Hurricane Summer Review & Blog Tour

Welcome to my stop on the Hurricane Summer Blog Tour!  Read my review, synopsis and an excerpt below.  You can also meet the amazing author of this beautifully rendered debut story, Asha Bromfield.

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Release Date: May 4, 2021

Order Link: Amazon

My Rating: 5 Heartfelt Hearts

Hurricane Summer is a powerful coming of age story that deals with colorism, classism, young love, the father-daughter dynamic—and what it means to discover your own voice in the center of complete destruction.

Review:

From the first page of Hurricane Summer to the last, storms are brewing in more ways than one. There's the physical hurricane bearing down on the island of Jamaica and then there's the emotional storm that batters our heroine Tilla at every turn of this stunning debut novel.  Canadian's eighteen year old Tilla and her nine year old sister Mia arrive in Jamaica to visit their Jamaican father who they haven't seen for a year since he left them and their mother in Canada to return to his homeland.  Relationships are strained, and Tilla is both fearful and excited to see her father again.  This is her chance to see her father in his elements . . . his beloved Jamaica.  A place he loves more than her, her sister and his wife.  Tia wants to understand why her father was drawn back to this place time and again . . . why she was never enough.  However, it soon becomes clear that she won't be spending a lot of time with her father even after he promised they'd spend the summer together.  Almost immediately after their arrival, he leaves Tilla and her sister in the poverty stricken countryside with his family while he returns to the city to work.  She is devastated, humiliated and immediately put on-guard as she senses the hostility radiating off some family members.  The story that unfolds is heartbreaking, extremely intimate, and quite educational.  I found myself repeatedly shocked at the resentment and abuse practiced among these native people whom you would expect to support each other.  The presence of colorism is particularly disturbing as the shade of ones skintone determines ones "place" in society - even affecting ones educational opportunities.  Social class and sexism play a large role in their daily lives also determining ones place in a family.  My heart absolutely broke for these characters and their bleak futures.

Hurricane Summer is an emotional roller coaster from start to finish.  Author Asha Bromfield has penned an intense coming-of-age story featuring a young woman desperate to find her place in her father's world and to find herself.  Through vivid imagery and analogies, the author showcases the beauty of a place known to travelers as paradise vs. a poverty stricken world of dark secrets and impoverished people.  Through characters so fully fleshed out that you can feel the sweat drip off their skin along with waves of desperation radiating from their eyes, readers get up close and personal with the storms threatening their lives.  The undertone of danger and darkness kept me turning pages while silently praying Tilla and others would escape unharmed.  Through it all, I was amazed by Tilla's strength and resilience and ability to stand back up after being knocked down time and again.  Incidences of verbal abuse are disturbing and often worse than physical blows and assaults.  The growing sense of despair lends an ominous tone throughout as the story engulfed me and carried me at breakneck speed toward the coming storm.

The inclusion of the Jamaican Patois language is difficult to understand until you get into the flow of the story.  The author includes a dictionary at the front of the book, but I found I didn't need it as I soon lost myself in the atmospheric story after getting more into the characters heads.  I found the language actually enhanced the reading experience with authenticity.  Hurricane Summer is rich and full and alive with both darkness and rays of  hope.  Threads of a deeper message intertwine with  compelling themes of classism, colorism, sexism, abandonment, rejection and first loves delivered through beautifully lyrical writing.  

This book would make a great book club or reading group discussion, and I highly recommend it in spite of several warning triggers.  Brilliantly rendered through the eyes of a confused, coming of age eighteen year old girl on a journey of self-discovery, Hurricane Summer is simply the perfect storm.  Destined to be "that" book in 2021!

Synopsis:

Tilla has spent her entire life trying to make her father love her. But every six months, he leaves their family and returns to his true home: the island of Jamaica.

When Tilla’s mother tells her she’ll be spending the summer on the island, Tilla dreads the idea of seeing him again, but longs to discover what life in Jamaica has always held for him.

In an unexpected turn of events, Tilla is forced to face the storm that unravels in her own life as she learns about the dark secrets that lie beyond the veil of paradise—all in the midst of an impending hurricane.

