europe! Or some secondary world that’s basically the US in space.”
I don’t think I was ready to appreciate just how good this story is of a young, reluctant, single mother who was involved with a drug addicted young man, Tony, who works for a local gang. The young woman, Ti-Jeanne, also helps her grandmother, Gros-Jeanne, administer herbal remedies and treat peoples’ injuries.
Well, I am now suitably impressed by Nalo Hopkinson's early novel. Ti-Jeanne is biding time, not thrilled with where she is, still wanting Tony, and not doing much with herself. When the leader of the gang demands Tony get him something, this sets in motion a chain of violence, but also Ti-Jeanne’s character growth, and her willingness to take on her responsibilities and accept her grandmother’s teachings. I can now see how wonderful the premise was of Hopkinson's protagonist, a young woman who was a person of colour, who was also a nursing mother, and who was the central figure in this story that wove Caribbean stories, tales and spirits in throughout the tale, and that examined the complicated relationships between different generations of women. I am so glad I decided to reread this book. I now have to read Hopkinson's other stories.
I don’t think I was ready to appreciate just how good this story is of a young, reluctant, single mother who was involved with a drug addicted young man, Tony, who works for a local gang. The young woman, Ti-Jeanne, also helps her grandmother, Gros-Jeanne, administer herbal remedies and treat peoples’ injuries.
Well, I am now suitably impressed by Nalo Hopkinson's early novel. Ti-Jeanne is biding time, not thrilled with where she is, still wanting Tony, and not doing much with herself. When the leader of the gang demands Tony get him something, this sets in motion a chain of violence, but also Ti-Jeanne’s character growth, and her willingness to take on her responsibilities and accept her grandmother’s teachings. I can now see how wonderful the premise was of Hopkinson's protagonist, a young woman who was a person of colour, who was also a nursing mother, and who was the central figure in this story that wove Caribbean stories, tales and spirits in throughout the tale, and that examined the complicated relationships between different generations of women. I am so glad I decided to reread this book. I now have to read Hopkinson's other stories.
February 24, 2015
The next stop in my end-of-the-world reading marathon was Brown Girl in the Ring, the 1998 debut novel by Nalo Hopkinson, a Jamaican born and Canadian bred author. The book doesn't fit in among the doomsday thrillers I've been reading and to even call this "science fiction" would be false advertising on my part. I was in the mood for something different, a blast of fresh air among the abandoned post-apocalyptic streets, but even by its own standards, the novel really disappointed me.
The story takes place in Toronto, where a lawsuit by the Temagami Indian tribe and an international ban on imports of the temagami pine have led to economic collapse in the city. Government has fled to the suburbs, leaving the poor, the weak or the willful to fend for themselves, along with criminal elements preying on them. The situation is like a civil version of the movie Escape From New York and with a little imagination, could almost apply to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Like Escape From New York and so many science fiction tales, the plot is triggered by a presidential crisis. The infirm Canadian premier is desperate for a heart transplant. Trailing in a bid for re-election, her staff see an opportunity to use public distaste of animal organ farming by declining a pig's heart and resorting to a human one. Complications arise finding a suitable donor in time, so they reach out to Rudy Sheldon, criminal overlord of Toronto, to get them a human heart, stat.
Ti-Jeanne is a young, unwed mother who's left her baby's father, a sweet-talking deadbeat named Tony whose addiction to a narcotic called buff cost him his hospital job and pushed him into the employ of Rudy Sheldon. Ti-Jeanne now lives with her surviving family, her grandmother Mami Gros-Jeanne, a medicine woman and practitioner of Afro-Caribbean magic. With Ti-Jeanne's unnamed infant son "Baby", they live in the ruins of Riverdale Farm, formerly a civic recreation space made to resemble a working farm.
Young Ti-Jeanne has begun to experience terrifying visions of supernatural creatures of Afro-Caribbean myth: a tall, red creature with a mask for a face known as a Jab-Jab, and a dried up old woman with blue flame leaping from her body called a Soucouyant. Ti-Jeanne finally confides her visions to her grandmother, who reveals that her mother was afflicted with similar visions and was eventually driven mad by them.
The women receive an uninvited guest in Tony, who'd been dispatched with one of Rudy's men to kill an organ donor, but fled when he couldn't go through with the deed. Mami agrees to help, taking the couple to the Toronto Crematorium Chapel where she performs religious rites. She summons Papa Osain, a healing spirit, who makes both Ti-Jeanne and Tony invisible through dawn, so long as a rose which Tony offered his lover is kept on Ti-Jeanne's person. The two seek to flee Toronto.
The novel I've just described is much more adventure oriented than what we ultimately get with Brown Girl in the Ring. There's a dystopian, ticking clock thriller with supernatural elements and a young couple on the run that lurks between the pages, as well as some very imaginative table setting, but the novel unravels into a lukewarm mess, with flimsy characters, stylistic elements that fail to mesh together, ridiculous hocus pocus and chapter breaks that stops the story cold.
Flaws, flaws and more flaws:
-- Flaky characters. Ti-Jeanne is one of the most useless heroines I've encountered in fiction in some time. A baby who's birthed a baby, she's living in an abandoned city with no discernible skills and turns into a doormat when her baby's drug addict hoodlum father talks sweet to her. Contrast that with a character like Ree Dolly in Winter's Bone, who's much younger and grows up with much less parental supervision. Ti-Jeanne breathes through her mouth clear through to the end of the book. As Mami says continually, "Stupidness!" If Ti-Jeanne acts like she's got no brain and no spine, Tony is an even bigger fool, messing with criminals and refusing to follow the instructions the women give to help him escape.
-- I would've preferred a novel that explored Afro-Caribbean magic in Toronto, or one that rampaged across a dystopian Toronto, but not both at the same time. At 247 pages, this book seems too dense to deal with both fantasy and science fiction in a satisfying way. Science fiction is given to bloat and to throwing too many ingredients into the pot, but in this case, the story just didn't come together for me.
-- I have an extreme dislike for deus ex machina and for authors who bail their characters out with divine intervention. Hopkinson steps in a mess with this. There are spirits taking possession of bodies, spirits guiding characters, spirits crossing over to wipe out the bad guys. Again, it seemed as if Ti-Jeanne was the least active character in the story. Sending in a spirit to lead characters out of danger rather than the characters overcoming obstacles is weak writing at best, laziness at worst.
