I was so excited to get my hands on this book and my energy for the story - or rather, three stories in one - was maintained from the moment I started reading In Every Mirror She's Black through to when I read the final sentence just four days later (which is not how quickly I normally read books what with two young kids and being deep in the edits of two books of my own - a compliment in itself!).

As mentioned above, this book really tells three different stories, those of Kemi, Brittany and Muna, three Black women who all end up in Stockholm, Sweden. They are all three connected by a white Swedish man, Jonny van Lundin, and the role he plays in all their lives are quite different, which becomes a great angle to also tell his story, which itself is complicated.

As the title suggests, much of Kemi, Brittany, and Muna's stories are impacted by the fact they are Black and what this means living and working in Stockholm and Sweden (and indeed, I imagine, in many other countries in Northern Europe). I appreciated the three very different ways these women moved around the city with different backgrounds and socio-economic status', although at times this felt jarring and confronting - as indeed it should because to only focus on the "easier" or more "romantic" journeys in this book would be to not tell the full story and I respect the author for committing to this.

Spoiler

The ending was also not what I expected - and indeed made me cry and feel a big wave of hopelessness and sadness for two of the characters - but again I give credit to the author for not wrapping their stories up in a nice neat bow, because it prompted me to be mindful of how life doesn't always work like that, especially not for a Black woman of any background, in a city like Stockholm.

At times, In Every Mirror She's Black, read like a beautifully- and urgently-written romance novel, at other times it was a raw and honest take on the failings of our (white-washed!) world and the darkest side of humanity, but always it was written with fully-developed and intriguing characters, fast-paced scenes that built relationships and tension adeptly, and it came together as a multi-layered work of fiction that straddles genres, as it should because Black women and their experiences are not singular, linear or binary. I hope this book is the first of many novels by the author because I finished the book wanting more of her sensitive, nuanced, and in many ways, hopeful take on the way Black women move, survive and thrive in this modern world.

Disclosure: I was given an ARC copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.