Excerpt:

            We touch down at 1:46 p.m. local time.

Warm air floods the plane as the doors open, and the sweet aroma of fruit wafts in the air. Passengers race to grab their bags as the thick accent comes over the PA once again:

“Ladiez and gentle-mon, welcome to Kingston, Jamaica. It iz a beautiful day here on the island, and we wish you nothing but irie on your travels. It has been our pleasure to have you on board. As always, thank you for flying Air Jamaica.”

I gently shake Mia awake as Patois begins to pour out all around us. I grab our backpacks from the cabin, and we throw them over our shoulders before trudging off the plane.

As we make our way through the busy airport, we are sur-rounded by a sea of rich, dark skin. I feel courageous as we navigate through the brown and black bodies, and I can’t help but wonder if the feeling of belonging is why Dad loves it so much here.

Once we clear at customs, we continue our trek through the massive airport. All around us, people smile and laugh, and there is a mellowness to their pace. Most of the women wear bright colors and intricate braids in their hair, Afros, or long locks down their backs. An array of sandals and flip-flops highlight all the bright painted toenails as Mia and I weave through the crowd.

“Stay close!” I yell, grabbing on to her hand. When we find the exit, I grow nervous knowing what awaits us on the other side. I look to Mia. “You have everything?”

She nods.

“Okay,” I whisper to myself. “Let’s do this.”

With our suitcases lugging behind us, we spill out of the doors and into the hot sun. The heat immediately consumes me, and it is amplified by the chaos and noise that surrounds us. The streets are packed. Loud horns blare, and people yell back and forth in thick, heavy Patois accents. Men argue on the side of the road, their dialect harsh as they negotiate the rates for local shuttle buses. Along the roads, merchants sell colorful beaded jewelry and fruit so ripe that I can taste it in the air. Women wear beautiful head wraps and sell plantains and provisions, bartering back and forth with eager travelers. People spew out of overcrowded taxis, desperate to catch their flights as others hop in, desperate to get home. The sun pierces my skin as the humidity and gas fumes fill my lungs. The ac- tion is overwhelming, and I feel like a fish out of water. As we wait by the curb, there is no sight of our father.

“What if he forgot?” Mia asks.

“He wouldn’t,” I reply. “Mom just talked to him.” “What if he got the time mixed up?”

“He’ll be here.”

But the truth is, when it comes to our father, I can never be sure.

I fight with this idea as five minutes turn into ten, and ten into twenty.

The heat blazes, and sweat drips down my stomach. I check my watch: forty-two minutes.

I pull my pink hoodie over my head to reveal a white tank top, tying the hoodie around my waist to better manage the heat. Without my phone, I have no way of contacting him to see where he is.

But he said he’d be here. He gave us his word.

Fifty-six minutes later, our father is nowhere to be found. My eyes frantically search the crowd as I ponder how much his word is truly worth. Time and time again, he has proven that the answer is not much. I turn to Mia, ready to tell her to head back inside. Worry graces her face for the first time since we left. Her carefree attitude fades as the concern of a nine-year-old takes over. I can’t stand to see her like this, and I’ll do whatever it takes to escape the feeling that is bubbling inside of me.

We’ll take the first plane out.

“Mi, Dad’s not coming. Let’s go back insid—”

“Yow! Tilla!” A deep voice interrupts me mid-sentence. I whip my head around to find my father standing a few

feet away with two freshly sliced pineapple drinks in hand. “Daddy!” Mia screams. She drops her things on the curb

and sprints toward him. My heart does somersaults.

One glimpse of my father and I am a child again.

Asha Bromfield is an actress and writer of Afro-Jamaican descent. She is known for her role as Melody Jones, drummer of “Josie and the Pussycats” in CW’s Riverdale. She also stars as Zadie Wells in Netflix’s hit show, Locke and Key. Asha is a proud ambassador for the Dove Self-Esteem Project, and she is pursuing a degree in Communications. She currently lives in Toronto, and her name translates to "Life" in Swahili. In her spare time, she loves studying astrology, wearing crystals, burning sage, baking vegan desserts, and taking walks to the park with her dogs Luka and Kyra. Hurricane Summer is her debut novel.