-- Another thing that bothered me was the overuse of nursery rhymes, chants, call and responses, song lyrics and so forth as scene breaks. Two or three in a novel of this size would've been enough, but it seems like Hopkinson throws one in every ten pages. Like like blurbs and dedications, my eyes skip right over speed bumps like this and got in the way of what I read books for: the story.
I always hope to discover something different when I read genre fiction. Stories with a diversity of character, in this case, black women at the controls, was something I was really looking forward to. Hopkinson demonstrates vision when it comes to imagining the ruins of Toronto. Some of the magic is interesting too, but it's table dressing. The characters and story never materialized for me. I was intrigued enough to finish the book, but would not recommend it.
The story takes place in Toronto, where a lawsuit by the Temagami Indian tribe and an international ban on imports of the temagami pine have led to economic collapse in the city. Government has fled to the suburbs, leaving the poor, the weak or the willful to fend for themselves, along with criminal elements preying on them. The situation is like a civil version of the movie Escape From New York and with a little imagination, could almost apply to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Like Escape From New York and so many science fiction tales, the plot is triggered by a presidential crisis. The infirm Canadian premier is desperate for a heart transplant. Trailing in a bid for re-election, her staff see an opportunity to use public distaste of animal organ farming by declining a pig's heart and resorting to a human one. Complications arise finding a suitable donor in time, so they reach out to Rudy Sheldon, criminal overlord of Toronto, to get them a human heart, stat.
Ti-Jeanne is a young, unwed mother who's left her baby's father, a sweet-talking deadbeat named Tony whose addiction to a narcotic called buff cost him his hospital job and pushed him into the employ of Rudy Sheldon. Ti-Jeanne now lives with her surviving family, her grandmother Mami Gros-Jeanne, a medicine woman and practitioner of Afro-Caribbean magic. With Ti-Jeanne's unnamed infant son "Baby", they live in the ruins of Riverdale Farm, formerly a civic recreation space made to resemble a working farm.
Young Ti-Jeanne has begun to experience terrifying visions of supernatural creatures of Afro-Caribbean myth: a tall, red creature with a mask for a face known as a Jab-Jab, and a dried up old woman with blue flame leaping from her body called a Soucouyant. Ti-Jeanne finally confides her visions to her grandmother, who reveals that her mother was afflicted with similar visions and was eventually driven mad by them.
The women receive an uninvited guest in Tony, who'd been dispatched with one of Rudy's men to kill an organ donor, but fled when he couldn't go through with the deed. Mami agrees to help, taking the couple to the Toronto Crematorium Chapel where she performs religious rites. She summons Papa Osain, a healing spirit, who makes both Ti-Jeanne and Tony invisible through dawn, so long as a rose which Tony offered his lover is kept on Ti-Jeanne's person. The two seek to flee Toronto.
The novel I've just described is much more adventure oriented than what we ultimately get with Brown Girl in the Ring. There's a dystopian, ticking clock thriller with supernatural elements and a young couple on the run that lurks between the pages, as well as some very imaginative table setting, but the novel unravels into a lukewarm mess, with flimsy characters, stylistic elements that fail to mesh together, ridiculous hocus pocus and chapter breaks that stops the story cold.
Flaws, flaws and more flaws:
-- Flaky characters. Ti-Jeanne is one of the most useless heroines I've encountered in fiction in some time. A baby who's birthed a baby, she's living in an abandoned city with no discernible skills and turns into a doormat when her baby's drug addict hoodlum father talks sweet to her. Contrast that with a character like Ree Dolly in Winter's Bone, who's much younger and grows up with much less parental supervision. Ti-Jeanne breathes through her mouth clear through to the end of the book. As Mami says continually, "Stupidness!" If Ti-Jeanne acts like she's got no brain and no spine, Tony is an even bigger fool, messing with criminals and refusing to follow the instructions the women give to help him escape.
-- I would've preferred a novel that explored Afro-Caribbean magic in Toronto, or one that rampaged across a dystopian Toronto, but not both at the same time. At 247 pages, this book seems too dense to deal with both fantasy and science fiction in a satisfying way. Science fiction is given to bloat and to throwing too many ingredients into the pot, but in this case, the story just didn't come together for me.
-- I have an extreme dislike for deus ex machina and for authors who bail their characters out with divine intervention. Hopkinson steps in a mess with this. There are spirits taking possession of bodies, spirits guiding characters, spirits crossing over to wipe out the bad guys. Again, it seemed as if Ti-Jeanne was the least active character in the story. Sending in a spirit to lead characters out of danger rather than the characters overcoming obstacles is weak writing at best, laziness at worst.
-- Another thing that bothered me was the overuse of nursery rhymes, chants, call and responses, song lyrics and so forth as scene breaks. Two or three in a novel of this size would've been enough, but it seems like Hopkinson throws one in every ten pages. Like like blurbs and dedications, my eyes skip right over speed bumps like this and got in the way of what I read books for: the story.
I always hope to discover something different when I read genre fiction. Stories with a diversity of character, in this case, black women at the controls, was something I was really looking forward to. Hopkinson demonstrates vision when it comes to imagining the ruins of Toronto. Some of the magic is interesting too, but it's table dressing. The characters and story never materialized for me. I was intrigued enough to finish the book, but would not recommend it.
February 14, 2020
I’m a very big fan of Nalo Hopkinson, having absolutely loved her novel Midnight Robber, and having enjoyed many of her stories in her collection Skin Folk. This novel, her first, featured some of her best qualities: a vividly alive sense of place and culture, and a welcome willingness to blend the mundane with the fantastical. But overall, I couldn’t help but feel that it was a first novel, lacking some of the confidence that was on display in her other work; there was a tendency she seemed to have here of over-explaining emotional beats and story logic. And the plot felt less fully-realized than it could have been, instead becoming a series of unfortunate events.
I will still seek out more of her work, but I would recommend Midnight Robber before I would recommend this novel.
I will still seek out more of her work, but I would recommend Midnight Robber before I would recommend this novel.
September 27, 2018
This is a dystopian science fiction novel set in the Toronto of the future, where the centre of the city has been isolated and abandoned following riots and is now ruled by a crime lord whilst the rest of society has moved out of the city. The inhabitants of the city get along by barter and people grow things and there is still some trade with the outside world. There is little law and order, plenty of violence and feral children roam the streets, some of whom periodically disappear. The novel revolves around Ti-Jeanne and her lover Tony who is a henchman of the crime lord Rudy. The plot is a little far-fetched and involves the harvesting of organs. Central to the plot though are strong female characters, all of whom are Caribbean Canadian. Ti-Jeanne and her grandmother have the skill of healing passed through the generations, they also have contact with the spirit world and practice Obeah.
