Afterlove: Tik Tok made me buy it!

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Ingrid Persaud’s compelling debut takes off with the death of Sunil, an alcoholic who regularly beats up his wife, Betty, and occasionally his son too, in his drunken spells. His story is one that does not elicit much curiosity. He is one of those countless men who turn into monsters when alcohol is in their systems. But otherwise, they are normal, functioning adults (or so the society would like us to believe). Thankfully, Sunil’s atrocities come to a sudden halt when he slips on the stairs and dies. The mother-son duo of Betty and Solo are given a new lease of life. Their family is complete when Mr. Chetan, a Maths teacher, moves in as a lodger. Betty Ramdin was only twenty years old when she met married her husband Sunil. The marriage was Betty’s way to get some form of freedom, live in and run her own house. The marriage started off great but soon evolved into a toxic relationship Betty could not leave. A few years into the marriage Betty has Solo, her one son who she dotes and maybe spoils a lot. When things in the marriage gets rough, Betty’s only focus is protecting her son from Sunil. On the night of Solo’s birthday, Betty’s husband died from falling down the stairs. At age forty Betty is now on her own raising her son and looking after a house that is entirely too much for her. In the book, we follow Ash as she meets and falls in love with Poppy. But then the unthinkable happens and Ash wakes up, neither quite dead nor quite alive, but in between. A reaper, tasked with escorting the souls of the dead to the afterlife. Betty and Chetan both individually consider whether it could become more, but there's a good reason why it can't/won't. One night, with the help of a bottle of rum, they explore the question once and for all...and, no. It wouldn’t be the first time I took a six for a nine. (Betty)

THE WRITTEN!!!!! I never really pay attention to writing (only if it's really bad cough cough) but omg the author knows how to write, knows how to touch you and make you cry!!! knows how to show what the characters are feeling in the best possible way. it's poetical, even the monologues!!!! they are not boring!!!

Stout's attention to experiences of abandonment, betrayal, and disillusionment adds to the growing scholarship on Cuban sexual identities under neoliberalism and raises important question about populations in Cuba's economies of desire who have reached the outer limits of affective exchanges." — Karina Lissette Cespedes, GLQ Since then, she has written three young adult novels, including FLOORED, a unique collaborative novel with six other bestselling and award-winning authors: Sara Barnard, Holly Bourne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson and Eleanor Wood. As Genevieve prepares to move away, Mary makes some food for Solomon. When Genevieve walks in, she and Solomon get into another heated argument, culminating with Mary slapping Solomon and Genevieve scolding Mary for hitting him. Later, Mary admits to Genevieve that she's Ahmed's wife and she came to their house to get information. Furious, Genevieve demands to know where Ahmed is. After Solomon walks in the room, Mary says that Ahmed died. Solomon tries to call Ahmed, only for his phone to ring in Mary's handbag, confirming that Mary posed as Ahmed. Genevieve then throws Mary out of her house. In After Love, Noelle Stout provides a refreshing take on a widely-studied topic: sex tourism and hustling in contemporary Cuba. Focusing on a handful of case studies of mostly young habaneros trying to get by in a hostile economy and rapidly changing social and political environment, this is ethnography at its best: powerful portrayals of daily life presented in an engaging and elegant style." — Carrie Hamilton, Journal of Latin American Studies

White, James (8 September 2020). "BFI London Film Festival 2020 Full Line-Up Announced, Including Ammonite, Soul And More". Empire . Retrieved 6 December 2021. Love After Loveis funny, REALLY funny. It made me ugly cry and put me right in Trinidad. A story of second chances and third chances, love and secrets. But, the main thing for me were the voices of Betty, Mr. Chetan, and Solo—brilliant characterisation.This will be big!” —Jessie Burton,#1 internationally bestselling author of The Miniaturistand The Confession Mr. Chetan is a closet gay man who also is victimised by society. Eventually he does come out (not a big spoiler) and tries to connect with a former lover. How a Mothers secret comes out from being hidden that is overheard by her son Solo. The actions and journey he goes on was so real in my head. What he did I felt, I hurt when he hurt.

