Velvet Was the Night, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Set in Mexico City in the 1970s, Velvet Was the Night follows the lives of two strangers that eventually collide in their search for a missing person. Maite is a single woman working as a secretary and looking for love, becoming more and more bored of her day-to-day life as it goes on, and Elvis is a young man caught up in life as a member of one of Mexico’s notorious gangs from the 70s, the Hawks. When Maite’s neighbor, Leonora, asks her to watch her cat over the weekend, Maite doesn’t think much of it. But then days pass, and Leonora does not return. At the same time, Elvis’s boss El Mago asks him to find someone for him: you guessed it, Leonora. As they each run around the city in search of her, nearly crossing paths more than once, secrets become unveiled that change them both in ways that will last a lifetime. As usual, Moreno-Garcia’s writing is both descriptive and leaves you wanting more, which led me to finish this book in just a few days. My favorite of hers is still Mexican Gothic, though (check out my short review here, from exactly 1 year ago!).
You Made a Fool Out of Death with Your Beauty, Akwaeke Emezi
You Made a Fool Out of Death with Your Beauty is Emezi’s first romance novel and seventh book. Though they have been longlisted for the Women’s Prize, that is not how I discovered their work—it was walking through a random bookshop in New Delhi while on holiday in India. Go figure. Life is like that sometimes! Emezi hails from Nigeria, and this novel takes place in New York and then on a Caribbean island that remains unnamed; my guess is Jamaica because of context clues (driving on the left side of the road and certain dialect in the dialogue). Feyi lost her husband 5 years ago and though still reeling from the loss, decides it’s time to get back into the dating again, albeit slowly. She meets Nasir through one of his friends, and he sweeps her away to his family home on the island so she can showcase some of her work (she is a visual artist) and have some downtime. However, it is his father, Alim, who she immediately feels a connection with, and the story writes itself from there. What I most enjoyed (and at times disliked) was Feyi’s inner dialogue, mainly because it was so real. It was the dialogue of someone who doubts herself though she knows her worth, who overthinks everything even as she feels the right answer in her gut, and who ultimately has learned to listen to herself and respect her body. With themes of love, respect, and consent, as well as a happy ending, You Made a Fool Out of Death with Your Beauty was another novel I finished in just a few days, and I am looking forward to the film adaptation in the future (Michael B. Jordan’s company won the rights, with Emezi as executive producer).