Review: Sweetness In The Skin – Ishi Robinson

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Pumkin Patterson is a thirteen-year-old girl living in a tiny two-room house in Kingston, Jamaica, with her grandmother (who wants to improve the family’s social standing), her Aunt Sophie (who dreams of a new life in Paris for her and Pumkin), and her mother Paulette (who’s rarely home).

When Sophie is offered the chance to move to France for work, she seizes the opportunity, and promises to send for her niece in one year’s time. All Pumkin has to do is pass her French entrance exam so she can attend school there. But when Pumkin’s grandmother dies, she’s left alone with her volatile mother, and as soon as her estranged father turns up—as lazy and conniving as ever—the household’s fortunes take a turn for the worse.

Pumkin must somehow find a way to raise the money for her French exam, so she can free herself from her household and reunite with her beloved aunt in France. In a moment of ingenuity, she turns her passion for baking into a true business. Making batches of sweet potato pudding, coconut drops and chocolate cakes, Pumkin develops a booming trade—but when her school and her mother find out what she’s up to, everything she’s worked so hard for may slip through her fingers. . . .

Sweetness in the Skin is a funny and heartbreaking story about a young girl figuring out who she is, what she is capable of—and where she truly belongs.

Ishi Robinson’s Sweetness in the Skin is one of those young adult novels you read all in one sitting. It’s set in Kingston, Jamaica, and told from the perspective of Pumkin Patterson, a vibrant 13-year-old whose life takes a turn when she loses her grandmother and her delinquent estranged father reappears from his travels. Pumkin tries to make her dreams of moving to Paris with her aunt Sophie come true. She is a passionate baker of traditional Jamaican desserts, and she sells them from a kitchen trolley to pay for her ambitions. From Raj’s cherry and lime zest rum cake to Mama Marley’s gingerbread, Robinson’s novel is an intoxicating mix of Jamaican dialect and landscapes, making the reader love her writing even more.

Sweetness in the Skin is a story of grit and resilience, but, more than anything, it is a celebration of self-belief. Read this book if you believe in the power of the dream.

Reviewed by: Orsayor

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