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For millions of Caribbean people, I am writing in the very real English of a very real place" -- for her to profess to be a writer of representing real English in the Caribbean, I find it unsettling. Yes, some Caribbean people do speak in dialect similar to characters in Persaud's work but not all do. This is crucial for readers to understand, especially those whose first look into Trinidad or the Caribbean is through the skewed lens of Persaud. But Ash can’t forget her first love, Poppy, and she will do anything to see her again…even if it means they only get a few more days together. Dead or alive… Normally when an author squeezes a lot of topical themes in a book, things become messy but Ingrid Persaud does manage to pull it off . True the book is a bit messy but there’s verve, definitely aided by using dialect. Although the topics are serious there’s always some humor running through the book. Plus there’s an insight to Trinidad’s society and customs, something which I enjoyed reading about. I can’t help but think that if I had read this book as a teenager, when my problems seemed never-ending, perhaps my life would have been different. The representation of a healthy relationship between two teenage girls is something that I missed, but I’m glad that many other teenagers will now be able to read this story and feel heard. They will be able to hold onto this book when things are difficult for them. This is the main reason I have felt this book so close to my heart and why I would recommend it to everyone who has experienced growing up as a queer teenager. I did not think the second half of the book was as strong as the first half. I realize a setup is needed for things to come near the end but it did seem to drag on for a bit. There is substance to the second half, but I wish I could have better maintained my interest level.

For Khan, the turning point came at university, when he began to come to terms with his own sexuality – and to lose faith in his religion. “I was grappling with how to reconcile between gay and Muslim,” he recalls, “and it was only later that I understood that identities are not independent or uni-dimensional, but multiple and intersecting.” His crisis coincided with something similar that was happening to his mother. “Things happen in families when the kids grow up,” is all he will say about that. But that didn’t affect my liking of the story so much, thankfully. I was still fully invested throughout and desperately hoping that the foretold ending would actually somehow be subverted. Afterlove is written in first person from the POV of Ash and this strengthened the emotions in this book even further, as you’re constantly in Ash’s headspace, which is not always the easiest place to be. But it’s not all gloom and doom, as Ash settles into her reaper life she discovers things about herself and about life in general and the book ends on a lighter note. I was careless. I'd left the rolling pin on the drain board. Easy reach of Sunil's chair. That rolling pin might have hit the wall, or the bed, or the chair. But it found me. Doctor said the ulna and the radius snapped in two. My arm was in a cast when we buried Sunil a week later. I must admit, I have never read a novel with any LGBTQ+ characters or relationships before, so I do not have anything to compare this novel to, except that I felt so much heartache and love for these characters, just as much as all the other love stories I have read before, so I think it is absolutely brilliant. I will definitely be looking to read more from Tanya!

Queer Intimacy and Erotic Economies in Post-Soviet Cuba

Rep: Indo-Guyanese British lesbian female MC, white British lesbian female love interest, BIPOC hijabi cishet female side character, Indo-Guyanese parents, Indo-Guyanese British female side character, BIPOC female side characters. Love after Love is an absolutely engrossing exploration of love in all its forms, both beautiful and brutal. It is peopled with wonderful fully realized characters who live on your head and heart long after the book is closed. This is an amazingly good debut novel. We shouldn’t be surprised. Trinidadian Ingrid Persaud won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2017 and the BBC Short Story Award in 2018. I’m sure Love after Love will be similarly successful. Thank you NetGalley and Hodder Children’s Books for this wonderful ARC. My favourite LGBT YA book of the past two years. The Henna Wars meet Scythe! The After section was just as compelling. I was so curious to see what would happen to Ash, how the reapers worked and if she'd find Poppy again. I loved these characters so much. The ending was equally sad as the rest of this, but no other ending would've fit for this book. Make sure you read the author's note too because it made everything even MORE emotional. I definitely want to read Byrne's other work after this. There was something about this emotional crossover that had always stayed with me,” he adds. “The question of what is left of yourself when you change yourself and revolve so much around someone else. When that person leaves or dies, how do we begin to recalibrate and find our sense of self again?” Making this film allowed my dormant trauma to find an outlet and purpose Aleem Khan