The novel is effectively a struggle between good and evil and the tension between use of Obeah powers for good or evil. This is Hopkinson’s first novel and was recommended by Octavia Butler, which drew me to it. There is some local and Caribbean idiom present, which isn’t off putting and isn’t difficult to understand. Hopkinson argues that science fiction is a good way of portraying the lives of outsiders and can provide hope because it suggests paradigm shifts which other genres may not so easily do. She feels science fiction offers hope of change:
“I tend not to read what I would call ‘mimetic’ fiction or fiction that is imitating reality. In mimetic fiction the world is not reflecting me back to myself.… I grew up so depressed, I felt there was no room for me in the world. Reading mimetic fiction just feels to me like more depression.”
It can be noted that Ti-Jeanne is a female version of Walcott’s Ti-Jean from his play Ti-Jean and his Brothers, but instead of a fraternal trio, there is a maternal trio. The women throughout are striving to make things better and are coming up against male violence and male structures. This is certainly a feminist reworking of Obeah, used for the good of society and in direct conflict with evil. There is some graphic violence and the ending is a little too well tied up, but this is a first novel. I have to ask, would I read more by this author and yes I would. She does interesting things with myth, reworking in a feminist way.
The novel is effectively a struggle between good and evil and the tension between use of Obeah powers for good or evil. This is Hopkinson’s first novel and was recommended by Octavia Butler, which drew me to it. There is some local and Caribbean idiom present, which isn’t off putting and isn’t difficult to understand. Hopkinson argues that science fiction is a good way of portraying the lives of outsiders and can provide hope because it suggests paradigm shifts which other genres may not so easily do. She feels science fiction offers hope of change:
“I tend not to read what I would call ‘mimetic’ fiction or fiction that is imitating reality. In mimetic fiction the world is not reflecting me back to myself.… I grew up so depressed, I felt there was no room for me in the world. Reading mimetic fiction just feels to me like more depression.”
It can be noted that Ti-Jeanne is a female version of Walcott’s Ti-Jean from his play Ti-Jean and his Brothers, but instead of a fraternal trio, there is a maternal trio. The women throughout are striving to make things better and are coming up against male violence and male structures. This is certainly a feminist reworking of Obeah, used for the good of society and in direct conflict with evil. There is some graphic violence and the ending is a little too well tied up, but this is a first novel. I have to ask, would I read more by this author and yes I would. She does interesting things with myth, reworking in a feminist way.
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September 25, 2017This was amazing. Such a fantastic exciting SFF read. In a future Canada Toronto has collapsed--no food, no electricity, the city a no go zone of survivors just getting by, and ruled by a malevolent crime lord who uses dark magic to get his way. The story centres on one young woman from a Caribbean family whose grandmother is a healer and communicator with the old spirits, plus and the motivating plot driver is the Canadian PM's need for a donor human heart for a transplant. The modern/futuristic and magical elements are perfectly blended.
What I liked most about this book is Ti-Jeanne, our heroine. She's not a character who usually gets to be the centre of things: she's a young black single mother with a no-good druggie as babyfather, living at home, no future, no drive. That's a character who normally gets to be set dressing or Tragic Early Victim, at best a white saviour's prop. Here, she's the heroine, and Ti-Jeanne's journey to find courage, trust herself, and grow into a powerful woman is just glorious to read. This is very much a book about strong women, women fighting together, flawed and difficult women who make mistakes, but are, in the end, the ones who are going to *sort this shit out*. Oooh it was a joy. *wriggles*
A really compelling read and the Caribbean magic is wonderfully done. Highly recommended.
What I liked most about this book is Ti-Jeanne, our heroine. She's not a character who usually gets to be the centre of things: she's a young black single mother with a no-good druggie as babyfather, living at home, no future, no drive. That's a character who normally gets to be set dressing or Tragic Early Victim, at best a white saviour's prop. Here, she's the heroine, and Ti-Jeanne's journey to find courage, trust herself, and grow into a powerful woman is just glorious to read. This is very much a book about strong women, women fighting together, flawed and difficult women who make mistakes, but are, in the end, the ones who are going to *sort this shit out*. Oooh it was a joy. *wriggles*
A really compelling read and the Caribbean magic is wonderfully done. Highly recommended.
February 17, 2019
Wow wow wow. I’ve encountered Carribean folklore before but never so fleshed out and multi faceted as in this book, where spirits have personality and thought and wants and wishes, all the things I love about Greek and Nordic mythology as well.
“Brown Girl in the Ring” is an apt title for our MC who unwillingly finds herself in the middle of a fight between her ex and his drug lord, the dark magic the boss meddles in, and her own private family drama of a missing mother and a grandmother who’s intend on teaching her the ways of serving the spirits, working as a healer in a run down area of town.
This connection to the many spirits of Carribean mythology is a big part of the story, set in a dystopian, crumbled Toronto society, and it turned out to be much more personal and moving than I had expected. All aspects of the story come together beautifully, seamlessly, and nothing feels out of place. It’s a study of the human condition in the face of danger, and the acceptance of things that are bigger than you. I’m impressed beyond words. This would make an excellent supernatural horror series or film on Netflix. Just sayin’.
“Brown Girl in the Ring” is an apt title for our MC who unwillingly finds herself in the middle of a fight between her ex and his drug lord, the dark magic the boss meddles in, and her own private family drama of a missing mother and a grandmother who’s intend on teaching her the ways of serving the spirits, working as a healer in a run down area of town.
This connection to the many spirits of Carribean mythology is a big part of the story, set in a dystopian, crumbled Toronto society, and it turned out to be much more personal and moving than I had expected. All aspects of the story come together beautifully, seamlessly, and nothing feels out of place. It’s a study of the human condition in the face of danger, and the acceptance of things that are bigger than you. I’m impressed beyond words. This would make an excellent supernatural horror series or film on Netflix. Just sayin’.
February 7, 2019
A near-dystopic version of Toronto with a strong Afro-Caribbean mythos makes for an original, violent and yet very human urban fantasy.
CONTENT WARNING: (no actual spoilers, just a list of topics)
Things to love:
-Ti-Jeanne and Mami. I think a lot of people would feel a connection to their relationship. They felt honest--flawed, well-meaning, part of a relationship that has a lot of history.
