Review of Kalayla
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Shauna Franklin-High
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Review of Kalayla
[Following is a volunteer review of "Kalayla" by Jeannie Nicholas.]
In Kalayla, Jeannie Nicholas tells the story of two women and a young girl as they struggle through the challenges and injustices life throws at them. Lena is an old widow living in one of the many apartment buildings she and her family own. She has spent years mourning her sons' deaths and bottling away her past's secret trauma. Kalayla is a young girl with a rude personality, terrible manners, and a foul mouth. She spends her days alone, walking the streets and keeping watch at the local laundromat. When their paths cross, Lena can't help but want to find ways to entertain Kalayla to keep her safe and supervised. However, Lena soon meets Kalayla's mother, Maureen, who is a big ball of anxiety after the death of her husband. When Lena learns of Maureen's family secret and one enormous lie she told to cover it up, Lena soon realizes that she has her work cut out for her to take care of Maureen and Kalayla while working to overcome her own trauma.
This book tackles many challenges, the first being constantly switching its first-person point of view between multiple characters. Nicholas skillfully uses voice to differentiate the narrators, making it easy for the reader to keep track of who is telling the story at any time while also building her characters. Kalayla's narration is littered with profanity, shortened words such as "'cause," "'cept," and "'fore," and exaggerations such as having to "wait about a year" for someone to catch their breath. When Lena is narrating, she has a habit of inserting the phrase "Sweet Jesus!" as well as using educated language such as "unkind" instead of "not nice," and "I took myself over to Maureen's" instead of" I went to Maureen's." Finally, Maureen's narrations are filled with her panicked rambling and anxious overthinking.
Unfortunately, some of the main issues addressed also seem to be the novel's weaknesses. The issue of racism is a huge one to tackle. In this novel, Kalayla herself (and the audience) has no positive black role models, which is disappointing in a novel about racism. Kalayla's paternal grandparents make very brief appearances and mentions, but they are portrayed as mostly intimidating and strict with a lack of warmth. Kalayla's uncle is a sleaze who tries to rape Maureen and sexualizes Kalayla (a child), saying she'll be a "looker like [her] mama" and suggesting she eventually "pass for white and find...a sugar daddy." Kalayla's father, only present in brief flashbacks, seems to be the only potentially positive black role model, occupying an almost non-existent presence in the novel as well as Kalayla's own life.
Although Maureen came to be aware of racism when she first married a black man, she focuses very little on the big picture (the horrors of racism) and mostly on how it affects her personally as a white woman (being disowned by her family). This reader hoped Maureen would develop more by the end of the novel. Indeed, Maureen's character is another weakness of the novel. It is appreciated that Nicholas has attempted to write a character clearly struggling with mental illness, but Maureen comes off as obnoxious and immature, and much like Kalayla, this reader was constantly wishing Maureen would shut up. She is unable to do anything herself, and her answer for everything is to just go ask Lena. Lena even observes that "Maureen was a child, too." Any character development Maureen may have comes within the last few pages of the novel, too little, too late, and this reader was still left with a bad taste in their mouth.
I give this novel 3 out of 4 stars. It seemed to be exceptionally well-edited, and after consideration, this reader believes that any (few) uncounted grammar errors found were due to voice and therefore intentional. This book touches on many important issues that are relevant today, making it a good discussion starter. However, as previously mentioned, it falls short of handling some of these issues perfectly. This is a refreshing, bold debut novel, but the author should not shy away from fully committing to the important issues she has chosen to write about.
This novel is recommended for anyone looking to read something with a predominantly female cast. Readers tired of books that fail the Bechdel test will most likely find this book refreshing. When considering this book for young adults, one should be aware that it is littered with profanity and contains scenes and mentions of abuse and rape. Despite all of this, this reader recommends this book for mature young adults as a way to introduce and discuss these very important, relevant issues that young adults are at risk of facing themselves. Parents and their children would benefit from reading and discussing this book together.
