#Amanda Overton needs to be arrested

[epifaniatododia]

the little hip thrust to push the hand even deeper..

[ckameley]

Finished Song of Night last night

There were some minor aspects of the story that I think didn't serve any meaningful purpose besides unnecessarily perpetuating the idea that descendants of the transatlantic slave trade may experience a confused web of (sexual) trauma. The two paragraphs with incestuous under/overtones for these 2 tertiary characters fell flat to me and didn't provide any compelling context to what contributed to their issues, so it could've been left out

Honestly, I felt like the last bit of the book spent too much time giving context to tertiary characters who didn't need their issues contextualized. Aside from Augusta Baptiste, I didn't need a page (or multiple) dedicated to these people who knew Night. And the reason that Augusta's story mattered was because it was relevant to her relationship with Night and she is implicated in a major event in Night's life

I didn't need to see Dr. Mayhem try to get back with his estranged wife who he wasn't faithful to cause he wanted to have sex with young virgins. You could've established that she rejected him trying to rekindle their marriage in a simple dialogue between her and Night/Amanda in a throwaway line or two

Concerning the ending, it wasn't that satisfying after having to read too many pages about characters who essentially are non-factors (like WHY am I reading about Sailor doing his business just because he was the one who saw Night with a tourist and told Breeze). We knew that something bad happened surrounding Night to cause her to get arrested from the jump, and by the time what happened happened it was clear what was coming at you. I didn't expect the person to be who it was until they were the only one with her

So many of Night's actions in the story make little sense to the average person. She just seemed like a vehicle with little empathy and not enough sense to actually face the complex emotions that come with life, therefore she just goes through life with a hard (nonsensical) head. Thinking about it now, she's just a static character to me

It was cool that the story was set in Barbados though. I enjoyed how it addressed the state of Barbados, it's history, the relationship between Black Bajans and Black Americans, etc.

It was a good read