-The setting. You don't see too much about real Canada in mainstream books! This world felt really tangible--I could see the streets, I could feel the decay. It was wild.
-The mythology. She's brilliant at blending traditions, at making the supernatural seem normal. And also we don't get enough of the spirits presented here. So cool and different from a lot of the other worlds we see more often. I loved the macabre, laughing Jab Jab, and I've always loved the stories of the Soucoyant! Amazing.
-The narrative structure. A few different POVs, lots of inclusion (pregnant people, old people, sick but not disabled people, street kids, obviously people of color, lots of faiths, immigrants, even a gay couple!), liberal but not distracting use of pidgin, code-switching...I mean it's all here and felt very natural.
Things that felt weaker:
-The story. It's pretty straight forward. You know roughly how it's going to end before you're even halfway done. This was her first published work and I think it shows. I've read a later work of hers that is much more confident and "messy" in that the plot points are more robust. But still, not a bad story, just not as fleshed out as the characters and her writing style.
-Some missing details. I'd have liked a bit more on some of the outstanding mysteries. A few things were just assumed into the background that could have used more time. Spoilers here
Actually, I think that's really it. If it had been a bit fuller a story, it would have been perfection. I thin this is a great intro to her writing as Midnight Robber is both more horrific and wilder in structure, language, pacing and the rest. This was fairly tame, in that urban fantasy fans will find the groove pretty quickly, I think, but novel enough that it's worth your time. I'd recommend to people who want a quick, fascinating UF or light horror fantasy with a different edge.
CONTENT WARNING: (no actual spoilers, just a list of topics)
Things to love:
-Ti-Jeanne and Mami. I think a lot of people would feel a connection to their relationship. They felt honest--flawed, well-meaning, part of a relationship that has a lot of history.
-The setting. You don't see too much about real Canada in mainstream books! This world felt really tangible--I could see the streets, I could feel the decay. It was wild.
-The mythology. She's brilliant at blending traditions, at making the supernatural seem normal. And also we don't get enough of the spirits presented here. So cool and different from a lot of the other worlds we see more often. I loved the macabre, laughing Jab Jab, and I've always loved the stories of the Soucoyant! Amazing.
-The narrative structure. A few different POVs, lots of inclusion (pregnant people, old people, sick but not disabled people, street kids, obviously people of color, lots of faiths, immigrants, even a gay couple!), liberal but not distracting use of pidgin, code-switching...I mean it's all here and felt very natural.
Things that felt weaker:
-The story. It's pretty straight forward. You know roughly how it's going to end before you're even halfway done. This was her first published work and I think it shows. I've read a later work of hers that is much more confident and "messy" in that the plot points are more robust. But still, not a bad story, just not as fleshed out as the characters and her writing style.
-Some missing details. I'd have liked a bit more on some of the outstanding mysteries. A few things were just assumed into the background that could have used more time. Spoilers here
Actually, I think that's really it. If it had been a bit fuller a story, it would have been perfection. I thin this is a great intro to her writing as Midnight Robber is both more horrific and wilder in structure, language, pacing and the rest. This was fairly tame, in that urban fantasy fans will find the groove pretty quickly, I think, but novel enough that it's worth your time. I'd recommend to people who want a quick, fascinating UF or light horror fantasy with a different edge.
January 7, 2021
This is the second Nalo Hopkinson book that has been a struggle for me to read, and I am really not sure why (this, and Midnight Robber). Neither plot rocked me, nor did I identify with the characters.
I continue to hold out hope, as Ms. Hopkinson is now a Grandmaster, and I have a few of her stories still to read.
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Here, we have a genre hybrid of social SF (abandoned inner-city Toronto) with fantasy elements of spirits and "voodoo" magics (Ms. Hopkinson does both genres excellently) in one woman's coming of age and destiny.
Last of my TBR-20 books.
I continue to hold out hope, as Ms. Hopkinson is now a Grandmaster, and I have a few of her stories still to read.
=====
Here, we have a genre hybrid of social SF (abandoned inner-city Toronto) with fantasy elements of spirits and "voodoo" magics (Ms. Hopkinson does both genres excellently) in one woman's coming of age and destiny.
Last of my TBR-20 books.
February 7, 2019
Brown Girl in the Ring is a standalone fantasy/horror book. This was my first time reading anything by Nalo Hopkinson. Even though I have a couple complaints, I enjoyed the story more and more as it progressed.
There are a few POV characters, but mostly the story focuses on a young, single mother named Ti-Jeanne. She has been having strange, terrifying visions. Meanwhile her ex(ish) deadbeat boyfriend Tony, the father of her young baby, has gotten mixed up with a dangerous posse led by a man who practices dark magic.
Although I didn’t find the book scary, I’d say it definitely leans toward the horror side of fantasy. There are spirits, dark magic, possession by spirits, and a fairly high amount of violence. And the inevitable tarot cards make one appearance. These are actually the horror tropes I tend to enjoy more, as opposed to the “monster books” (like vampires or zombies or whatever) which often become tedious to me. The author was born in Jamaica and I believe the story is based on Caribbean mythology which I was completely unfamiliar with, so I also enjoyed that aspect. Most of the dialogue is written in a Caribbean dialect. A few sentences required re-reading before I could parse them, but for the most part it wasn’t difficult to follow. Mostly it was just different grammar.
So for the most part I enjoyed it. I liked the writing style, and it had a different and unique vibe versus other books I typically read lately. However, I did think the story was a little predictable. I seemed to know where things were going well in advance, except for some of the events toward the end. I also got frustrated with Ti-Jeanne’s obsession with Tony. I felt like it was belabored more than necessary to get the point across to the reader and it grew tiresome to read about. There were also a few events that didn’t quite cross the line into being too convenient in my eyes, but they definitely toed that line.
I had a really hard time deciding on a rating. I’m comfortable with giving it 3.5 stars, but I had trouble deciding whether to round up or down on Goodreads. I eventually decided to round down. 3 stars doesn’t properly represent my enjoyment level and it makes me feel a little stingy, but I can’t justify 4 stars given some of my complaints. I still thought it was a solid read and I’d be interested in trying other books by the author at some point in the future.
There are a few POV characters, but mostly the story focuses on a young, single mother named Ti-Jeanne. She has been having strange, terrifying visions. Meanwhile her ex(ish) deadbeat boyfriend Tony, the father of her young baby, has gotten mixed up with a dangerous posse led by a man who practices dark magic.