******
Kalayla
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
In Kalayla, Jeannie Nicholas tells the story of two women and a young girl as they struggle through the challenges and injustices life throws at them. Lena is an old widow living in one of the many apartment buildings she and her family own. She has spent years mourning her sons' deaths and bottling away her past's secret trauma. Kalayla is a young girl with a rude personality, terrible manners, and a foul mouth. She spends her days alone, walking the streets and keeping watch at the local laundromat. When their paths cross, Lena can't help but want to find ways to entertain Kalayla to keep her safe and supervised. However, Lena soon meets Kalayla's mother, Maureen, who is a big ball of anxiety after the death of her husband. When Lena learns of Maureen's family secret and one enormous lie she told to cover it up, Lena soon realizes that she has her work cut out for her to take care of Maureen and Kalayla while working to overcome her own trauma.
This book tackles many challenges, the first being constantly switching its first-person point of view between multiple characters. Nicholas skillfully uses voice to differentiate the narrators, making it easy for the reader to keep track of who is telling the story at any time while also building her characters. Kalayla's narration is littered with profanity, shortened words such as "'cause," "'cept," and "'fore," and exaggerations such as having to "wait about a year" for someone to catch their breath. When Lena is narrating, she has a habit of inserting the phrase "Sweet Jesus!" as well as using educated language such as "unkind" instead of "not nice," and "I took myself over to Maureen's" instead of" I went to Maureen's." Finally, Maureen's narrations are filled with her panicked rambling and anxious overthinking.
Unfortunately, some of the main issues addressed also seem to be the novel's weaknesses. The issue of racism is a huge one to tackle. In this novel, Kalayla herself (and the audience) has no positive black role models, which is disappointing in a novel about racism. Kalayla's paternal grandparents make very brief appearances and mentions, but they are portrayed as mostly intimidating and strict with a lack of warmth. Kalayla's uncle is a sleaze who tries to rape Maureen and sexualizes Kalayla (a child), saying she'll be a "looker like [her] mama" and suggesting she eventually "pass for white and find...a sugar daddy." Kalayla's father, only present in brief flashbacks, seems to be the only potentially positive black role model, occupying an almost non-existent presence in the novel as well as Kalayla's own life.
Although Maureen came to be aware of racism when she first married a black man, she focuses very little on the big picture (the horrors of racism) and mostly on how it affects her personally as a white woman (being disowned by her family). This reader hoped Maureen would develop more by the end of the novel. Indeed, Maureen's character is another weakness of the novel. It is appreciated that Nicholas has attempted to write a character clearly struggling with mental illness, but Maureen comes off as obnoxious and immature, and much like Kalayla, this reader was constantly wishing Maureen would shut up. She is unable to do anything herself, and her answer for everything is to just go ask Lena. Lena even observes that "Maureen was a child, too." Any character development Maureen may have comes within the last few pages of the novel, too little, too late, and this reader was still left with a bad taste in their mouth.
I give this novel 3 out of 4 stars. It seemed to be exceptionally well-edited, and after consideration, this reader believes that any (few) uncounted grammar errors found were due to voice and therefore intentional. This book touches on many important issues that are relevant today, making it a good discussion starter. However, as previously mentioned, it falls short of handling some of these issues perfectly. This is a refreshing, bold debut novel, but the author should not shy away from fully committing to the important issues she has chosen to write about.
This novel is recommended for anyone looking to read something with a predominantly female cast. Readers tired of books that fail the Bechdel test will most likely find this book refreshing. When considering this book for young adults, one should be aware that it is littered with profanity and contains scenes and mentions of abuse and rape. Despite all of this, this reader recommends this book for mature young adults as a way to introduce and discuss these very important, relevant issues that young adults are at risk of facing themselves. Parents and their children would benefit from reading and discussing this book together.
******
Kalayla
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Smart Love by Vincent Fudge II
