Maame Blue is a Ghanaian-Londoner and an internationally award-winning writer. Her newest book “The Rest of You” is a powerful story of a Ghanaian Londoner, Whitney Appiah, a masseuse with magical hands. She seems to be on the edge of her life. She has two friends, Chantelle and Jak, who seem not to speak to each other, but to Whitney. In this part we can see contemporary London. 

Whitney knows a part of her memory is missing. While being intimate with her boyfriend, he violates her boundaries, which leads to parts of her lost memories coming back. Whitney desperately wants to learn what happened during her early years in Kumasi, Ghana. These parts are written in the second person past tense. This technique feels like you should be present in the story, but the story itself is kind of distant.

The story is told through multiple viewpoints. Besides Whitney, there are also her aunts, Gloria and Aretha Sarpong, and their house help, Maame Serwaa. The past, mid-90s in Ghana, is told in the third person past tense and shows the cruel destiny of Whitney's relatives. We also encounter a little bit of magical realism, as there is a dark legend told about the Sarpong family.

This book inspects trauma at different levels. Living through something terrible keeps not only your memories and psyche hostage, it also takes a toll on your body. Here, we explore generational trauma, the life of women and what it means to be black and British.
The ending of "The Rest of You" is revealing and gives you hope for other broken families and lost friendships. Even if the themes were strong and heavy, the flow of the text itself was easy to follow.

I received an ARC ebook for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.