Although I didn’t find the book scary, I’d say it definitely leans toward the horror side of fantasy. There are spirits, dark magic, possession by spirits, and a fairly high amount of violence. And the inevitable tarot cards make one appearance. These are actually the horror tropes I tend to enjoy more, as opposed to the “monster books” (like vampires or zombies or whatever) which often become tedious to me. The author was born in Jamaica and I believe the story is based on Caribbean mythology which I was completely unfamiliar with, so I also enjoyed that aspect. Most of the dialogue is written in a Caribbean dialect. A few sentences required re-reading before I could parse them, but for the most part it wasn’t difficult to follow. Mostly it was just different grammar.
So for the most part I enjoyed it. I liked the writing style, and it had a different and unique vibe versus other books I typically read lately. However, I did think the story was a little predictable. I seemed to know where things were going well in advance, except for some of the events toward the end. I also got frustrated with Ti-Jeanne’s obsession with Tony. I felt like it was belabored more than necessary to get the point across to the reader and it grew tiresome to read about. There were also a few events that didn’t quite cross the line into being too convenient in my eyes, but they definitely toed that line.
I had a really hard time deciding on a rating. I’m comfortable with giving it 3.5 stars, but I had trouble deciding whether to round up or down on Goodreads. I eventually decided to round down. 3 stars doesn’t properly represent my enjoyment level and it makes me feel a little stingy, but I can’t justify 4 stars given some of my complaints. I still thought it was a solid read and I’d be interested in trying other books by the author at some point in the future.
Read
December 23, 2015After reading Falling In Love with Hominids, I was determined to go back and read every book Hopkinson has ever written. Brown Girl In the Ring is her first novel, and it’s a powerful beginning to a body of work. It takes place in dystopian Toronto, but it is just as much about the complicated relationships the women in this family have with each other as it is about organ farms. That’s not even mentioning the pantheon of gods that keep trying to force themselves into Ti-Jeanne’s life, while she has enough on her plate just trying to take care of her baby and avoid her charming but dangerous ex-boyfriend. This novel teems with life and seems to expand beyond its pages. I can’t wait to binge-read the rest of Hopkinson’s back list. — Danika Ellis
From The Best Books We Read in December: http://bookriot.com/2015/12/23/riot-r...
From The Best Books We Read in December: http://bookriot.com/2015/12/23/riot-r...
October 4, 2016
Brown Girl in the Ring is set in a future dystopian Toronto, where the wealthy have fled to the suburbs following a large-scale economic collapse fuelled by failed negotiations with local First Nations communities. Infused with magical realism, it follows Ti-Jeanne as she reconnects with her Caribbean culture, largely via her grandmother, Gros-Jeane (who is, as one may call her, an obeah woman) to take down a local gang lord, Rudy.
At first, I really connected with Ti-Jeanne, a single mother with a young baby. I thought she was strong and flawed and thus, quite human. I connected very much to the dialect, being Caribbean-Canadian myself. The setting was also great, as a current Torontonian. I was able to picture the ruins of the places that Ti-Jeanne visited and actually that made it quite scary! Plot-wise, it was quite gritty and intense at some points. Speaking of which, my main issue with the plot was
I thought the writing was quite disjointed and at times difficult to follow. I struggled through some of it, but where this novel fails in prose, it definitely makes up for in its inclusion of cultural ceremonies, language and folklore. I cannot praise this book enough for its references to Caribbean folklore and myth, as well as things like obeah. It was an enlightening experience to read in this sense, particularly for me, a Caribbean-descended woman living in Toronto. Further, we could spend some time interrogating and unpacking what it means for these Caribbean cultural references to have permeated a largely white-, male-dominated genre and industry and how powerful an act of resistance has been created in this work. But I'll save that for an essay.
Brilliant.
At first, I really connected with Ti-Jeanne, a single mother with a young baby. I thought she was strong and flawed and thus, quite human. I connected very much to the dialect, being Caribbean-Canadian myself. The setting was also great, as a current Torontonian. I was able to picture the ruins of the places that Ti-Jeanne visited and actually that made it quite scary! Plot-wise, it was quite gritty and intense at some points. Speaking of which, my main issue with the plot was
I thought the writing was quite disjointed and at times difficult to follow. I struggled through some of it, but where this novel fails in prose, it definitely makes up for in its inclusion of cultural ceremonies, language and folklore. I cannot praise this book enough for its references to Caribbean folklore and myth, as well as things like obeah. It was an enlightening experience to read in this sense, particularly for me, a Caribbean-descended woman living in Toronto. Further, we could spend some time interrogating and unpacking what it means for these Caribbean cultural references to have permeated a largely white-, male-dominated genre and industry and how powerful an act of resistance has been created in this work. But I'll save that for an essay.
Brilliant.
March 27, 2019
Enjoyed the audiobook. Interesting fusion of near future scifi and Caribbean folklore.
4 Stars
Listened to the audiobook. Peter J Fernandez was very good.
4 Stars
Listened to the audiobook. Peter J Fernandez was very good.
August 9, 2018
Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson's first novel, is an impressive work of imagination. Her Haitian dominated near future Toronto is alive with sights and sounds and smells. Her world of Caribbean magics slamming into cutting edge medical tech really works, channelling a little bit of the old RPG Shadowrun but replacing information for organs. I would recommend it to anyone who loves Sci-Fi or Fantasy or Sci-Fantasy.
But I can't muster much more from my personal response than, "That was okay." I want to, but I can't. I put down Brown Girl in the Ring feeling vaguely disappointed. I wish I could tell you why.
But I can't muster much more from my personal response than, "That was okay." I want to, but I can't. I put down Brown Girl in the Ring feeling vaguely disappointed. I wish I could tell you why.
Read
December 3, 2020Update: I just realized I did not add the link to the finished review here - you can go to tor.com to read it!
https://www.tor.com/2019/04/04/quiltb...
*
I think this was my third reread of this book, the first one is pre-Goodreads. Review coming soon in my column at Tor.com, this was a "readers vote with many ticky boxes" choice.
I feel like every time I get something different out of it. This time I found myself thinking this would be such a shoo-in for New Adult (which readers ask for A LOT) but doesn't get characterized as New Adult because it is not a "white protagonist goes to college coming of age" plot but rather "Afro-Caribbean migrant protagonist is a young mother coming of age" plot. On this reread I found myself thinking about the parallels with Vita Nostra, of all things. (Which has a "Russian protagonist goes to college coming of age" plot :) also with magic, like here.)
