Review of Kalayla

[t_mann23]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Kalayla" by Jeannie Nicholas.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Kalayla is a heartwarming story revolving around three characters as they overcome the trauma of their pasts. The titular character, Kalayla, is an eleven-year-old girl whose father recently died. She is loud-mouthed, impulsive, unafraid to speak her mind, and has no friends or interests. Her mother, Maureen, struggles to take care of Kalayla while coping with her husband’s death and the ghosts of her past—a past she has lied to Kalayla about. Lastly, their landlady, Lena, is a seventy-two-year-old widow and mother of four boys, two of whom died years ago. When Kalayla and Maureen move into the apartment across from Lena, she finds herself drawn to Kalayla in the hopes that she can help the child in ways she couldn’t help her own children.

I have never read a book quite like Jeannie Nicholas’ Kalayla. Above all else, this novel is a character study. All three of the main characters start the novel in a somewhat problematic mindset and end it in a healthy one. Their arcs interweave and connect in ways to propel the other characters forward at the same time as they advance themselves. The book dives deep into Lena’s troubled romantic history and the upbringing of her children and how that still affects her in the present. Maureen’s past is presented in a way that makes it clear why she lies to Kalayla, no matter how ill-advised the decision is. Kalayla’s childhood illustrates why she behaves the way she does, making it easy to understand her journey throughout the novel. By the end of the novel, I was so invested in these characters that I was truly disappointed when I read the last page.

As the book is written from three different perspectives, I loved how we are able to see into all three characters’ heads and understand their thoughts and feelings about each event and discovery. It creates such a rich picture of these people and how they interact that I only wanted what was best for them and sympathized heavily when things didn’t go their way. Additionally, the writing is excellent. I particularly enjoyed Kalayla’s chapters, which I thought properly conveyed a young girl’s personality and thought process.

Unfortunately, there are two things I did not like. There are a few chapters in which the perspective briefly changes to a character who had previously never narrated, which I thought was unnecessary. It could have easily been avoided and made the reading experience smoother. Secondly, some chapters have timecards between them, and each time I encountered one, I thought that meant some time had passed since the last chapter. However, the next chapter usually picks up right where the last one left off. This was confusing for me and I thought it would have been clearer to omit the timecards entirely, as the passage of time came about naturally in the narration.

Overall, I rate Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas 4 out of 4 stars. Despite the confusing timecards and perspective changes, they did not take away from my reading experience too much, and I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. It is exceptionally well-edited as I found few minor errors. There is profanity and allusion to sensitive topics such as rape, domestic abuse, and sexuality, as well as explicit discussions of racism, so I recommend this book to adult audiences who are open to delicate subjects such as these.

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Kalayla
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[MsH2k]

That’s an interesting point about the timecards—I hadn’t noticed them as much. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel too. Thank you for a lovely review!

[Kira Bonita Reece]

This novel was well written and very interesting. I really liked the characters. Very good review

[Bradley Shelvie]

Well, the perspective used in the book may be confusing for readers encountering it for the first time, but I loved it. Nice review!