Black Cake

By: Charmaine Wilkerson

“Question yourself, yes, but don’t doubt yourself. There’s a difference.”

Eleanor Bennet has passed away, leaving her two children Benny (Benedetta) and Byron. Elanor’s attorney, Mr. Mitch, has summoned Benny and Benedetta to listen to a recording that their mother made prior to her death. Their inheritance? The recording and black cake. While listening to the recording, they learn of a woman who escaped the islands under suspicion of murder, and that their mother had a lot of secrets that leaves them asking themselves, “Did we ever really know our mother?” Benny and Byron used to be closed, but after one terrible holiday, they have grown apart. Will their mother’s death bring them back together?

I understand why a lot of people liked this book. However, once again, this book just wasn’t for me. I didn’t like the style of writing at all, and the book could be confusing at times. There was SO much telling me what happened instead of me experiencing what happened. The lack of dialogue in this book is astounding. Benny and Byron were supposed to be listening to their mother’s recording, but what we got were chapters that were told from different perspectives. Then a new character would come in and the reader wouldn’t know how they fit in until later. While it did make sense later, what wound up happening was I didn’t care about the new character at all. I think the concept of the book was great, there was just an issue with the execution. It really felt very choppy. Now that I think about it, it was almost like this author wrote this book to be a movie instead of a book. I can see Benny and Byron coming together to listen to the recording, and as the recording plays, we are brought back in time to when their mother was little and the story unfolded. Because of that, the characters lacked depth. Just another book that wasn’t for me, but everyone else seems to love!

You can get your copy of this book here.