Book Review: Josephine Against the Sea by Shakirah Bourne
The Details
Media Type: Print Book
Title: Josephine Against the Sea
Author: Shakirah Bourne
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Pages/Length: Hardcover; 304
Release Date: July 6, 2021
Source: Publisher / TBR And Beyond Book Tours
Add it on: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | Indigo | IndieBound
Meet Josephine, the most loveable mischief-maker in Barbados, in a magical, heartfelt adventure inspired by Caribbean mythology.
“A heart-wrenching adventure with big laughs and well-earned surprises.” –Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
Eleven-year-old Josephine knows that no one is good enough for her daddy. That’s why she makes a habit of scaring his new girlfriends away. She’s desperate to make it onto her school’s cricket team because she’ll get to play her favorite sport AND use the cricket matches to distract Daddy from dating.
But when Coach Broomes announces that girls can’t try out for the team, the frustrated Josephine cuts into a powerful silk cotton tree and accidentally summons a bigger problem into her life . . .
The next day, Daddy brings home a new catch, a beautiful woman named Mariss. And unlike the other girlfriends, this one doesn’t scare easily. Josephine knows there’s something fishy about Mariss but she never expected her to be a vengeful sea creature eager to take her place as her father’s first love! Can Josephine convince her friends to help her and use her cricket skills to save Daddy from Mariss’s clutches before it’s too late?
The Review
This Caribbean-inspired story takes place in Barbados, which is a new locale for me in the reading world! Josephine is my favorite kind of character. She’s witty, stubborn, and full of love for her father and her family friends. Once she discovers that her father’s girlfriend isn’t quite what she seems, the story takes off and it’s a fun one! I love magical realism, and this is an excellent example of that. This is the kind of story that you can easily fly through in a matter of hours. I guarantee that you’ll be rooting for Josephine by the mid point of this story.
All Josephine wants to do is play on the school cricket team. She wants to find a way to bring her father out of his funk, after the loss of her father, and make him proud of her. I felt so hard for her, as she watched her father draw further and further into himself. By the time that Mariss enters the picture, and the magical aspect of this comes into play, there is already a beautiful family dynamic in place. As Josephine fought tooth and nail to save her father, and the people in her community, I was right there with her. Bourne has written the kind of character who is so very easy to understand. You can step right into her shoes.
It’s too hard to write a long review for this one, because I don’t want to spoil anything for any potential readers. Suffice it to say that this is the perfect blend of magical realism and family dynamic. It’s sweet, suspenseful, and even a little sad. There is so much beautiful folklore woven in that I didn’t know about previously! I had an excellent time reading this, and highly recommend it!
Shakirah Bourne is a Barbadian author and filmmaker. Her first feature film, the comedy-drama, PAYDAY, was screened throughout the Caribbean, USA and UK. She has written three films since its debut in 2013: Two Smart (writer/co-director), Next PAYDAY (writer/producer) and A Caribbean Dream (writer/director). A Caribbean Dream is distributed by Verve Pictures and had a cinema release in London in 2017. The film won several awards, including Best Drama at the National Film Awards UK, Best International Feature at the Charlotte Black Film Festival and best UK Feature at the London Independent Film Festival.
Her short stories have been featured in many literary journals (see below). Her self-published collection of short stories, IN TIME OF NEED (2013), won the prestigious Governor General Award for Excellence in Literary Fiction. She was a finalist for the BURT/CODE Award for Caribbean Literature in 2018. The Caribbean edition of her middle grade novel, MY FISHY STEPMOM, was published by Blue Banyan Books (2019) and the North American edition, JOSEPHINE AGAINST THE SEA, will be published by Scholastic in 2021.
She was a Part-time Lecturer at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, and is a Part-Time Lecturer in Screenwriting at the Barbados Community College. She currently holds Certificates in Screenwriting from the Barbados Community College and the University of Edinburgh, and an MA (Hons) in Arts and Cultural Management from Queen Margaret University.
