3.5
Caul Baby
ByPublisher Description
Laila desperately wants to become a mother, but each of her previous pregnancies has ended in heartbreak. This time has to be different, so she turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family known for their caul, a precious layer of skin that is the secret source of their healing power.
When a deal for Laila to acquire a piece of caul falls through, she is heartbroken, but when the child is stillborn, she is overcome with grief and rage. What she doesn't know is that a baby will soon be delivered in her family—by her niece, Amara, an ambitious college student—and delivered to the Melancons to raise as one of their own. Hallow is special: she's born with a caul, and their matriarch, Maman, predicts the girl will restore the family's prosperity.
Growing up, Hallow feels that something in her life is not right. Did Josephine, the woman she calls mother, really bring her into the world? Why does her cousin Helena get to go to school and roam the streets of New York freely while she's confined to the family's decrepit brownstone?
As the Melancons' thirst to maintain their status grows, Amara, now a successful lawyer running for district attorney, looks for a way to avenge her longstanding grudge against the family. When mother and daughter cross paths, Hallow will be forced to decide where she truly belongs . . .
Engrossing, unique, and page-turning,
illuminates the search for familial connection, the enduring power of tradition, and the dark corners of the human heart.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesCaul Baby Reviews
3.5
“I was really drawn to the story's elements history and folklore, as well as it's themes of legacy and community, but I think the execution was a bit off. I felt like this was a book where too much and not enough happened. So many events occurred, but I expected the characters to interact more within them and to be able to learn through that interaction who they are and how they relate to each other. Instead the events just kind of played out through exposition and the narrative moved along. Asali's trial is a great example. I expected to see Amara navigating her job and her identity, the decisions she was choosing to make, I expected Hallow to engaged in the dissent towards the trial, and I anticipated that they would meet and clash as a result. But the trial is over so fast and we don't get to see them interact with it in any meaningful way.
The most anticipated relationship/moment of the whole book - Amara and Hallow meeting - came so late in the story and was so fleeting that I didn't feel like I got any time to sit with them, to see how they build a relationship, how they reconcile the very different people they seem to be. The ending itself felt rushed, but the extended exposition of what happened to each character dragged on; I don't personally mind mystery or ambiguity.
The first quarter of the book was propulsive; I was engaged and excited and moved by Laila and Amara, and by Denise. So much was established skillfully to set the environment and the community in which we meet the Melancon's, and then for me the story slowed significantly and stopped really letting me live in the moments before we were on to the next.”
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