_______
Source of the book: I no longer remember? Used bookstore?
https://www.tor.com/2019/04/04/quiltb...
*
I think this was my third reread of this book, the first one is pre-Goodreads. Review coming soon in my column at Tor.com, this was a "readers vote with many ticky boxes" choice.
I feel like every time I get something different out of it. This time I found myself thinking this would be such a shoo-in for New Adult (which readers ask for A LOT) but doesn't get characterized as New Adult because it is not a "white protagonist goes to college coming of age" plot but rather "Afro-Caribbean migrant protagonist is a young mother coming of age" plot. On this reread I found myself thinking about the parallels with Vita Nostra, of all things. (Which has a "Russian protagonist goes to college coming of age" plot :) also with magic, like here.)
_______
Source of the book: I no longer remember? Used bookstore?
Read
November 3, 2020I read a terrific list of "The 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time" and have been tracking down all the ones I haven't yet read; I discovered this excellent novel that way.
July 2, 2022
Canadian Caribbean magic in a dystopian future failed Toronto run by a crime lord. Pretty amazing.
July 24, 2009
This book is by a Canadian- Caribbean writer and it’s creative, fresh and *new* for being eleven years old. So I’ve got another new to me favorite writer. The ring of the title is the suburbs that the wealthy and middle class fled Toronto to and have taken with them the police, government and left it in the hands of an organized drug lord. Rudy calls on Caribbean dark spirits (obeah) to consolidate his power, but his ex-wife Mami Gros- Jeanne, her daughter Mi-Jeanne and granddaughter Ti-Jeanne worship the gods and do good.(And yes that naming is very difficult to figure out, and the pronouns are, too.)
“How come I never see you using [tarot cards:] before, Mami?”
“I used to hide it from you when I was seeing with them. I really don’t know why, doux-doux. From since slavery days, we people get in the habit of hiding we business from we own children even, in case a child open he mouth and tell somebody story and get them in trouble. Secrecy was survival, oui? Is a hard habit to break. Besides, remember I try to teach about what I does do, and you run away?”
“But Mami obeah…”
Mami stamped her foot.“Is not obeah!”
“How come I never see you using [tarot cards:] before, Mami?”
“I used to hide it from you when I was seeing with them. I really don’t know why, doux-doux. From since slavery days, we people get in the habit of hiding we business from we own children even, in case a child open he mouth and tell somebody story and get them in trouble. Secrecy was survival, oui? Is a hard habit to break. Besides, remember I try to teach about what I does do, and you run away?”
“But Mami obeah…”
Mami stamped her foot.“Is not obeah!”
June 9, 2010
I think I was mostly disappointed by this book because I came to it with really high expectations - I'd read some great reviews of it, comparing Hopkinson favorably to Octavia Butler, etc.
Well, both writers are black and tend to write about black characters, but there the similarity ends.
This is a reasonably entertaining voodoo adventure story... a young Canadian woman of Caribbean descent, Ti-Jeanne, must take care of her baby, ditch the loser drug-addict boyfriend she's in love with, learn to work with the voodoo spirits, and defeat the gang leader who is running this near-future Toronto - a gang leader who just happens to be involved with evil voodoo - and is her grandfather.
That's all fine - and fun - but that's about as far as it goes. This is not great literature - the characters are all fairly one-dimensional, and it gets to be pretty annoying that ALL the women are strong, long-suffering, resourceful and good, and ALL the men are either weak and useless, or outright evil. The main villain is so evil as to be fairly unbelievable.
This was Hopkinson's first book, so I won't write her off completely, but I'm not planning on going out of my way to get more of her work.
Well, both writers are black and tend to write about black characters, but there the similarity ends.
This is a reasonably entertaining voodoo adventure story... a young Canadian woman of Caribbean descent, Ti-Jeanne, must take care of her baby, ditch the loser drug-addict boyfriend she's in love with, learn to work with the voodoo spirits, and defeat the gang leader who is running this near-future Toronto - a gang leader who just happens to be involved with evil voodoo - and is her grandfather.
That's all fine - and fun - but that's about as far as it goes. This is not great literature - the characters are all fairly one-dimensional, and it gets to be pretty annoying that ALL the women are strong, long-suffering, resourceful and good, and ALL the men are either weak and useless, or outright evil. The main villain is so evil as to be fairly unbelievable.
This was Hopkinson's first book, so I won't write her off completely, but I'm not planning on going out of my way to get more of her work.
February 16, 2009
i think i responded to this more on account of what i learned from it than on the merits of its prose... which isn't to say it's not an enjoyable novel. it's just a bit flat in a few areas, story-wise (atmosphere, characterizations).
the premise is an interesting one. brown girl in the ring concerns a post-apocalyptic toronto, in which a young mother learns to use her caribbean spiritual roots to bring down a local drug dealer. as sci-fi, it's not terribly concerned with alternate realities. in fact, it feels stylistically closer to magic realism, and the "speculative" side of its premise isn't explored in great detail. i wish it left me with a stronger sense of place, to be honest. instead, the scope is mythic, and the characters are somewhat archetypal. there are clear cut heroes and villains throughout, which can feel static and lifeless at times. still, the fable-like structure maintains a certain reverance, and i finished brown girl with the suspicion that a deeper knowledge of caribbean/voodoo/yoruba spiritual practices might have changed the experience dramatically. the book is more concerned with mythology than psychology, perhaps.
the premise is an interesting one. brown girl in the ring concerns a post-apocalyptic toronto, in which a young mother learns to use her caribbean spiritual roots to bring down a local drug dealer. as sci-fi, it's not terribly concerned with alternate realities. in fact, it feels stylistically closer to magic realism, and the "speculative" side of its premise isn't explored in great detail. i wish it left me with a stronger sense of place, to be honest. instead, the scope is mythic, and the characters are somewhat archetypal. there are clear cut heroes and villains throughout, which can feel static and lifeless at times. still, the fable-like structure maintains a certain reverance, and i finished brown girl with the suspicion that a deeper knowledge of caribbean/voodoo/yoruba spiritual practices might have changed the experience dramatically. the book is more concerned with mythology than psychology, perhaps.
March 1, 2018
Even though some of the SciFi/Dystopian aspects did not make sense to me, it not prevent me from enjoying the novel.The magical elements and the use of Afro-Caribbean folklore and spiritual beliefs made it a compelling read. This was a reread for me and I enjoyed it every much as I did the first time around. Nalo Hopkinson is a gifted writer and I've loved everything I've read from her!
