Title: BLACK CAKE
Author: Charmaine Wilkerson
Read: September 2024
My Rating: all the stars! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Book Description:
We can’t choose what we inherit. But
can we choose who we become?
In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling
inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a
family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message,
Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes
her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor
unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child
challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and
themselves.
Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together
Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake
when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back
together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?
Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of
betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and
history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an
extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the
choices of its matriarch.
My musings:
Oh my aching heart! How I loved this book – such an
emotional, well-written story about family and belonging, one I will remember
for a long time to come. Reviews for favourite books are the hardest to write,
but I will try to put into words how this story affected me. I will go as far
as to say that it was my favourite book for 2024!
I love stories about family secrets and sibling
relationships, so was instantly intrigued by Eleanor Bennett’s deathbed message
to her children. Over an eight-hour recording, she confides aspects of her past
that will change Byron and Benny’s lives in ways they could never have
anticipated.
Wilkerson knows how to bring her characters to life, and it
didn’t take long for them to worm their way into my mind and my heart. They all
felt so real to me! There was so much to unwrap here: strong women, love, race,
culture, belonging, sexuality, family dysfunction, and lots of secrets, all
handled sensitively and with lots of heart. At the end, I felt happy and in
tears at the same time, realising that these wonderful characters will stay in
my mind for a while yet.
BLACK CAKE is a book to savour
slowly and deliberately, getting to know the background of each character and
what drives them. Like the cake the book is named after, this is a rich and
flavoursome story steeped in love and a multitude of flavours that all blend
together to form an amazing whole. Set against the atmospheric backdrop of a
small Caribbean island, there was an element of armchair travel as well that made
me want to jump on a plane and go there.
I’m really lost for words here – if only my heart could
speak and express how much this book affected me. A truly wonderful story, very
highly recommended!
