Brown Girl in the Ring

A masterpiece of postcolonial literary sf, rightfully belonging alongside those of Octavia Butler, Ursula le Guin, and the dystopias of fellow Canadian Margaret Atwood, and Hopkinson is as powerful a storyteller as her peers. Seeing through the eyes of Brown Girl's Jamaican and Caribbean characters might be challenging at first for certain readers more accustomed to the voices almost always given precedence in conventional literature, but its story is as fully immersive as a ceremonial drum rhythm. With its Afrofuturistic elements and its initially bleak but ultimately hopeful vision of a city after/beyond local collapse of the nation-state, I would even call Brown Girl in the Ring a foundational classic not just of the still-emerging solarpunk movement, but also of its younger sibling lunarpunk, a darker and more mystical imagining of how such futures may unfold.

I read this book back when I was in school (many years ago it seems), back then it left an impression on my 17 year old self. It was a book I actually enjoyed getting as homework.

I decided to revisit it, and I'm glad I did, a lot of the characters and storyline were muddled up in time, and I feel that I got a fresh read out of this book again.

Having grown up in some of the areas that are in this book (and more importantly around the time this book was published) , it definitely brings me a bit closer to the story.

I read this book back when I was in school (many years ago it seems), back then it left an impression on my 17 year old self. It was a book I actually enjoyed getting as homework.

I decided to revisit it, and I'm glad I did, a lot of the characters and storyline were muddled up in time, and I feel that I got a fresh read out of this book again.

Having grown up in some of the areas that are in this book (and more importantly around the time this book was published) , it definitely brings me a bit closer to the story.