Publishers Weekly
09/02/2024
Blue follows Bad Love with an affecting tale of a British Ghanaian woman’s buried trauma. By day, 30-year-old London massage therapist Whitney Appiah relieves the psychic pain lodged in her clients’ muscles, but at night she is haunted by nightmares triggered by faint memories of something sinister she experienced at age three in Kumasi, Ghana, leading up to her father’s death. Her aunt said her father died from a disease and whisked her away to London to raise her (her mother had died in childbirth), but the truth, which her fractured memories circle around, comes out later. Whitney’s avoidant nature is brought into stark relief after her ex-lover rapes her and she chooses not to tell anyone or press charges. As the narrative shifts between contemporary London and mid-1990s Ghana, Blue skillfully contrasts the dialect and customs of Whitney’s traditional Ghanaian family with her current life of clubbing and eating takeaway with her roommate, Chantelle, and her Malaysian Australian friend, Jak, who is nonbinary. Whitney’s character develops after Chantelle breaks up with her abusive boyfriend, jolting Whitney into recognizing the truth about her father’s death and other painful moments from her early childhood. This powerful story of friendship, sisterhood, and resilience will linger in readers’ minds. (Oct.)Correction: An earlier version of this review confused some of the background details of the characters Chantelle and Jak.
From the Publisher
"Blue’s evocative prose and keen insights make for a compelling read, inviting reflection on the nature of trauma and the quest for identity. This powerful story affirms Blue’s place as a significant voice in contemporary literature." — Booklist (starred review)
"The Rest of You is a moving exploration of friendship, family, grief, loss, boundary violations and healing that highlights the unexpected ways in which past actions echo in the present time. Whitney, Gloria, Aretha, and Maame Serwa’s stories will keep you turning the pages, eager for more. Maame Blue is a brilliant and discerning wordsmith and The Rest of You is a must read." — Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi, author of Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions
"A novel that doesn’t shy away from the modern issues of being Black and female. At times heartbreaking, this portrait of a family coming to terms with a tragic past is vivid and tender." — Louise Hare, author of This Lovely City
"Maame’s skill at crafting characters that take bits of your heart with them as you read the final pages is a true gift. Following the characters through the intertwining of multiple timelines brought forth the force that yearning and longing actually possess. A wonderful book!" — Kelechi Okafor, author of Edge of Here and Strong Like Me
Kirkus Reviews
2024-08-03
A young Ghanaian British masseuse comes to terms with long-buried memories.
Blue’s first novel to be published in the U.S. moves between London in the present day and Ghana in the mid-1990s. In the present, Whitney Appiah has just turned 30. Traumatized by a recent sexual attack, she is beginning to experience splintered dreams of her early childhood in Ghana, which she left with the aunt she calls Ma Gloria when she was 3, after the deaths of both her parents. Back in Ghana in 1995, the point of view shifts between Gloria and her younger sister, Aretha, who have helped raise Whitney since her mother died in childbirth and who observe the events leading up to the death of Whitney’s father and Gloria’s move with Whitney to London. Over the course of a year, with the help of her friends Chantelle and Jak as well as considerable pressure put on the loving but reluctant Gloria, Whitney begins to make sense of the past that has been concealed from her. The novel’s London sections are written in second person (“You felt like you were vibrating, the music adding to the pounding in your chest”), though it’s not clear why. The novel’s primary strength lies in its rich depiction of the lives of young women who have emigrated to London from around the world, whether in childhood or later, as they make the most of what the city has to offer and find their ways through multiple life changes. The secrets of Whitney’s past aren’t likely to surprise the reader, and some significant threads, including a supposed family curse and a revenge plot, are left dangling.
Blue’s sympathetic, complex characters deserve a more developed story.
