My Rating: 4 stars
This is one of those books where it's hard to say much without giving away major plot points in the story, so my review is going to be deliberately short and a bit vague.
Pretty much all you need to know going into this story is that, in 2017, a famous and iconic movie actress named Kitty Karr Tate, who is White, dies at the age of 81 and leaves her billion dollar fortune to the already wealthy St. John sisters, who are Black. The St. John family is Hollywood royalty and also millionaires in their own right, so Kitty's actions of bequeathing her estate to them raises lots of questions. The story opens in the present, where the eldest St. John sister Elise is tasked with sorting through Kitty's belongings according to her very specific instructions, as well as arranging her memorial service, all while having to deal with personal problems of her own that, being a famous actress herself, are getting played out in the public eye. From there, we are sent back in time to 1934, where we meet a Black woman named Hazel living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The story alternates back and forth between the past and present, in a slow-burn narrative told from the perspectives of several different characters. The two timelines do eventually converge, but it takes a long time to get there — which isn't usually a problem, except that in this case, I had already figured out the entire plot by that time, so when the moment of "the big reveal" arrived, it was anti-climactic. Even so, despite the predictability of the plot, the story still held my interest, and I was especially curious, given the circumstances of the characters, whether the secrets that some of them had been hiding, would eventually come out, as well as what the repercussions would be.
Even though the setting of the present timeline was in modern day Los Angeles (which I'm always drawn to in stories due to the familiarity, since that's where I grew up and also where I still live currently), I actually preferred the past timeline more than the present one, as I found the historical nuances of Hazel's and Kitty's stories much more interesting to read about. With that said, from a structure perspective, flipping back and forth between the two timelines, I felt that there were moments where some of the plot points involving a few of the characters got lost in the shuffle — this resulted in me having to go back and re-read some sections to make sure I got those parts of the story straight.
Overall, this is a captivating story that's both relevant and timely in its exploration of race, gender, and identity, as well as the question of how to reconcile these against society's conventions. I definitely appreciated what the author, Crystal Smith Paul, tried to do here, even though I did feel the story as a whole was overly long and some scenes (especially the ones in the present timeline) were perhaps not really needed. There are also quite a few "heavy" things that are dealt with in here and triggers abound, so keep that mind (although I didn't feel that the "heaviness" overwhelmed at all). In terms of characters, there are quite a few and at times, it's hard to keep them straight, but the main ones will stand out. I found Kitty Karr to be a very compelling character, though Hazel was the character I emphasized with and rooted for the most.
This was a strong debut and I definitely look forward to what Crystal Smith Paul comes up with next!
Received ARC from Henry Holt and Co. via NetGalley.
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