Brown Girl in the Ring
Ratings11
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings11
Average rating3.5
Set in Toronto after the turn of the millennium, Brown Girl in the Ring focuses on "The Burn," the inner city left when Toronto's economic base collapsed. Young Ti-Jeanne lives with her grandmother, who runs a trade in herbal medicine that is vital to the disenfranchised of The Burn. A fascinating cast of characters combined with the dark world of Afro-Caribbean magic create an altogether original and compelling story by an intriguing new voice.
Reviews with the most likes.
The strongest parts of this book have to do with the wonderful details about the relationships between women–the central protagonist and her mother and grandmother. There is nothing simple about these relationships, and they ring true. The book is worth reading for this stuff alone.
I didn't enjoy the plot, or the “magical realism” (is it really still magical realism when a spell makes somebody invisible?–seems like just magic); I suspect that so-called “urban fantasy” isn't my favorite flavor of fantasy, which is no fault of the book, but I also think that the plot and setting weren't strong enough to hold the wonderful characters. Two characters talking?–GREAT BOOK. Two characters out in the “magical” world?– YOU LOST ME.
I'll likely try another book by Hopkinson, since this was her first, just because I liked the characters so much...
Brown Girl in the Ring is the story of a dystopian, futuristic Toronto that's falling apart from the neglect of the larger authorities around it - in other words, it's very contemporary, only with added elements of Caribbean supernatural folktales added in.
All that is background, though. The story that really matters here is that of a young woman coming into her own, taking the beliefs and responsibilities of her ancestors' culture and making them work for her in a modern, contemporary way. It's a complex and interesting character-based work, and it's hard to describe what makes it work as well as it does.