January 30, 2024
Really interesting characters and setting, with a story that keeps adding new layers. As other have noted, maybe could be more polished managing all the elements, but overall is not like a lot of what is out there. I've read a lot of Hopkinson's short stories and would also recommend those as a sample of the types of stories she tells. The narrator for the audiobook did a great job.
March 6, 2019
While this book is shelved as a fantasy here on GR, it is actually more of a horror set in post-apoc.
While a lot of US residents cite Canada as an example of how great he USA could be with more liberal policies (esp. now), this book describes Toronto after riots caused by income inequality. The municipal center is now a lawless zone where poor survive, riddled with addicts and the informal power in hands of a sorcerer. Those with money are living in former suburbs and visit former center only as entertainment-seeking tourists.
In this Toronto lives Ti-Jeanne, a young single mother and her grandmother Mami Gros-Jeanne, who practices obeah (a system of spiritual and healing practices developed among enslaved West Africans in the West Indies, which is less known to a western reader than relatively similar voodoo), supplying medical help where the ‘official’ healthcare system failed. Ti-Jeanne has strange vivid dreams about mythical creatures from Caribbean folklore and is afraid that she is going mad like her missing mother. At that time, local crime boss / sorcerer receives a job to supply human heart to local governor and sets his minor underling, Tony (who is the father for Ti-Jeanne’s baby but does not know it) to get it from the streets.
The author uses Caribbean English to convey a lot of dialogues and for non-native speaker like me is sounded a bit off and distracted from the novel. Overall, an interesting read, but not exactly what I like, horrors are not my thing.
While a lot of US residents cite Canada as an example of how great he USA could be with more liberal policies (esp. now), this book describes Toronto after riots caused by income inequality. The municipal center is now a lawless zone where poor survive, riddled with addicts and the informal power in hands of a sorcerer. Those with money are living in former suburbs and visit former center only as entertainment-seeking tourists.
In this Toronto lives Ti-Jeanne, a young single mother and her grandmother Mami Gros-Jeanne, who practices obeah (a system of spiritual and healing practices developed among enslaved West Africans in the West Indies, which is less known to a western reader than relatively similar voodoo), supplying medical help where the ‘official’ healthcare system failed. Ti-Jeanne has strange vivid dreams about mythical creatures from Caribbean folklore and is afraid that she is going mad like her missing mother. At that time, local crime boss / sorcerer receives a job to supply human heart to local governor and sets his minor underling, Tony (who is the father for Ti-Jeanne’s baby but does not know it) to get it from the streets.
The author uses Caribbean English to convey a lot of dialogues and for non-native speaker like me is sounded a bit off and distracted from the novel. Overall, an interesting read, but not exactly what I like, horrors are not my thing.
June 6, 2016
I sat down to read Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring because it is on a CBC Books List of 100 Novels That Make You Proud To Be A Canadian. I'm working my way through it, slowly, although it is annoying that it skews so heavily towards the recent. And there are certain other themes that I am less than happy about.
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
April 24, 2018
I read this and didn’t understand some of what was going on. Have to reread.
October 26, 2017
This book is awesome! Reading this was so easy and Nalo packs in HUGE themes of ethics, Afro-spirituality, immigration, aging, motherhood, poverty, and exploitation. I learned so much about my own Caribbean culture from reading this book based in Toronto, how sway?
I would recommend this book for anyone with an interest in seeing a dystopian world where the spirits and gang lords contend and Afro-Caribbean single mothers are the victors.
P.S.: I hated all the human men in the book :)
I would recommend this book for anyone with an interest in seeing a dystopian world where the spirits and gang lords contend and Afro-Caribbean single mothers are the victors.
P.S.: I hated all the human men in the book :)
January 23, 2018
Brown Girl in the Ring is finally off my "to-read list" after an entire year.
There was/is so much hype around this book and I can see why, it is not usual for an Author of Caribbean background to tackle fantasy in this unique way. While I can't say I love this book, I will say, I strongly appreciate the writing, the characters and the plot. It is clear Nalo Hopkinson is one to watch and I am excited to see what she comes with next.
There was/is so much hype around this book and I can see why, it is not usual for an Author of Caribbean background to tackle fantasy in this unique way. While I can't say I love this book, I will say, I strongly appreciate the writing, the characters and the plot. It is clear Nalo Hopkinson is one to watch and I am excited to see what she comes with next.
December 13, 2020
This was a solid, quick, 3-star read.
Hopkinson knows how to create and sustain tension and draw interesting characters. Still, I was never completely drawn in and missed a deeper emotional impact.
Hopkinson knows how to create and sustain tension and draw interesting characters. Still, I was never completely drawn in and missed a deeper emotional impact.
July 11, 2022
Bullet Review:
Don’t faint - I finished it!
Unlike with my other recent slow read, “Kenobi”, this book was one I avoided. I never really grew to like the characters, while the Jamaican post-apocalyptic setting was interesting, I felt there was too much going on and plot threads that disappeared, the story was way too slow (half the book could easily have been omitted - the parts with Ti-Jeanne ever so slowly doing ANYTHING), and even the end, being the most awesome part of the book, essentially relied on a literal Deus ex Machina.
Full Review:
Ti-Jeanne lives in a post-apocalyptic version of Toronto; at one point, the city collapsed upon itself, and the well-to-do fled the inner city, leaving it behind to those who couldn't flee. She lives with her grandmother, Gros-Jeanne, an herbalist/nurse, who provides her substantial services to her community, and her newborn baby boy, the product of her liaison with Tony, a former med student turned drug (called "buff") addict. Ti-Jeanne is special because she sees visions - she can see how and when people die. But she hides this from her grandmother, partly because of what happened to her mother, Mi-Jeanne. (I feel like I'm missing out on a huge portion of Jamaican culture to understand the naming of these women.) She's struggling with her visions, trying to be a mother to her boy and her relationship with Tony.
Meanwhile, Tony works for drug crime lord, Rudy. Rudy has been tasked to find a human heart for a politician, so he forces Tony to carry out the deed.
And that is probably a good 2/3 of the novel. No, really. This book had the speed of a slug in molasses - a shame because I think this book is doing something unique and special in the drudgery of fantasy or dystopians.
