BOOK REVIEW - IN EVERY MIRROR SHE'S BLACK

In Every Mirror She's Black by Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström

Format: Trade Paperback

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

Published: 7 September 2021

Setting: Stockholm, Sweden (mostly), US (moderately)

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Synopsis:

Three Black women are linked in unexpected ways to the same influential white man in Stockholm as they build their new lives in the most open society run by the most private people.

Successful marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi is lured from the U.S. to Sweden by Jonny von Lundin, CEO of the nation's largest marketing firm, to help fix a PR fiasco involving a racially tone-deaf campaign. A killer at work but a failure in love, Kemi's move is a last-ditch effort to reclaim her social life.

A chance meeting with Jonny in business class en route to the U.S. propels former model-turned-flight-attendant Brittany-Rae Johnson into a life of wealth, luxury, and privilege—a life she's not sure she wants—as the object of his unhealthy obsession.

And refugee Muna Saheed, who lost her entire family, finds a job cleaning the toilets at Jonny's office as she works to establish her residency in Sweden and, more importantly, seeks connection and a place she can call home.

Told through the perspectives of each of the three women, In Every Mirror She's Black is a fast-paced, richly nuanced yet accessible contemporary novel that touches on important social issues of racism, classism, fetishization, and tokenism, and what it means to be a Black woman navigating a white-dominated society.

My Thoughts….

This is the story of three black women from different backgrounds, all newly moved to Sweden, in search of new beginnings. They are linked to the same man, the wealthy and quirky Jonny Von Lundin.

Kemi is a Nigerian- American Marketing executive – she moved to the US from Nigeria at 18 and has for the 2nd year in a row won the National marketing award. Jonny needs her to clean up a ‘blunderous’ marketing campaign at his firm - Von Lundin Marketing and goes to great lengths to headhunt her for the new role of Director of Global Diversity. Taking up this new role would mean leaving her comfortable life in DC and move to Sweden, a country where she does not speak the language or understand the culture, but she is ready for a new beginning and so she takes the leap.

Brittany is a Black American former model, now flight attendant who meets Jonny Von Lundin on flight. He instantaneously takes to her and pursues her with zeal and zest, lavishing her with expensive gifts and trips and offers her excitement and spontaneity. Brittany leaves her long time boyfriend and moves to Sweden with Jonny.

Muna is a Somali refugee living in a shelter funded by the Philanthropic Jonny Vun Lundin. When her application for asylum is finally approved, Muna finds a job as a cleaner at Von Lundin Marketing and is eager to meet the philanthropist who gave her a new lease to life. She is also intent on rebuilding her life. She craves human connection and will latch on to anyone she comes across, even those undeserving, in her attempts at replacing the family she lost in Somalia.

These three women occupy different social classes in Sweden and their lives take very different trajectories. They however all crave for a sense of belonging and have to deal with similar issues of racial bias, prejudice and a society and culture that is vastly different from their own. Akinmade did a great job giving all these women agency and allowing them to exist separately from each other.

I was hoping for an interconnectedness in the women’s lives in Sweden, however, this only happens in flitting moments and when they do collide, it is not very memorable. Akinmade here shows that black women are not monolithic, that they don’t have to mirror each other or necessarily become best friends because they find themselves as the only black people in their environment and as a reader, I really appreciate that.

The only downside of this book is because the story fleshes out each character’s lives extensively, moving from one to the next and back, it builds up really slowly and everything seems to happen in the last few chapters. This is quite risky for a debut because you risk losing the reader mid-way through. Some story lines also felt very 'tropy' and sinisterly orchestrated, it was difficult finding empathy for the characters.

Overall, a good debut that I would recommend.