I absolutely loved how this book is about people of color and their culture, what seems to be a form of Jamaican culture by what I've managed to glean. A lot of fantasy turns to Tolkien and White Europe, and I think there is so much more to be gained from the many, many other cultures dotting this planet. By the end of the book, I also really grew to like Mami, Ti-Jeanne's grandmother, a sharp tongued woman who loves her family but may have also contributed to Rudy's rise to power. But I am really having a hard time detailing anything else I enjoyed because the book was so painfully slow.
Firstly, Ti-Jeanne was a rather boring protagonist. I think the setup was there, but she never made that step from child to adult - even at the end, she has to be saved by a literal Deus Ex Machina, a spirit who descends and reminds her what the whole point of her mission is. So if she hadn't received that vision...she would just have never completed the mission and defeated the bad guy? Well, that's lackluster. Instead she spent so much time wangsting over Tony...and walking, I guess. Yes, at the end of this book, when I am desperately grasping at what actually happened, all I can think of is that she did a lot of walking from one place to another. Also, I grappled to describe what her actual fantastical powers are - she communicates with spirits? She can command spirits? It's still so fuzzy to me.
The other problem is just the scope; I feel combining the post-apocalypse with the Jamaican fantasy was unique but not the best done. So this Toronto is dingy - it's not really ever used to any effect in this book. I am really struggling for words to describe this, and I feel a lot has to do with the fact that it's poorly constructed. We see the people making farms out of parks and whatnot, but that may as well be set dressing. It doesn't help Ti-Jeanne in her fight at the end; she faces off the baddies mano-a-mano. Perhaps it is because this is one book set in this time and the author wrote others - then fair. But honestly, it felt strange to call out something as post-apocalyptic and not use it.
And then we have the sub-sub-sub plot of the politician finding a new heart. While that event is the incident which sets off the entire story, I felt it was so poorly integrated, it was a waste of time every time we pulled away from Ti-Jeanne, Tony or Rudy to go to the politician or the doctor. I thought at the end, there would be a great revelation , but what we got was much, much milder . Yawn. Again, maybe this is set up for another book, but I am not going to find out.
I added this book because I wanted to read more scifi and fantasy from non-white authors. And while on one hand, I am glad I tried to read this, on the other, I sorta wish I had peaced-out while I was ahead. At one point, I was so close to the end, I knuckled down and pushed through - and the ending wasn't half bad. (Marred only because of aforementioned Deus Ex Machina.) I think we need more voices adding different fantasy and visions of dystopias; I just didn't happen to like this one very much. But your mileage may vary.
Don’t faint - I finished it!
Unlike with my other recent slow read, “Kenobi”, this book was one I avoided. I never really grew to like the characters, while the Jamaican post-apocalyptic setting was interesting, I felt there was too much going on and plot threads that disappeared, the story was way too slow (half the book could easily have been omitted - the parts with Ti-Jeanne ever so slowly doing ANYTHING), and even the end, being the most awesome part of the book, essentially relied on a literal Deus ex Machina.
Full Review:
Ti-Jeanne lives in a post-apocalyptic version of Toronto; at one point, the city collapsed upon itself, and the well-to-do fled the inner city, leaving it behind to those who couldn't flee. She lives with her grandmother, Gros-Jeanne, an herbalist/nurse, who provides her substantial services to her community, and her newborn baby boy, the product of her liaison with Tony, a former med student turned drug (called "buff") addict. Ti-Jeanne is special because she sees visions - she can see how and when people die. But she hides this from her grandmother, partly because of what happened to her mother, Mi-Jeanne. (I feel like I'm missing out on a huge portion of Jamaican culture to understand the naming of these women.) She's struggling with her visions, trying to be a mother to her boy and her relationship with Tony.
Meanwhile, Tony works for drug crime lord, Rudy. Rudy has been tasked to find a human heart for a politician, so he forces Tony to carry out the deed.
And that is probably a good 2/3 of the novel. No, really. This book had the speed of a slug in molasses - a shame because I think this book is doing something unique and special in the drudgery of fantasy or dystopians.
I absolutely loved how this book is about people of color and their culture, what seems to be a form of Jamaican culture by what I've managed to glean. A lot of fantasy turns to Tolkien and White Europe, and I think there is so much more to be gained from the many, many other cultures dotting this planet. By the end of the book, I also really grew to like Mami, Ti-Jeanne's grandmother, a sharp tongued woman who loves her family but may have also contributed to Rudy's rise to power. But I am really having a hard time detailing anything else I enjoyed because the book was so painfully slow.
Firstly, Ti-Jeanne was a rather boring protagonist. I think the setup was there, but she never made that step from child to adult - even at the end, she has to be saved by a literal Deus Ex Machina, a spirit who descends and reminds her what the whole point of her mission is. So if she hadn't received that vision...she would just have never completed the mission and defeated the bad guy? Well, that's lackluster. Instead she spent so much time wangsting over Tony...and walking, I guess. Yes, at the end of this book, when I am desperately grasping at what actually happened, all I can think of is that she did a lot of walking from one place to another. Also, I grappled to describe what her actual fantastical powers are - she communicates with spirits? She can command spirits? It's still so fuzzy to me.
The other problem is just the scope; I feel combining the post-apocalypse with the Jamaican fantasy was unique but not the best done. So this Toronto is dingy - it's not really ever used to any effect in this book. I am really struggling for words to describe this, and I feel a lot has to do with the fact that it's poorly constructed. We see the people making farms out of parks and whatnot, but that may as well be set dressing. It doesn't help Ti-Jeanne in her fight at the end; she faces off the baddies mano-a-mano. Perhaps it is because this is one book set in this time and the author wrote others - then fair. But honestly, it felt strange to call out something as post-apocalyptic and not use it.
And then we have the sub-sub-sub plot of the politician finding a new heart. While that event is the incident which sets off the entire story, I felt it was so poorly integrated, it was a waste of time every time we pulled away from Ti-Jeanne, Tony or Rudy to go to the politician or the doctor. I thought at the end, there would be a great revelation , but what we got was much, much milder . Yawn. Again, maybe this is set up for another book, but I am not going to find out.
I added this book because I wanted to read more scifi and fantasy from non-white authors. And while on one hand, I am glad I tried to read this, on the other, I sorta wish I had peaced-out while I was ahead. At one point, I was so close to the end, I knuckled down and pushed through - and the ending wasn't half bad. (Marred only because of aforementioned Deus Ex Machina.) I think we need more voices adding different fantasy and visions of dystopias; I just didn't happen to like this one very much. But your mileage may vary.
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